Remembrance
"A Prayer for Our Nation"
Almighty God, who has given us this good land for our heritage,
we humbly beseech Thee that we may always prove ourselves a
people mindful of Thy favor and be glad to do Thy will. Bless our
land with honorable industry, sound learning, and pure manners.
Save us from violence, discord and confusion, from pride and
arrogancy, and from every evil way. Defend our liberties and
fashion into one united people the multitudes brought out of
many kindreds and tongues.
Endue with the spirit of wisdom those to whom in Thy name we
entrust the authority of government, that there may be peace
and justice at home and that, through obedience to Thy law, we
may show forth Thy praise among the nations of the Earth. In the
time of prosperity, fill our hearts with thankfulness, and in the
day of trouble suffer not our trust in Thee to fail.
Attributed to George Washington
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I'd be remiss if I didn't write a blurb about this being the 4th anniversary of the terror attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and the field in western Pennsylvania where the plane crashed that was headed for some other location in Washington DC. Even though I don't personally know anyone who died or whose family was affected by that tragedy, it still is impotant to remember all of those people. Most of them, I'd imagine, died without knowing what was happening or why.
At church this morning, we sang patriotic songs and they showed a powerpoint presentation of pictures of the events of that day. My pastor opened his sermon quoting the above prayer which I think is still relevant today. I thought it would be good to share it with you all.
It brought me near to tears thinking about all of those families who, for the past four years, have been living without fathers, mothers, brothers, sisters, friends, etc., thanks to those wonderful terrorists. It reminded me of how thankful I am for my family and friends.
I'd like to think the unity we all felt as Americans after that day is still alive and well, but overall I just don't see it. Sadly, I think we've all gone back to that pre-9/11 self-centeredness, myself included. Will we ever truly learn from history? Probably not.
posted by Tim @ 22:43
5 Comments:
Nicely put, although I disagree when you say, "Sadly, I think we've all gone back to that pre-9/11 self-centeredness."
I think it's an entirely new brand of self-centeredness. The kind that could be found in post-WWII Japan when everyone realized how vulnerable they were and devoted their lvies to material pursuits and forgetting who they were and where they came from.
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I think the self centeredness you describe, was in effect for maybe the first eighteen months to two years immediately following 9/11. Which was good, if self centeredness can be considered as such.
Now I think we're back to the self centeredness that preceded the terrorist attacks. I certainly hope it doesn't take another terrorist attack on our country to get us back to that overwhelming patriotism that we felt in the wake of the disaster.
America is a study in short-term memory and revisionist history-If I were you, I wouldn't hold out too much hope.
I don't.
Good. :)
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