Back in August, in looking at special events, I was surprised that there were no events announced to commemorate the 25th anniversary of the September 11th terrorist attacks, so I made some calls and decided to hold an “unofficial” event in lieu of official events. When official events began to appear, I cancelled and encouraged attendance at other events. In the meantime, I had been thinking about what I wanted my “event” to consist of, and I knew the moments of the events that day and afterward that were most moving to me were those of ordinary citizens, those who acted heroically such as the Flight 93 passengers or those in New York or at the Pentagon who led others to safety, those who died and left loved ones in mourning, and those who were inspired to enlist or to serve the country in other ways following the attacks.
The attacks were also a sort of “bookend” to my young adult years. In 1991, I was a junior in college when the Berlin Wall fell, which I followed with the daily paper. This was followed by proclamations of the “end of history” and a “peace dividend” and a hopeful expectation that Democracy was on the rise, with the failed Tiananmen Square protest only a short-term setback.
The September 11th attacks ended this single decade of hope. By then I was a young mother, with my firstborn not yet walking. Our usual pattern on Tuesdays was for my husband to leave for work early in a “flexible schedule” arrangement, while I came in later after getting my son ready for daycare, and he called me from work: “turn on the TV, a plane crashed into the World Trade Center.” Like surely many of you, I watched the second plane hit, sharing that realization with so many people across the country in real time that this was no accident, and, like surely so many of you, we spent the next week’s after-work hours numbly watching the evening Special Report news.
The world had changed, or had never indeed been that world on a path to peace and democracy, “bending toward justice,” that we thought it was. There were threats we hadn’t even considered, people, as individuals and as groups, who indeed did not want democracy but domination.
And that means that it’s important not merely to mourn but to resolve to remove any blinders we might have with respect to Radical Islam and other such destructive extremists and the risks they pose.
I also wanted to share two songs which would have been a part of the commemoration, which are always meaningful to me whenever they are on the hymn list at church, primarily the Sundays nearest July 4th and Memorial Day, and which I invite you to listen to. Lyrics to both of these are at the bottom of the post.
When I sing or listen to the Battle Hymn of the Republic, I am reminded of the Civil War soldiers, and the fact that, at least for many of them and many Americans on the Home Front, the Civil War was a war of emancipation. You can read more about the history of the song at this site. I invite you to listen or sing this in memory, thanksgiving for, and as a prayer for the safety of everyone who has fought for our country and placed their lives at risk both in the armed forces and in other ways or is now doing so.
Or here with subtitles:
Here are the lyrics:
1 Mine eyes have seen the glory of the coming of the Lord;
He is trampling out the vintage where the grapes of wrath are stored;
He hath loosed the fateful lightning of this terrible swift sword;
His truth is marching on.
Refrain:
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
Glory! Glory! Hallelujah!
His truth is marching on.
2 I have seen Him in the watch-fires of a hundred circling camps;
They have builded Him an altar in the evening dews and damps;
I can read the righteous sentence by the dim and flaring lamps;
His day is marching on. [Refrain]
3 He has sounded forth the trumpet that shall never call retreat;
He is sifting out the hearts of men before His judgment seat;
O be swift, my soul, to answer Him; be jubilant, my feet!
Our God is marching on. [Refrain]
4 In the beauty of the lilies Christ was born across the sea,
With a glory in His bosom that transfigures you and me;
As He died to make men holy, let us die to make men free,
while God is marching on. [Refrain]
Second, the traditional “Navy Hymn” — Eternal Father, Strong to Save. This is not just the “navy hymn” of the US Navy, but of the British navy beforehand. You can read about its history here. Depending on your religious tradition, you may be used to the additional verses being swapped out for alternate verses reflecting on the dangers not just of the sea but of roads and air travel. It asks for protection against what was at the time a very risky event, traveling by ship.
Had I been leading a commemoration event, I would have invited attendees to sing or listen to this in prayerful memory of the victims of that day. I invite you to do so now.
You may recall, as do I, the reports of emergency rooms at the ready for the injured who never came. The firefighters who had no idea that staying in the tower was a death sentence. The men and women trapped above the points of impact who were still able to make phone calls to family members even while knowing they would not escape. This solemn hymn, in asking for protection, for me, calls to mind those “in peril” everywhere, and those who died.
Or, again, a version with lyrics:
And here are the lyrics:
1 Eternal Father, strong to save,
Whose arm does bind the restless wave,
Who bids the mighty ocean deep
Its own appointed limits keep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
2 O Savior, whose almighty word
The winds and waves submissive heard,
Who walked upon the foaming deep,
And calm amid the rage did sleep;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
3 O Holy Spirit, who did brood
Upon the waters dark and rude,
And bid their angry tumult cease,
And give for wild confusion peace;
O hear us when we cry to Thee
For those in peril on the sea.
4 O Trinity of love and pow’r,
Your children shield in danger’s hour;
From rock and tempest, fire, and foe,
Protect them where-so-e’er they go;
Thus, evermore shall rise to Thee
Glad hymns of praise from land and sea.