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It had to happen. It took six years but this past September 11th fell on a Tuesday, the first time the date and the day of the week combined to match September 11th, 2001. Many wrote about 9/11 on 9/11. I chose to read the accounts, listen to the conversation on talk radio and watch the myriad of television coverage for a time before I added my thoughts here.

First, it's still interesting to me that we quickly came to refer to the tragedy of that day, by its date. It became simply 9/11 in conversation and it looks to remain that forever. We don't refer to the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor as 12/7. We don't write about the assassination of John F. Kennedy as 11/22. Because the tragedy that day was spread out in multiple locations, the date just seemed to sum it up best. If it helps us to honor all who died that day without minimizing any, then it seems appropriate.

It's been said before, but we in this country mourned more than the loss of life that day. We also experienced the loss of some of our swagger. It may have been nave to feel that we were somehow protected from the kind of terrorism that is so common in many other parts of the world, but we did have that confidence. Some would argue arrogance. Be it skill, luck, the grace of God or a combination of all three we never suffered an attack on our own soil like we did on 9/11 and it knocked us back on our heels. There can be a smugness that comes from living in a country where so much has combined in so short a time to make us the military, economic, technical and material giant of the planet. We've now learned there can be danger in that smugness. While I in no way condone those who planned and carried out the attacks that day, we also need to look closely at the role we play in world events.

U.S. policy and influence in the past has, for better and for worse, helped to shape our current state of affairs. We can't completely wash our hands of some role in the precarious world we live in today. There is a great verse in the Old Testament that speaks of a world where each shall sit under his own vine, under his own fig tree, making war no more. Most biblical scholars seem to agree that what God means to illustrate in that text is a freedom from want. For me it means having a piece of something. A sense of ownership. A stake in how life plays out and all of the peace and joy that goes along with it when our lives have that sense of relevance. Take that away and children strap bombs to themselves because they've been convinced that life in this world has nothing to offer. Adults fly planes into buildings. Through our own actions we can help feed a sense of hopelessness, or a sense of hope. Accountability for the loss of life cuts both ways. If you put a gun in my face, terror is terror, it seems to me, regardless of what patch you're wearing on your sleeve.

Psychologists have identified stages of grief. With respect to the loss of life on 9/11, we may be closer today to the final stage of acceptance, although each anniversary' of that day brings back the anger and the feeling of helplessness we felt early on. I'm guessing it's similar to the feelings of anger and helplessness experienced by those who crashed our planes that day six years ago. Love your neighbor as you love yourself is, according to Jesus, one of the most important lessons of faith. It doesn't mean we look the other way but this has to be at least a part of what guides us as we move forward.

Learn more about this author, Michael Hammond.
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