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On Sunday Sept. 11, 2006 Jellico held it's fifth 9-11 candlelight memorial service in Veteran's Park.
Once again, Rev. Stephen Meeks gave a moving and inspiring talk and it is reprinted in it's entirety here:
The 5th Anniversary of 911
By Stephen Meeks
Jellico Candle Light Service
Remembering our Heroes and Rebuilding Through Character
"Let men be good, and the government cannot be bad…" --William Penn
Introduction:
On this 5th anniversary of the most shocking event in our lifetimes and indeed in our nation's history, we still find it hard to believe that it has all happened to us, our great country, our America.
This sentiment of shock and unbelief is echoed in the history of the Jewish nation.
Listen to the record of their prophet Jeremiah,
"The Kings of the earth did not believe
Nor did any of the world's people
That the enemies and the foes could enter
The gates of Jerusalem."
(Lamentations 4:12)
The tragedy, the surprise, alarm and shock still reverberate in our memories-five years later. The rubble has been cleared. Congress has returned to its typical bi-partisan bickering, and the war rumbles on-though less often as front page news and certainly without moment by moment coverage. We've returned to a sort of new-normalcy-at least some of us have…
I read this a.m. of the husband of a 911 victim. Jack Grindcolas and his wife were expecting their first child. He said, 'Goodbye.' as she boarded flight 93. Now he says, "It's a completely different life." "You go from being a husband and potential father to being a widower, having a home that's empty. Half of you is gone."
A lot of homes are empty since 911. A lot of us are missing big pieces of ourselves. The rubble has been cleared, the rhetoric has spoken to the ordeal, the day is new, but our hearts are forever pierced.
In recent months, however, we've begun a next step in our healing as a nation. We've begun to talk more about the details and revisit them-if only vicariously through the accounts of others. Two movies have come out. One depicting the heroism of those aboard flight 93 and the other taking us beneath the rubble and along side two brave NYC firemen pinned there for hours. Both movies underscored the valor of our citizens in moments of unbelievable tragedy. In both depictions, Family is lifted high. Love and Hope are paramount. The will to live and the heart to do the right thing for fellow human beings is positioned at the center of who we are as Americans.
Such valor, such love, such value for human life, such ties to and regard for family are what make America great! They are the values of the true America. They are OUR centerpiece, our flag, our banner. Behind them and for them brave souls risk their lives every day. For such honors blood has run over foreign soils, and on it on behalf of these traits that we gather tonight. Indeed, such values ARE America.
I loved seeing those traits and hearing them in the context of what is RIGHT with our Nation. With all the negative slander that's being passed along, with all the overlooking of the nobleness of America, with all the slighting of the good that Americans do everyday----it's about time we gave attention to Her many great and positive attributes.
- It's about time we picked up our heads again, and flew our flags again.
- It's about time we stood lock step against the tide of flagrant defamation of those grand ideals.
- It's about time we yelled down the nay-sayers and critics of our way of life, and I not only mean those who live abroad, but those who live in our nation, run our media, work with in our government, and walk our streets.
- It's about time we unashamedly preached our ideals of
Life
Liberty
And The Pursuit of Happiness.
- It's about time we stood shoulder to shoulder against the ideas that can divide us and pit us against one another.
- It's time we stopped being African-American, Asian-American, Indian-
American, Arab-American, Rich-American, Poor-American, Christian-American, Muslim-American and become simply American.
- It's a about time America again led the world
In commerce
In compassion
And in character
- It's time we restore our pursuit of academic achievement, and out distance our competitors in science, engineering, medicine, academics, space travel, technology and business.
- It's about time to re-examine what we're holding up before our children as the highest achievements, as the greatest goals, as the purpose and aim for their lives.
- It's time we reassess the importance of entertainment against the importance of contribution, the relative value of sports against the greater value of knowledge, the weight of outward beauty over and against the gravity of personal character.
