9-11

I refrained from posting yesterday. It was one of those truly surreal days for us. It was the 6th anniversary of the most tragic day in our modern US history, but also the 6th anniversary of our venture into homeschooling. Yep, it all began the morning of September 11, 2001 around 8am. One could take it as a "sign" that homeschooling wasn't the right thing, but by the end of that day I knew it was.

We were getting The Dad ready for work and Boo ready for kindergarden (she was still enrolled at this point - and actually did finish the year out) when the news came on. I was busy and concentrating on all the important things I needed to do. Iron shirts and school uniforms, find shoes, pack lunches, important things. And then suddenly they weren't all that important. Suddenly the world slowed down drastically and we just stood and stared as the second plane flew into WTC. We were stunned and scared. It took us a few minutes to snap back into the reality of our day. The things that needed to be done. Clothes still needed ironing, shoes found, lunches packed, time schedules met.

We made a quick agreement that we would go through our day like normal. We wouldn't let terrorists stop us from our regular routine. We would go to work, to school, to swim class, have dinner and Girl Scouts. Although in hindsight, had I known that the teacher would have the TV tuned to CNN ALL DAY in her class (so she would know what was happening) and had known that she would utter the words, "Bad Arabs" in Boo's class (which had a young Arab boy in the class) I would have not sent her to school. That would have been the day she began her homeschool years as well.

Our scout troop shared a space at a church and only one other child showed up, so we elected to go into the church where they were having a service. It was eery to feel like we were suddenly unsafe. It was unsettling to not hear airplanes fly over our house for nearly a week (we lived along one of the landing patterns for the airport). It was nerve wracking trying to explain to our children why some people would do this.

It still is nerve wracking. It still doesn't make sense. I still can't wrap my brain around that kind of violence. And then yesterday on NPR I found words which made me realize that what happened that day truly wasn't a religious jihad. It was on their "All Things Considered Show" and they interviewed a young Imam who sees the 9-11 activities and other killing violences as a direct contradiction to the Koran From the chapter of Isra, verse 33 "We are not permitted to kill. Killing is not right. And whoever kills somebody intentionally, his reward is hellfire." Wow! You can hear the broadcast by going to NPR's website.

It reminds me of the Christian commandments where it says, "Thou shalt not kill." It doesn't say, "Though shalt not kill except...." It blountly says, "Though shalt not kill." This message is repeated in almost every religion and in almost every creed. Killing is wrong. It's simply put in all varying religions. Which makes me wonder why killings continue.