So I guess I’ll join the throng and post about my own 9/11 experiences. While I was getting ready for work, my wife pointed my attention to the TV showing the first tower billowing smoke. We watched for a stunned moment and I got the dog ready for a walk. When we reached the end of the driveway, I heard a scream. I ran back to learn of the second crash. My wife was sobbing as she thought her cousin (who worked on the 100-something floor) had been killed. We later learned that he happened to be away from his office that day, at a charity function. My first thoughts after the second crash (of which I’m still not completely dissuaded) were that it was at least in part the work of Yassir Arafat. I stewed in rage for many months. I was so angry I really couldn’t pray for a long time. I reverted to much of my worst behavior. I thank God that His mercy eventually overcame my rage.

So many people say that “everything’s changed since 9/11”, but really too little has changed for those who did not lose loved ones at the hands of the barbarians.

Too many people in Asia and Africa live under the tyranny of either Islamofascists such as bin Laden or secular Arab nationalist fascists such as Saddam Hussein who still work relentlessly to slaughter and enslave as many innocent people as they can. Too much money and deference goes to these despots.

Too few people in Israel, be they Jewish or not, have the opportunity to live anything resembling a normal life as Fatah, Hamas and Hezbollah attempt to complete what Hitler started.

Too few people stood up to condemn the blasphemy committed by Fatah terrorists in the Church of the Nativity or the blasphemy committed by media goons and their hangers-on in St. Patrick’s Cathedral.

Too many people exploit the shock and grief of innocent people to promote their pre-existing pet causes.

Too few people who don’t live in the immediate shadow of the twin towers of Arab terror take their threat seriously. Too many people in Europe and America coddle and appease the barbarians who would like nothing more than to make our lives into hell on earth.

Too many people believe Hanan Ashrawi and too few read Daniel Pipes. For that matter, too few read James Lileks.

Too often the people of God betray Him.

Too many Catholics spend their time and energy either (a) criticizing the Church for not being enough like the dying liberal protestant denominations, (b) criticizing the Church for not looking sufficiently like it did in the 16th century or (c) try to subvert the Church into a vehicle for their own pet political causes, rather than in trying to perform corporal and spiritual works of mercy.

Too many people everywhere live in ignorance of the Gospel. Too many people live in uninformed hostility to the Church.

Too many people are too ready to rationalize sin – be it their own sex drives, the bloodlust of Arab terrorists, a cowardly reluctance to give the barbarians what they’ve invited by their actions, blind rage at the perpetrators or pride at their own absence of anger.

Too many still wall themselves off from their neighbors – both literally and figuratively.

Too rarely do I do what I ought.