Every year on Sept 11 I’m reminded of a moment in my life that is simply unforgettable.
But this I morning is the first time in 24 years that it wasn’t the paramount thought on my mind. It’s tough to focus on the tragedy of 9/11 while trying to wrap my mind around an assassination yesterday and a brutal killing just days before. Not to mention the rash of growing political violence in the last year.
So let’s see how my thoughts play out.
24 years ago while on active duty I was awakened by the same news coverage that every other American saw. A smoking World Trade Center building. I was actually on leave (vacation) in Los Angeles at the time. Sleeping on my friend’s sofa, his wife woke me up to show me the news. In my drowsy state I actually said, “cool, what movie is that?”. But it wasn’t a movie and then the second plane hit.
I had already been deployed to the Middle East. I was already a small part of the ongoing conflict on the other side of the world. Now our own planes were being used in a direct assault against us. And I was a member of the Department of Defense responsible for responding to and defending our nation.
My grandmother was born on Dec 7 and would tell me how Pearl Harbor forever changed her birthday. My sister born Sept 11 now faced the same forever change. I am not certain I understood this before 9/11 and each year this truth grows more and more.
Today when talking with youth about that day, I understand what my grandmother must have felt like explaining Pearl Harbor to me. There are no words to accurately describe it. Just a humble remembrance of a tragic attack followed by one of the few times in history my country was truly united. I took my wife and daughter to the 9/11 memorial museum in NYC. It was the first time I was able to let her see with her own eyes what we were remembering every year. And it was a flood of memories for me.
Today, 24 years later ‘united’ is the last word I would use to describe us. In 2009 Obama became POTUS. America’s first black president who would finally end the racial and economic divide. Except he did exactly the opposite and by the end of his two terms our nation was more divided than I had ever seen it. Trump stepped in the division grew rapidly. Then Biden stepped in and ramped it up even more. Each POTUS driving a deeper wedge of division into our nation than the previous one.
Today Trump is back and the wedge is deeper than it’s ever been. So to contrast the unity this nation had with the disunity we have today is striking, to say the least.
Yesterday a man was assassinated for his expressing his thoughts and engaging in open dialogue with anyone who would come to talk with him. I’ve always considered myself well versed in politics, religion and dialogue in those realms. Charlie Kirk, even at his young age could run circles around me. He lived and died by what he believed. He was a true man of principle. He is resting with God now. But his death has robbed a young wife and two young children of their husband and father.
The response to this man’s murder is both blessed and tragic. I’ve seen people from both sides decry the violence. But the tragic is that there are American’s celebrating and praising the murder of a man. I don’t know what to say about such people besides, you are evil and wretched.
When I was in the Navy my ship dropped bombs in Iraq. The local news was fed in and it showed the aftermath of our actions. There was no pretending we were innocuously floating in the ocean. I only have to think of it and those images of the direct aftermath of our bombing are clear in my head. They were the enemy, and yet I mourned the tragic end of their lives. But I was on a warship and this is what warships do.
Charlie Kirk was on a college campus engaging in dialogue peacefully with anyone who would come to talk to him. I have no kind words for anyone who would praise this murder.
And yet I’m not surprised. Because over and over agains we’ve seen our politician and media defending criminals and murders for political gain. We’ve indoctrinated a generation into believing that what is evil is good and what is good is evil. We are in the midst of the consequences of the divide that was started 16+ years ago and is now mainstream in the lives and minds of so many.
My political outlook used to be left vs right. But that is no longer true. It’s good vs evil. How dare you call a political side ‘evil’? Because it is. And I say this knowing both friends and family who are on that side of the political spectrum. I would say to them, you need to acknowledge that your party has left you and is now embracing pure evil.
When the people and political voices I find myself aligned with are the very people I would have argued with 20 years ago; when the voices of reason come from those who were Democrats a second ago; when the most powerful voices in the direction we should be going are led by exDemocrats (Trump, Tusli, The Free Press, WalkAway, JFKjr, Rogan, MK, and countless more); then I know the world is not the same place I was raised in. It’s not the same place that was united 9/11 24 years ago. All of the voices I find myself aligned with today, I absolutely would have been opposed to yesterday.
Charlie Kirk was a rare exception to this. He was always grounded in faith, truth and conservative principles. He held within him an encyclopedic knowledge that few can grasp or compare to. He was informed by Scripture and by a deep knowledge of history and literature, that most in our nation never begin to understand or learn. His death was tragic for his family, but also for the loss of a voice of reason that has become anathema in today’s world.
9/11 was a nationally tragic day. Yet it gave me hope in the future. Unfortunately that hope has been short lived. Today, only a generation later we stand divided. We are destroying ourselves from within. We have forgotten the lessons of 9/11. We have forgotten the lessons of the last 60 years.
When the twin towers fell they left those who didn’t die covered in dust and ash. Everyone still standing had the same dull grey debris covered image. They all looked the same. And they all stood together. They dug in to uncover anyone who might still be alive, because life was precious. Other peoples lives were precious. Humanity mattered that day.
Today only our own lives are precious. Only the lives politics tells us to care about are precious. Death is to be celebrated if it’s against our political foe or ignored if it’s not politically expedient to talk about. Criminals are victims who must be sheltered and protected. Released over and over again to commit more crime. Homeless are just a normal part of life EVERYWHERE. Their lives don’t matter. How they got there, irrelevant. We hear the cries for compassion and justice, yet we embrace injustice and indifference.
I grew up just outside of Compton. It was the edge of middle class and poverty. It was the peak of the gang warfare of the 80’s. The race riots of the early 90’s. That world filled with violence, crime and hate, had more compassion than the world I see today.
Maybe the death of Charlie will be another Turning Point in this nation. Maybe it can unite us once again. I’m not convinced of this. I don’t know if we will ever be able to put back together the divide that has been forced upon us for most of the 21st century. I fear the wedge has already broken our nation beyond the point of repair. I hope I’m wrong.
“The Lord Bless you and keep you;
The Lord make his face to shine upon you and be gracious to you;
The Lord lift up his countenance upon you and give you peace”
I pray for God’s mercy upon our nation. I pray the world my children are now entering as young adults is a place turning towards good; towards justice; towards faith; That was the hope of Charlie Kirk. That was his resounding message day after day. I pray that our nation grows in the love of all life, united in this drive for a better future. The hope we found in 9/11 is currently lost, but Lord willing it is not lost forever.
