The moment on 9/11 that America began to die

It was at this moment we realized things would never be the same:

And unfortunately, we were wrong.  They remained the same, which was not good.  Because on September 10, 2001, we were already a nation in decline.  Oh, we didn’t realize it.  We had maxed out our credit cards and focused on our PlayStations and that brand new Internet world enough to ignore the signs of the times.  But like bringing pus out of a wound, the 9/11 attacks exposed the inner rot that had already infected this once great – and yes, I said great – nation.

It’s not gotten any better.  We’ve found out the speed with which the nations of the world would exploit our sorrows to hamstring our efforts.  We’ve seen the inner divisions of our nation rise up and invest a thousand times the effort to fight one another while dismissing outside threats of those who pine for our ruin.  We’ve seen radical revolutionaries exploit the disastrous loss of life to advance their own ideological hatred of this country and the civilization and religion from which it was born.  In short, wave all the flags we want, but we have to admit, the terrorists won.

Oh sure, we killed the leaders, we’ve defeated the organizations for a season.  But that was to be expected.  I doubt the perpetrators expected anything else.  They probably were prepared for what we did.  It was the long haul that they were aiming for.  And it’s that long term goal that Americans, in all our post-Boomer glory, served up on a silver platter.

So this year, I will still hang my flag.  I know our country is falling apart, and our freedoms are on life support despite assurances from those hoping to put our freedoms out of their misery once and for all.  I know we are a decadent and corrupt nation, drunk on our own debauchery, oblivious to the chasm that yawns before us.  I know that grand institutions and corporate interests are becoming the Pharaohs of the modern age, exploiting and ruining the peasants that once were the American people.  But I can still pray while I hang that flag, and not pray that everyone else become as hip and smart as I am and get on my bandwagon because it’s their fault everything sucks.  But pray that God heal our land and bring us all back to repentance, and stop the divisions and arrogance and cynicism that is the cancer eating away at our nation’s heart.

If my people, which are called by my name, shall humble themselves, and pray, and seek my face, and turn from their wicked ways; then will I hear from heaven, and will forgive their sin, and will heal their land.
                                                                                                                        2 Chronicles 7:14