What Have We Learned?
A Poem for the People of America

September 11, 2001  – September 11, 2006 (Written on 9-11’s Fifth Anniversary)

I’ve been thinking much these days of five (14) years ago
Remembering that morning while getting ready for school
We observed in disbelief and horror, the jets plowing into the two towers
As my family watched it happen over and over again on our living room TV
A growing sense of doom and unreality seized my inner being

What have we learned? I ask myself today, Five  (14) years later?
Is it that good doesn’t always triumph when evil abounds?
That a belief in a religious ideology that hates every other exception
Is a hideous uncompromising monster; untamed, evil, self-righteous and arrogant?

As a country we’ve been through much in these five years
We’ve lost sons and daughters, fathers and mothers, on this shore and in distant lands
For the cause of freedom and blessed virtue, because we wish for others what we hold dear
At great cost we’ve set forth to fight terror’s war; not always sure nor united in this endeavor

But we all know our national innocence is gone, we regret its consummation
No longer are our airports a place where I get to wave goodbye to my son and watch him depart
Or trust that the suicide bomber will not visit again in this my homeland that I love
And I wonder if it’s our culture of indulgence that contributes to why they hate us so much

I’ve been thinking much these days of five (14) years ago
And I am grateful that not all is lost, for hope cannot be defiled
Yes, love still abounds in the heart of our people and gracious caring still remains strong
Our spirit lives on in undefeat; we are wiser, less smug and indifferent in our right to live in peace

May God bless America

N. L. Brumbaugh

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