| We have all heard
the recordings of Franklin Delano Roosevelt's words in the aftermath of
the Pearl Harbor attack. It is part of our history, as the President rallied
the nation behind the common cause of our national defense in the wake
of an "unprovoked and dastardly attack" upon our fleet and our bases in
Hawaii.
It was our hope that this type
of surprise attack would remain ours to experience only on the pages of
our history books, that it would never be ours to live again. We dwelt
confidently and securely in a nation that we believed to be safe, impervious
to the threats of our enemies against our nation. Even as other nations
were forced to deal with the newer threats of terrorism, that threat was
not ours to fear, or so we believed.
This week, however, that hope
was taken from us as hijacked airliners were turned into weapons to be
used against us. Innocent passengers and crew became cannon fodder. The
World Trade Center became a target, then a deathtrap, and then a pile of
rubble. Even the home of our military forces, which are the envy of most
of the free world, was attacked.
As I write this, the death
toll is still climbing as the smoke still rises from the ashes. The friends
and families of the missing are trying desperately to cling to the hope
that their loved ones will be the next miracle survivors to emerge, battered
but alive, from the wreckage. It is safe to say that the hope we clung
to for these last 60 years is gone.
It would be a mistake, however,
to say that we have been left without hope. On the day after Pearl Harbor,
President Roosevelt said, "Always will we remember the character of the
onslaught against us. No matter how long it may take us to overcome this
premeditated invasion, the American people in their righteous might will
win through to absolute victory."
Today, in a similar tone, President
Bush said, "War has been waged against us by stealth and deceit and murder.
This nation is peaceful, but fierce when stirred to anger. This conflict
was begun on the timing and terms of others. It will end in a way, and
at an hour, of our choosing. "
Just as we did not lose hope
at Pearl Harbor, we have not lost hope today because, regardless of how
it may appear from the way we live our lives, our hope is not in our possessions,
our buildings, or our arsenals.
Our hope, rather, is twofold.
In part, our hope is in who we are as a people and as a nation, and that
is no small thing.
For most of us, however, our
hope is in also, and even more so, in a just and loving God who tells us,
"Fret not thyself because of evildoers, neither be thou envious against
the workers of iniquity. For they shall soon be cut down like the grass"
(Psalm 37:1-2a) and promises us that "I will be with thee. I will not fail
thee, nor forsake thee." (Joshua 1:5b).
That is a hope that no nation,
no terrorist, no force on earth can take from us. Will they try? Undoubtedly.
Will they succeed? Absolutely not. The sun may have set on our complacency
and our smug sense of untouchability, but the sun will rise again, and,
like a phoenix, so will we. With our day of infamy to fuel our passion
and our legacy of hope to strengthen our steps, we will rise and we will
walk. We will face this challenge, we will conquer this foe, and we will
endure. |
