Take a Moment

For this week’s blog, I had written a “Letter” on the subject of love, on how precious it can be, how ephemeral, and how we must rely on it in order to lead a fulfilled life.

However, four nights ago, I decided to watch a frightening and highly emotional documentary, rather than a popular love-struck comedy. Last Saturday was the twentieth anniversary of 9.11 and the program detailed Al-Qaeda’s evil rampage against the United States: the tragic downing of the Twin Towers; the group’s subsequent attack on the Pentagon; and the story of the four brave citizens on a United Airlines flight, who wrested enough control from the terrorists to cause the aircraft to crash, rather than to continue on the path we now believe would have destroyed the Capitol.

As the film rolled by, I cried from start to finish.

And then, I decided that on this particular week sending a light-hearted letter about love would be inappropriate, and suddenly I found myself compelled to write about loss instead. I took what I had written and put it in a file folder for a future Linda’s Letter.

Recent events flood our newspapers and television sets with the stories of Afghanistan and how the Taliban is obstructing numerous people from getting back home again. My response to all this can only be described as a deep and intense wave of sadness, and, perhaps even more than that—incredulity.

I am awash with horror when I see us negotiate with the same terrorists who harbored Al-Qaeda in 2001—and thus were accessories to the murder of nearly 3,000 Americans. Whether you support the withdrawal of our forces from this Middle Eastern country in order to terminate a long and fruitless war, it’s difficult to support the way in which such a withdrawal was accomplished.

And so I will take a moment out as I write this to remember those who did not make it out of the Towers back in 2001. And to acknowledge, as well, those who still have not made it out of Afghanistan—both the U.S. citizens and those Afghanis who were our allies during the long years of our occupation there. To pray for those who now must rely on private transport groups led by courageous American citizens, rather than by our government. To hope that all those who were—and continue to be—at the mercy of rabid terrorists will someday be free once again. To make certain that I do not forget.

Let us all take a moment.

Yours,