Hello, readers,
It’s been a long time since last I posted, but the world has “been on fire” even worse than the last time I posted. The annual remembrance of 9-11, which first happened in the U.S. in 2001, is something about which I will never need reminding. This day stands vividly in my mind, for it was a day I was called to be an actress.
An actress, you say? Well, yes, of a special sort. For it was 9-11-2001 that it was picture day at the elementary school where I was a teacher. This school was right at the periphery of an Army base and most of the children were of military families.
At this particular school, I was a Physical Education teacher. Since my classroom was the gymnasium, and that was where picture day was happening, my principal assigned me to help get the kids seated on their stool, arrange their hair or collar or sweater if need be, and make sure they were ready for their picture. “Make sure they smile a big smile,” the principal told me.
After about an hour of having children pose and smile before moving on to the next student, one of my best friends, another teacher, came into the gym and whispered in my ear. “Don’t let on to the kids,” she softly told me, “but it looks like America is under attack.” She told me I had to act as though everything was okay. “They need to get this news from their parents, and probably many will be deploying soon, so keep everything happy in here.”
As so began my greatest acting job, having each child sit, pose, and smile their biggest and brightest, while I knew that within hours, their worlds would be crumbling around them as they learned of the attack on the U.S., and of perhaps one or both parents being deployed.
The second 9-11 began on October 7, 2023, when Hamas terrorists swooped down on Israelites, first in an attack on young, unarmed concert-goers, where the terrorists shot, kidnapped, butchered and raped young innocents, and then moving house-by-house into the cities, killing as many men, women and children as they could. The horror continues today, with these inhumane butchers burning people alive and even beheading babies and toddlers.
And some people who call themselves Americans say they are pro-Palestinian? How can anyone, American or otherwise, say they support any group who commits such atrocities?
The Bible repeatedly calls for Christians, Jews and other believers to support Israel and to defend its people. The people of Israel are facing the most dangerous time since the Holocaust. They need our support. We can support Israel through prayer, through donations and, if possible, through intrepid action. Nothing else will do, and now is the time.
Or we can act like everything is okay and our world will never be touched by any of this. Just sit and smile.
