Now I don't want to get off on a rant here...

Did you forget?

I am finally getting around to writing something about this. It is something that has bothered me for a couple years now, because I am reminded of it every Friday evening as I drive home from work. The route that I take brings me past the Baltimore Museum of Art and Johns Hopkins University. Every Friday, at least since before the 1st anniversary of September 11th, people gather at the corner of Charles Street & Art Museum Drive. They hold up their signs – “War is not the answer”, “Did we go to war over lies”, “Pray for peace”, “Vote Dennis Kucinich”. Sometimes people honk at them, I don’t know if it’s out of approval or not.

Why does this bother me? Why do these people who have no personal significance in my life get under my skin? Why do I always want to flip a few quarters out my window to them, asking them to buy a clue? Because these people have forgotten. They do not remember the horrors that our nation faced on that day and the reasons why we need to be resolved and united as a country to defeat not only the specific people who perpetrated those horrors (Osama, Al-Qaeda), but the people that are just like them.

These street protestors and others, while I fully support their right to speak their minds and beliefs, would not be able to exercise that right if we had not gone to war in the past and if we had not gone to war now. "Apologetics" for America, want to say that we are hated in the world and we deserve every bit of it. These people are really apologetics for the likes of Hamas, Osama, Saddam, and any other group of people that feel justified in hating and killing us. These apologetics stand out on that street corner every Friday evening, waving their pro-death to America propaganda because they have forgotten what it is that we fight for, they have forgotten what is we have fought for in the past. They have forgotten what makes us Americans. They have forgotten how to love their country. They have forgotten the ideas of unity, life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. They have forgotten how those ideals came to fruition. Will they ever remember? I hope so.

I love my country, but I love my God even more. I pray for peace and I pray that we would not have to fight wars. I pray that evil would be defeated on all fronts and I am thankful of God's faithful promises. I know that He has already won the war and what a comforting feeling that is. I have not forgotten that promise, nor have I forgotten September 11th, 2001. America is not perfect and far from it, there is no question about that. “But the sad reality is that it's hard to point to any nation that's doing a better job.”

Posted by price at May 7, 2004 10:48 AM