9-11

For everything there is a season, and a time for every matter under heaven:

a time to be born, and a time to die;
a time to plant, and a time to pluck up what is planted;

a time to kill, and a time to heal;
time to break down, and a time to build up;
a time to weep, and a time to laugh;
a time to mourn, and a time to dance;
a time to cast away stones, and a time to gather stones together;
a time to embrace, and a time to refrain from embracing;
a time to seek, and a time to lose;
a time to keep, and a time to cast away;
a time to tear, and a time to sew;
a time to keep silence, and a time to speak;
a time to love, and a time to hate;
a time for war, and a time for peace.

–Ecclesiastes 3:1-9

9-11

What do you think has become of the young and old men?
And what do you think has become of the women and children?

They are alive and well somewhere,
The smallest sprout shows there is really no death,
And if ever there was it led forward life, and does not wait at the
end to arrest it,
And ceas’d the moment life appear’d.

Walt Whitman, Song of Myself

Never Forget

Ground Zero

Ten years after a day that changed my life, I still feel grief and horror when I recall my memories of 9-11-01. There is little that I can add to the many essays already written in commemoration. I think Peggy Noonan did the best job of explaining why this anniversary of 9-11 matters.

When the Continental Congress approved the final draft of the Declaration, its members made it clear that a war for national survival was worth fighting. Placing the blame on George III, Jefferson and his colleagues declared that “he has plundered our seas, ravaged our coasts, burnt our towns, and destroyed the lives of our people.”  For ten years, for better or worse we have fought a war of national survival against Al-Qaeda, an umbrella group that inspires and supports terrorists dedicated to the destruction of the United States and its citizens.  We can take comfort that Osama bin-Laden, the leader of the 9-11 attacks, now faces eternal justice. As for the future of my nation —

“In the long vista of the years to roll,
Let me not see our country’s honour fade:
O let me see our land retain her soul,
Her pride, her freedom; and not freedom’s shade.”

John Keats, “To Hope”