Remembering – I still have that Question

For Those About to Fight  (Remember this?  It is a song put together by a local radio station following 9/11. Play it as you read…)

Two days from a very important anniversary in the history of the United States and two months from a critical election, perhaps we need a reminder of recent history.  It is saddening that we can so easily forget the pain of the days following September 11, 2001.  It is maddening that we end up bickering about party politics and arguing about the infinitesimal details while our soldiers are put in harm’s way on a daily basis.  It is frustrating to me that I am still not certain how to answer a question posed to me that fateful day.

My wife and I took my 2 year-old daughter and my 4-month old son down to Kiener Plaza in downtown St. Louis to be with other in an impromptu remembrance service.  It was comforting to be with others who felt the same as we did, but it did not answer the questions we kept asking ourselves.  I walked my son around the perimeter as it was getting late and he was being restless while others were seeking solemnity.

As we walked, he cooed and I tried to pull myself out of the shell-shock so many of us felt that day, a woman reporter came up to me with a microphone.  She asked me how old my son was, and it took me a minute to respond to so simple a question.  But her next question was a killer.  She asked “What will you tell your son about what happened today?”

I was floored, that very question was what I had been pondering all day.  I figured if I had that answer for him then perhaps I would have the answers for myself.  But no dice.  The answer wasn’t there.  Me, a man of many words, who always has an answer for most every question, I had nothing.  The regular platitudes of getting through or trusting in God’s faith were too trite.  It was too early, too raw, too real.

I stumbled and stuttered.  I looked at the reporter, and said “I do not know, yet.  But I intend to figure that out.”  She looked disappointed.  I know I was.  I am sure my answer did not get on TV, maybe it is on some B-roll somewhere that can be pulled out if I ever run for office.

Now it is almost 7 years later.  My son is in the second grade.  3,000+ soldiers have died fighting the ‘Battle Against Terror’.  Osama is free somewhere, on an endless jaunt up and down some mountain in Pakistan.  Politicians are arguing about closing Gitmo and how much interrogation becomes torture.  Judges are somehow figuring that the terrorists who want to kill my son should be given the rights of a US citizen.  Congress… well Osama probably has a higher approval rating in the US than they do…

I am annoyed and unhappy with the progress.  I still want Osama dead.  I want the bickering to stop now.  I want the press to stop crucifying the few leaders who did pull us together after 9/11 – Giuliani, Bush, Cheney.  I want results from my government, God-ordained to defend and protect us.

And I want the answer to that question before my son hits puberty…