As an expat New Yorker, I have to say something to commemorate this day. I no longer have family ties to the city; but I just learned that a faithful friend has taken a job with the City in emergency communications. His role is vital and he’s doing something for the City that was lacking in 2001.

September 11, 2001 attacks in New York City: View of the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. (Image: US National Park Service ) (Photo credit: Wikipedia)

I can still hear the firemen’s communications that day (we’ve all heard the tapes). How heroic they all were. Because of those firemen’s efforts, relatively few people perished in the Tower collapses. However, as with all the crises ongoing around the world today, a few is too many.

Will we let this tragedy fade into our collective memory of wars past (and this was war)? I’m afraid the answer is yes. Our country is too good at letting its memories fade. Distracted by the latest gadget or game, movie or spectacle, we neglect the important things.

What important things do we neglect? Things like judging each other by the content of our characters and not by the color of our skin (or any other wrong distinctions). Or is our country saying that Malcolm, Martin, and Medgar died in vain? Character takes the right stuff. Stuff we don’t seem to have any more.

We are all broken in some way. Some count just seven: lust, gluttony, greed, sloth, wrath, envy and pride. Some cite the Ten Commandments. However, God said: “…Whoever says, ‘You fool!’ will be liable to the hell of fire.”

If everything we do is suspect, then we need a Savior that is greater than we are to save us from our neglectfulness, lack of character, and brokenness. We need Him to build in us heroic character or else we perish.