When sirens fade, what remains?
The headlines don’t stop.
A man shot in the middle of his speech.
Two teenagers gunned down at school,
their lockers still holding books,
their dreams left half written.
A woman who escaped war,
only to meet violence on an American train.
Jobs lost. Families hurting.
A country aching and here we are, asking ourselves if we’ve forgotten how to care.
But today is 9/11.
I remember.
You remember.
We all remember.
The morning sky was blue and then it wasn’t.
Ash rained down and the world held its breath.
Firefighters climbing stairwells,
never coming back down.
Strangers carrying strangers.
Hands reaching through smoke.
Hearts breaking but holding fast to one another.
If love could live in that rubble,
then love can live here, now.
So cry.
Cry for the children who will never see graduation day.
Cry for the voices cut short by violence.
Cry for the families who set one less plate at dinner.
Then….rise.
Rise not with fists but with open hands.
Rise not with hatred but with listening hearts.
Rise not with walls but with bridges built from compassion.
Evil tried to end us twenty-four years ago and evil tries still, every, single, day.
Listen to me, evil never gets the final word. That word belongs to us and let it be this…Love.
