Tag: 9/11

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Before and After

By Amy Spiegel

Every life has a few before-and-after moments, some that are shared with others and some that are more personal. There are some before-and-afters that seem small but which have profoundly shaped my life. Before and after discovering the world of independent film. Before and after reading Jane Austen. Before and after realizing that food from other countries is better than chicken fingers.

Some moments are deeper and more life-changing. Before and after becoming serious about my Christian faith. Before and after becoming a wife and then a mom. Before and after 9/11, an experience many of us have had, in our own way, together. Wednesday was a day of two before-and-after moments. First, one moment, I was emailing a Hillsdale donor about the impact a single life can have on the world. The next, I was reading a message from Jim saying that Charlie Kirk had been shot. Then, I got on Twitter and inadvertently watched a video of Charlie being shot. One moment, I was waxing poetical about the price of liberty and the next I was watching someone paying the ultimate price. Before and after.

While we won’t know for days, months, or even years how Charlie’s death will reverberate throughout history, I know with certainty how it will echo through mine.

The fact of his death laid bare the stakes we are playing for in our current public discord. Labels of Republican and Democrat no longer really apply. You are now either on the side of life or the side of death. The contrast is too stark to ignore. This should be good news. Surely the cause of life is something most reasonable people can rally around. Aren’t the rights to “life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness,” all things that were just stolen from Charlie Kirk, things we all want to see secured for us all? We might disagree about how to pursue those things, or how to secure them for others, but good gravy, can’t we all say in unison, “I don’t want public figures being gunned down in public because they said something someone else disagrees with”?

So I resolved that I will hold out two hands from this day forward: the first will be a fist so tight that, to quote Ferris Bueller, if it held a lump of coal “in two weeks you would have a diamond.” In that fist, I will hold my unalienable rights, given by God to me and all my fellow citizens. And those rights will only be taken from me by force. I will not strike out with that fist, but I will cling to those rights for me, for my kids, and for all my fellow Americans to whom I will extend that second hand, in an attempt to bridge whatever divide separates us—in a desire to find a way to unite around values and principles we all hold dear. I will not join with those who seek to snatch my rights of life, freedom, and expression, but I will look for common ground wherever it can be found.

I said that I experienced two before-and-after moments on Wednesday. The first when I got the news and the second when I witnessed it with my own eyes. Despite initial news to the contrary, after seeing that video, I knew that Charlie Kirk was dead. Dead and yet . . . in all the horror of that moment, I felt as if I watched Charlie come alive. And that was the second “after.” Seeing that Charlie had not lost anything and he gained everything. My second resolve was to live in the light of that reality, that I have nothing to lose that anyone can take.

In times of discouragement or doubt, I can often be found, driving with the windows down, singing badly, but with great gusto, the Avett Brothers’ song “Ain’t No Man” the chorus of which is:

There ain’t no man can save me. There ain’t no man can enslave me. Ain’t no man or men that can change the shape my soul is in. There ain’t nobody here who can cause me pain or raise my fears. ‘Cause I got only love to share.

While I usually find this song quite uplifting and inspiring, it isn’t entirely true. There is a man who can save me. A man who died for the sake of the truth, and it wasn’t Charlie Kirk. It was the man who saved Charlie and me and anyone who will call upon His name. This is the man who was waiting for Charlie on Wednesday. He is waiting for us all. And this man, Jesus Christ, said of those who will trust Him, “I give them eternal life, and they will never perish, and no one will snatch them out of my hand.” May we all reach out, as Charlie did, and take that hand until He sees us home.

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Hodgepodge

By Jim Spiegel

1. An Atheist Goes to Church

Since the passing of Christopher Hitchens, my favorite living atheist is probably Michael Ruse, philosopher of biology at Florida State University.  For a taste of Ruse’s interesting perspective, check out his recent Chronicle of Higher Education piece on attending church this past Christmas.

2. Lawsuit Abuse Website

Ridiculously frivolous lawsuits have now become so commonplace that there is a website devoted to them.  Its called Faces of Lawsuit Abuse.  Here you can learn about various bizarre cases (including a confessed killer suing his victim and a 400 lb. prison inmate suing because his clothes don’t fit) as well as the devastating effects of our society’s hyper-litigiousness.

3. Jonathan Cahn on 9/11

Jonathan Cahn is a messianic rabbi at the Beth Israel Worship Center in Wayne, New Jersey and president of Hope of the World ministries.  His teachings are broadcast daily around the world, but until recently I had never heard this remarkable sermon on 9/11.  Judge for yourself whether the connections he traces between Isaiah 9 and the events on that day and its aftermath are mere coincidence or fulfillment of prophecy.

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Reflections on 9/11

By Amy Spiegel

The kids and I spent 9/11 in a typically American way, rushing from one place to another, all in the name of fun while scarfing down fast food containing more carcinogens that the residents of Chernobyl experience on daily basis. Our day culminated in a visit to the zoo which consisted of scurrying from one exhibit to the next, desperately trying to absorb more factoids than one really needs to know about the various species of penguins or the reproductive habits of gibbons. The end result: arriving home exhausted and cranky, declaring “Never again!”

But in between the hustling and scurrying, there were a few moments today that touched me in a distinctly American way. I had that moment this morning that I experience every year. The date suddenly hitting me; the date that used to mean nothing much but that now functions as a psychological marker for my generation. Just as my grandparents’ generation was branded by “Where were you when you heard about Pearl Harbor?” and my parents’ by “What were you doing when you heard Kennedy was shot?”, I will never hear that three number combination without remembering the smell of pancakes on a clear morning in September; the bewilderment and then horror; the feelings of vulnerability and fear.

twin towersSo this morning, Jim and I took some time to show the kids footage of the Twin Tower attacks. And, choking back tears, I told them the story of Flight 93 and the courage of firefighters and policemen who rushed “Into the Fire” as Bruce Springsteen puts it. And I explained why I honked as we drove under several overpasses, decorated with flags and signs commemorating the day. At one point, Bailey (our nine-year-old) turned to me and in an accusatory tone said, “No one ever told me there was a day.” I knew we had discussed 9/11 with him before, so it wasn’t as if he didn’t know about it. Rather, it was the collective remembrance that struck him.

I often feel conflicted when discussing patriotism with the kids. I have no problem praising the sacrifices of our neighbor (and his family) who has been deployed, leaving behind five children and a devoted, grief-stricken wife. But when you move from a micro to a macro level, it gets a bit tricky for me. Kids are so black and white, wanting to know who was the good guy and who was bad. The subtleties and complexities of national politics don’t always translate into such neat categories. But maybe they don’t need to. After all, a country is made up of a lot of little pieces, not one homogenous glob. Too often, we group people together in an effort, perhaps, to numb our conscience as we criticize that group to death. A country, a race, a religion is so much easier to peck to death than many unique individuals. This disease of generalization seems to plague our age when to swear allegiance to any one particular group is an act of elitism. I am by no means willing to sacrifice what is owed my country in gratitude and loyalty, but just what is it we owe to this place we call home? And what should be reserved for the greater good not to mention our heavenly home?

Jim has shared an insight which as helped me to reconcile a bit of this tension. He was talking about our nation’s history not as a nation but as a collective of individuals many of whom came seeking religious freedom, a better life for their children, willing to make great sacrifices to ensure the rights of others. When you consider all the particular lives that make up the history of our nation, the mosaic takes on a beauty of its own that no one picture could ever capture. It’s like I told the kids at the zoo “If you look closely enough at anything God has created, you will find something beautiful and complex, something well worth studying.” So it’s all for one and one for all this 9/11. Let us all strive to make our piece of “We the People” something beautiful and worthy of study.