Never Forget, Never Forgotten

Today is the day before the ten year anniversary of one of the worst tragedies that ever happened on American soil.  It is a moment that has defined my generation.  The question of my parents generation was "Where were you when JFK was shot?"  My generation is "Where were you on 9/11?"  I was at work, the phone rang and I was told that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  My first thought was wow a small plane hit the World Trade Center, that's terrible.  I walked back to the break room, closed the door and turned on the tv.  As the screen came on I watched in horror as the second plane hit the World Trade Center.  I was dumbfounded.  I didn't know what to say or what to do.  This was no small plane, this was a jet, a jet like those I had flown on before.  Before the day was over, I had seen the towers fall, the Pentagon get hit by a jet and heard that a jet had crashed when the passengers decided to take the situation into their own hands and foil the plans of the hijackers.  It is one of the hardest things to comprehend, that a tragedy of this nature could happen in America, in New York City or Washington, DC.  In the days that followed Americans were stunned, heroes were born and heroes died.  The response of America was one of great unity.  It was amazing to see all the American flags flying from cars or on houses.  But within that unity came a great anger, an anger that made some Muslims in America fearful to leave their homes to go to the grocery store or to work or just to get gas, for fear that there would be retribution.  Some Americans judged all Muslims by the work of a few radicals.  There have been many radicals in Christianity as well, take for instance the Crusades, where Christians killed people in the name of God.  There are radical Christians in America right now, take Westboro Baptist Church in Kansas and Fred Phelps (his website and that of the church is godhatesfags.com which I think says it all).  I am not judging these radical Christians, or radical Muslims, or radical Jews or radical Atheists...What I am saying is that we should remember what Paul wrote in Romans 13 "Love your neighbor as yourself."  This may be the hardest thing to comprehend.  God wants us to love everyone.  God loved Osama bin-Laden, God loves Fred Phelps, God loves me and God loves you.  God loved the hijackers, the victims, the heroes.  God will judge them all, as God will judge us all when we see Him.  I know it's hard to understand because we are human and no matter how hard we try we will always judge people and we won't, no matter how hard we try be able to always love our neighbors as we do ourselves.  So as we move from today into tomorrow I think we should pray for the victims, their families, the heroes.  We should also pray for the families of the hijackers and al-Qaeda, pray for them to Love their neighbors as they do themselves.  Never forget what happened, never forgotten are the ones who lost their lives.  Peace and God Bless