Hope Beyond Terrorism

Hope Beyond Terrorism

Thesis: We have been shocked by terrorism like never before this week and many are walking around bewildered saying, “Where is the hope?”

Introduction:

Lets recap the Timeline of the week that has caused many to be bewildered and feeling hopeless:

A stage of horrorOn Sept. 11, a date that will live in infamy for Americans, terrorists attacked the World Trade Center in New York City. At 9:05 a.m., hijacked United Airlines Flight 175, carrying 65 people, crashes into the south tower. The north tower burns from a previous crash of American Airlines Flight 11 at 8:48 a.m.. "I was in the World Financial Center looking out the window," said one woman. "I saw the first plane, and then 15 minutes later saw the other plane just slam into the World Trade Center." Another woman said: "It was the most horrible thing I’ve ever seen in my life."

Desperate leapA person jumps from the North Tower of the World Trade Center as another clings to the outside, left center, while smoke and fire billow from the building. "About five minutes before the tower fell, you could see people jumping from the upper floors. I watched six either fall or jump...." said Steve Johnson, a MSNBC.com producer who was standing about six blocks from the towers in lower Manhattan

.

The unthinkable has happened

At 9:59 a.m., the South Tower collapses. People in front of St. Patrick’s Cathedral react as they look down Fifth Avenue toward the World Trade Center. "Clearly, not even the police and FBI who had flooded the area were worried about collapse, they wouldn’t have been anywhere as near to the buildings as they were. If the first building hadn’t essentially fallen straight down, its crash could have killed hundreds standing, like me, a few blocks away," said George Hackett of Newsweek.

The sky falls in

At 10:28 a.m., the North Tower comes crashing down. Mike Smith, a fire marshal from Queens, said: "Everyone was screaming, crying, running — cops, people, firefighters, everyone. A couple of marshals just picked me up and dragged me down the street."

Pentagon attackedWith the Washington Monument in the background, a hijacked American Airlines Flight 77 crashes into the Pentagon. "I’m totally freaked out. Hearing the plane going over my head was frightening," said Elissa Brainard, 29.

Terror in the air

All domestic airports were shut down after four commercial airliners were hijacked and then crashed. Passengers leave under the watchful eye of a Massachusetts state trooper in the American Airlines terminal at Logan Airport in Boston.

Quotes from NBC news at NBCnews.com.

Yes, we have been faced with one of the worst weeks in the history of this nation. We have about 260 people killed on the high jacked airplanes. 190 people killed at the Pentagon. 184 confirmed dead at the World Trade center with 4,763 people missing and presumed dead. The death total of the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, the 4 air planes brings the death toll to over 5,000 individuals who lost their lives this week. Compare that to Pearl Harbor 2,390 and the Titanic 1, 500 the combination of these two tragedies still does not match what happened this week in total loss of life.

Yet you need to understand these where people just like you and me. They had parents, brothers, sisters, spouses, friends, and children. Listen to some of their names:

READ from the lists of some of the victims. Taken from ABCNEWS.COM.

Show cartoon overhead of Statue of Liberty from the Pioneer Press!

Where is the Hope! All these lives gone in a moment of time! Unexpected devastation in a moment in time! Men and women like you and me just going through their daily routine come face to face with terrorism and its death and destruction.

But I want to tell you, “There is hope for the present and the future!” Many would reply that yes its in the Military, or its in more Intelligence, or its in our vast wealth, or it’s in patriotism. A president of the United States once talked about where true hope comes from:

In June of 1863, just weeks before the battle of Gettysburg, a college President asked Lincoln if he thought the country would survive. President Lincoln replied:

I do not doubt that our country will finally come through safe and undivided. But do not misunderstand me… I do not rely on the patriotism of our people …the bravery and devotion of the boys in blue…(or) the loyalty and skill of generals…But the God of our fathers, Who raised up this country to be the refuge and asylum of the oppressed and downtrodden of all nations, will not let perish now. I may not live to see it… I do not expect to see it, but God will bring us through safe.