- It's about time to expect more out of ourselves and regain the respect of the world through our impeccable, strong, shining example
Of hard, steady, quality work
Of Honesty in all things
Of Disciplined, Cleaner living
Of Moral excellence
Of Family strength
Of Living Faith
Of Strength in Diversity
Of Unity of purpose
Of Commitment to the Sanctity of Human Life
Of Liberty not License
Of Justice not Lenience
Of Oneness as a Nation
Of Justice for all Citizens of OUR land
Of what it means to live Under the Watching Eye of The Living God.
- It's time to rebuild our towers, but its time for more to be restored than those buildings…
- It is time to restore the foundations of our society:
- Family-that means Father's being at home for their kids, faithful to their wives, providing for their dependent's needs and leading out in example of moral excellence and honorable behavior.
Restoring family means restoring discipline to our homes, a sense of right and wrong, order, direction, and vision-that means Mother's giving direction, care, encouragement, setting their own lives on higher ground, living above the status quo, like those two trade towers which once rose above the skyline of New York City.
Restoring family means returning our attention and our children's attention to faith: the faith of our Founders --that faith which called our Nation to prayer five years ago, that helped us through those dark hours and weeks, that our founders relied upon and which makes for strong homes, because it is strong homes which make for a strong nation. Or as William Penn said in his Frame of the Government from April 1862, "let men be good, and the government cannot be bad…"
Therefore, it is time to rid ourselves of the notion that the broken family is as strong a building block as an unbroken one, or that single parents can do the job as well as two were intended to do, or that children can somehow be fed broken, disloyal, selfish, immature parenting and emerge as strong members for our great nation. It is time for reasonable mature thinking control us and that we dismiss the idyllic notion that children don't need strong, loving, discipline and direction from engaged and focused parents. It's time to restore strong families-A Mother and A Father working together and in unison for the life, growth, education, and moral excellence of their children.
- It is time to rebuild Faith. Rebuilding faith means today what it meant for all men of every generation in our country's brief history. Samuel Adams wrote it in The Rights of the Colonist saying, "The rights of the colonist as Christians…may be best understood by reading and carefully studying the institution of the Great Law Giver and Head of the Christian Church, which are…in the New Testament."
Rebuilding faith means Pastors who call for parishioners to practice what they preach, and for parishioners to live out the example of kindness, purity, chastity, generosity, honesty, selflessness and holiness shown by their God.
It was upon the principles of faith that our forefathers carved out the pillars on which our country has grown and prospered. John Adams in a letter to Thomas Jefferson penned, "The general principles, on which the Fathers achieved the independence, were the only principles in which that beautiful assembly of young gentlemen could unite…the general principles of Christianity… and the general principles of English and American liberty."
It's time to rebuild our foundations so that we may reconstruct all else that we, as Americans, hold so dearly. Such effort will not only rebuild our nation, but sustain it and cause it to prosper.
Conclusion
Benjamin Rush, also one of those early fathers, wrote in his Road to Fulfillment, "Fortunate are the few who can retrace their steps, and start afresh."
Fortunate, therefore are we today, that we still have the time, that we have the opportunity, that we have the means, and, due to the sacrifices of so many before us, we have the freedom to start afresh.
Let us be found faithful to this moment. Let's remember their sacrifices and renew our commitment to building a Greater American than the world has ever yet seen that the world may be itself a greater place for all mankind to live.
That old prophet Jeremiah, who wept over the fall of the Great City into the hands of her enemies, concludes his letter with hope and a prayer saying,
"Restore us to Yourself, O LORD,
that we may return;
Renew our days as of old…"
(Lamentations 5:21a)
May God so restore us, and May God always bless America.
Read Steve Meeks talk from Jellico's 2004 911 service
Read Steve Meek's talk from Jellico's 2005 911 service
The Rev. Steve Meek's speech at Jellico's National Day of Prayer observance May 5, 2005
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