Eight Years Later

The date 9/11 will never be forgotten in America or the Muslim world. It will be remembered for wildly different reasons. The loss of lives on 9/11 was shocking to observe and mourned because of their innocence in all things related to the event. This is one of the fundamental things about America and the morality which it embraces. America mourns the loss of innocent life. The pictures in the Muslim world were vastly different. Rejoicing over the loss of innocent lives seems to abide in their embraced morality. Seldom do we find Americans gleefully celebrating the loss of life of the innocent. We see this as tragic and seek to avoid it as much as possible. Even in war, civilian causalities caused by American firepower is surprisingly low because of our desire to spare the innocent. America is set apart in this aspect.
Throughout history most nations/empires made little effort to make a distinction between the enemy and the innocent and so all became pawns to be expended serving the goals of the leaders. Whole civilian populations were killed or enslaved as a routine part of warfare. This was the norm. And then along comes America. She has led the world in setting a standard in protecting the innocent. Have we done this perfectly. No. But the intent and effort in cherishing and protecting the innocent, even in wartime, is remarkable in light of past history. It is a tribute to the Judeo/Christian moral base which underpins our morality. Our moral underpinnings, based on Biblical truths, were greatly revealed in the aftermath of 9/11 compared with other cultures.

One side note on the above morality of sparing the innocent. The disturbing nature of abortion is the complete abandonment of this principle which America has so long cherished. To embrace abortion so easily, as America has done, is truly an open attack from within rejecting America's earnest desire to protect the innocent.

Yesterday's Personal Saga
I survived the visit to the oral surgeon yesterday. Actually I did pretty well considering my history of such endeavors. Praise God for his gift of nitrous oxide (or whatever it is). A few highs and lows of the visit, literally, were: my normal blood pressure is around 118/80. Blood pressure when first sitting in dental chair: 180/121. Yes I can literally feel my blood pressure increase as I walk into the dentist office. Nitrous oxide relaxes me to 121/? during the tooth extraction. After everything is over, I relive in my mind all that has happened and begin to get light headed and "white as a sheet" (though never completely fainted.) So while lying on the chair 'recovering' they check my blood pressure again: 77/51. At this point they told me to take my time and not feel rushed to leave. Ha, at that point I could not have crawled out of the building if I wanted to. But eventually my blood pressure returned to normal and I walked out like a champ - minus one wisdom tooth. But it was an hour of highs and lows!

Blessings