We Vow To Never Forget, But Have We?

On Sept. 11, 2001, in an unforgivable and horrific attack, terrorists robbed America of more than 3,000 lives.?Quite simply, September 11, 2001, wounded our nation in a way we had not known since the shock of Pearl Harbor.

In bringing down the World Trade Center, damaging the Pentagon and downing an airliner in a Pennsylvania field, the day ranks as the most devastating in our nation’s history.

We vowed we would not forget. But have we?

Domestic issues and conflict in the Middle East, Africa, South America, and recently Russia, may reamin centered in our attention, yet I fear Sept. 11 is fading in our memories; now relegated to a single paragraph in newspaper stories and occasional references on television.?

Hundreds of families, though, still suffer gaping holes. A mother, a father, a brother, a child is no longer among them. Along with these loved ones, more than 300 emergency-service workers perished in the attacks. Their survivors live with the pain and vivid reminder of September 11 daily.?

Those of us who were not directly affected by the attacks are at a disadvantage. With Ground Zero not outside our front door and the Pentagon not visible from our window, the anger we felt that day is perhaps starting to fade.

Although Osama bin Laden is history, the enemies who hatched the September 11 plot hope to spawn even more terror.?They are counting on our complacency.?Convinced we are a nation of selfish materialists, they do not think we have resolve. They do not cower. They do not think we will triumph over them.??

Let it be said on this Patriot Day that we shall prevail against our enemies. Even as we gather to remember those lost in the attacks, America’s military is tracking down those who wish us harm and securing liberty at home and abroad.?If the memory of Sept. 11 is fresh for anyone, it is our men and women in uniform. Along with our elected officials and our intelligence agencies, they are tasked with preventing another tragedy of that magnitude.?

As they patrol the troubled areas of the Middle East, Africa and South America by land, sea and air, weathering rocks, bullets and extreme heat, they are dismantling piece by piece the terror networks that threaten peace and security worldwide. We are indebted to them for their willingness to protect our country.

On this Patriot Day, in order to remove any doubt as to if our nation remembers or not, as well as to quite the increasing skepticism within myself which the former (and this article's initial tone and title) is likely a projection/manifestation of, I would like to share a story which walks me back down memory lane as to remember something which I may have since forgotten.

As far back as my memory will go, I can vividly remember heading to an ole small church that sat atop a hill so far back in the sticks and off the map that Google to this day still doesn't know it, or the surronding community for that matter, exists. On the hillside leading up to the church, alonside the driveway, there is a graveyard which a long-long-long line of the farming ancestral roots which flows in my viens now is burried.

It is in this small, no name, one gas station, grocery store 45 mins away, town tucked deep within the NC foothills of the Appalachian mountains, where my family and those named Cain ("Feimster" is fake news) are settled. Though passing through traffic might go 5-10 miles between houese, or blink and miss us entirely, come Sunday morning everyone within a 50 mile radius bearing the Cain family name, and those in our company, can be found a top a hill, gathered in a small church building that's been here ever since the first Cain arrived to the area, discussing the divine.

Now I don't know what anyone reading knows or thinks of the overhall & straw hat wearing, tobacco field farming & pipe smoking, moonshine makin' & NASCAR left turning poeple which I mean to describe, but I can assure that beyond the roughened and wrinkled skin thats been leathered by the sun, beyond their wide-eyed deep gazes which seem to look right through you, and beyond any grammatical inaccuracies or homemade sayings that oddly enough make perfect sense, these are nothing short the rarest and most precious salt of the earth people this world has to offer.

I share this rather detailed story of where I'm from and the people that are still there to say it is through and by them I am able to slightly grasp, and even appreciate, the depth of words which can often be glossed over, overused simply for a headline to get a click, or merely knee deep, such as hard times, sacrifice, resilence, and edurance.

Yet what happened on this day, on account of vincible ignorance by a few with a misplaced hate toward the marginal differences of many has unfortunately compounded my understanding of these terms. My heart breaks into infinitisimal amount pieces whenever I look into the eyes of someone who lost a loved one and see what an irreplaceable hole that day left on their soul. From hearing a survivor's story to the first hand hand testimony of those impacted, it is undeniable that it impossible to ever fully capture the magnitude of what the loss of each and every individual life that was tragically taken from among the living and forced to journey to that next place really means or is.

Like pandora's box, the innocence which was robbed from our Nation's collective unconcoisues can never truly be erased, or forgotten. And as painful as that realization is, I am able to find a growing amount of solace knowing that, "No, we will indeed NEVER FORGET."

In closing I pray...

Dearest Father and almighty creator, I believe that you are always with us and that you will never forsake us. I believe this because you told us it was so; you etched this truth onto the fabric of the human spirit so that all may know they are never truly alone, and that in the face of our enemy, we need just be still. I also believe that you are nearer the brokenhearted and those weakened in spirit.

With a humbled spirit and loving heart, I pray you watch over and keep close those who are impacted by the events which today's remembrance is for. Ease the minds of those whose today's memory still haunts, and restore the hearts are crushed by the physical absense this day took from present.

Father, we ask for your grace, despite our pride; your forgiveness, despite our doubt. Most of all Lord, we ask for your love, to soothe us through these dark times;?may we face whatever is to come in your divine will, with courage and open hearts of acceptance.?

Amen