On this first Sunday after one of the world's great disasters, an act of war that took advantage of our freedoms, training and educating the enemy on our own land with freedom to come and go as they please, I'm still in shock over what it means. War.

My feelings and thoughts have been all over the place since 9/11. I feel like a cat in an aviary. All kinds of thoughts are flying around in my head, every one of them pulling my feelings to it. The first thoughts that kicked feelings into motion were clear and uncomplicated — stomp a mudhole and walk it dry.

Patriotism I forgot was there sprang to the surface quick as a lightbulb responds to a switch. I felt in the heart great sorrow and equally great loyalty to my people, the American people, all races, all religions, all classes, all nationalities, faults, flaws, the works. We are the people of the entire globe, immigrants all, all but the native people.

We're not pure by any means. Hiroshima, Nagasaki and Dresden were civilian populations. We justify and forget this, but the rest of the world remembers it. The waste of these entire cities is a big part of our reputation among other nations. It's what we're known for alongside greed, racism, arrogance, godlessness and shopping fever.

In the world of right wing Islamists, which covers a great part of the earth from Africa to Indonesia, we are the Great Satan, and, funny, that's what we think they are. A pretty good case was made for our point of view in full sight of the Statue of Liberty a few days ago. Lady Liberty, herself, had a front row seat. She saw it all.

And poking at the hornet's nest that is the Pentagon makes it pretty clear the terrorist communities of the Middle East believe they are ready to take on and destroy Great Satan. I suspect they believe they can pull a Viet Nam on us like the Taliban in Afghanistan did on Russia until we collapse. I'm inclined to believe they underestimate what Americans can do. This act may have brought us to our knees, but it woke up the sleeping giant too. And he's mad. It was a very rude awakening.

So we're squaring off good and evil again, us against them. God is on our side, whichever side we're on. I'd say there is a lot of grieving going on in heaven.

But we're made the way we're made, by God, and all this obviously is in the plan for it's spelled out in scripture. It comes from way deep inside all of us, imprinted on our DNA, something we have to go through.

The day of the twin towers fire storm I was moved to see the entire country shut down in mourning and reflection. It seemed like the demeanor of all the people I saw over the next few days and what I was hearing on the news indicated deep inner reflection. Issues such as what democracy means, and what freedom means, these givens we took for granted as immortal turned out to be quite mortal and occupied our national collective mind with a great deal of urgency, all at once.

That's awesome to me. It felt inside like all of us came together in spirit, identifying ourselves American, going over what that means with sincerity of purpose.

The feeling of unity among us was refreshing in a time when we've about played out the game of take what you can get before somebody else gets it first. I was especially refreshed to hear of prayer services on the news all over the country, to see our compassion come out in the open air.

We are a good people and we know it when we're not distracted by our resentments and unforgivenesses. This blow gave us a moment clear of everyday-life distractions when the soul of who we are as a people knelt to weep and pray.

The great question now on everybody's mind is what's next? I can't help but find it interesting that here in Alleghany County we're taking this time in the wake of Bristol's announced pullout to reflect on where we can go from here that is forward, not backward.

Bristol packing its bags has been our own World Trade Center catastrophe in its way. It appears to be pulling us together as citizens of the county, making us reflect on our options together. First we sweep up the broken pieces, then point the finger of blame, which appears to be part of the process we have to go through, analyze as rationally as possible the situation and do what needs to be done.

Undoubtedly, we'll soon be giving up in good faith some taken-for-granted American civil liberties under the stress of war, and I accept. Let that be my pint of blood.

John Kennedy's words ring nicely here, "Ask not what your country can do for you, but what you can do for your country."

I believe with full confidence our beloved county and nation, both, will not only survive these present ordeals, but thrive from them in the spirit, where it matters.

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