The air is a bit cooler. Our memories are clear. Out of loss comes strength. Our days are full of nights we reflect. I watched the workmen, first responders, and people from all over the country and the world come to where the World Trade Center was and dig to find survivors. Floodlights cast eerie shadows of the ruin. We waited for news of a survivor being found. Not many were. The pain, fear, ashen faces streaked with tears. A taste of Apocalypse.

The Queen’s Band at Buckingham Palace played the Star-Spangled Banner. America’s sorrow was felt worldwide. We did not know who we were, as the song says.

Members of Congress sang God Bless America on the steps of the Capitol. No division or backbiting that day. We understood we needed each other. We needed our enemies to be our friends and our friends to love us.

So it goes 25 years later, and still looking for the devil in all the wrong places. We are a nation of immigrants. If immigrants are the problem, we must raise our hands. Not naive emotion, but practical examination. We must not fight the peaceful. We must not wage war with our friends. We are not always right. God loves the world.

Former President Reagan asked whether, if we were suddenly under attack from an alien force, we would unite to defeat it. The scripture admonishes us not to seek the mote in our neighbor’s eye when we have a beam in our own.

‘If the blind lead the blind, will we not all go into the ditch?

A Peaceable Kingdom is within our grasp. To have it, we shall lay down our preconceived bias and prejudice and learn of each other our humanity. The lion and the lamb did not begin laying down together…they were inspired.