We are approaching the fourth anniversary of September 11th.

This fourth anniversary is significant. There are natural cycles in life. Many of them are marked-off in fours. Four is the number of balance, the number of the square. Historically, the number four has always meant a point of ending — and starting over.
All of us have lived side-by-side through this hazy dream-like state of the last four years. We all have much in common. We all watched the footage. We all called people we love. Many of us lost friends or kinfolk on that September day.

Probably everyone reached out a hand to a stranger during that period, because somehow we knew it was right to do so. There probably aren’t many people who didn’t fumble for some kind of silent prayer on that morning for those who were dying and for those of us who remained.

All of us were part of big close-knit community for a few weeks. I haven’t met anyone who didn’t appreciate that feeling of unity. And I haven’t met anyone who isn’t sad — and sort of disgusted — that the close-knit feeling has evaporated in the smoke of our current intolerance and easily-kindled anger at something we cannot — or will not — name.

Over and over again, I have heard people in the country talking about how we seem to be more fractured as a country than anyone remembers. This talk of being fractured began only a few short months after September 11th.

People are quick to blame the media or politicians. There is some merit to this blame, but one can’t help considering who it is that sits with an eye out for the next piece of bad news.

A new language has become quite at home in our daily lives. We are constantly reminded of the current “threat level.” Perhaps these new zip-words are the current version of those heard in my youth — radioactive dangers, fallout shelters, nuclear attack, air-raid sirens.

If terrorism is ultimately a mind-game seeking to cause the fraying of the culture’s fabric, it would appear to have made some progress in its work. Who do we blame for this?

We have been encouraged to keep shopping, but not much has been said about strengthening our community ties. Why not?

The extremes of right and left keep pushing further apart. The political voices seem to represent nobody one meets, but seem more bent on simply stirring up strife for the sake of strife.

There is no tolerance for disagreement. People are afraid to speak their mind. This should not be.

We are comfortable. And worst of all, we are apathetic.

If the four-year anniversary of September 11th is the ending of a cycle, it is also the beginning of a new cycle. Things will probably get brighter — and darker.

What do we want this new cycle to look like? We will either begin deciding that for ourselves, or it will be decided for us.

(Editor’s Note: Join David Clark’s “Simply America Conversations” discussion board: www.simplyamerica.org. You can also email David Clark at dclark@outofthesky.com, or write him at P.O. Box 148, Cochran, Ga. 31014.).