The Blood Bank Is Full

September 19, 2001

There’s a blood drive going on. Giving blood makes me faint, so a merciful Red Cross says ‘no thanks’ to mine. That makes me feel like a wimp, especially since the lifeblood of strangers, past and present, provides the mortar for my foundation of values and freedoms.

The pages of history confirm that the blood bank of truth and liberty is filled with deposits from innocent human beings. Some of the people who have accounts in this bank are Joan of Arc, Abraham Lincoln, Martin Luther King, multitudes of patriots from Lexington to The Persian Gulf, millions of men, women and children who suffered the atrocities of the Holocaust, Jesus and countless others. The countless others now includes a long list of "ordinary" citizens who were caught in an evil web of airplanes and towers and terrors surrounding the events of September 11, 2001.

Most of us are not required to pledge our life’s blood to this blood bank of truth and liberty. Yet, we are encouraged to take out loans and make frequent withdrawals from the interest that accrues from these treasured deposits. Whenever we attend a worship service at the church of our choice, speak out with a voice of dissent, participate openly in a meeting or choose an educational path, we are making withdrawals.

The bank is now full to overflowing with the blood of our beloved countrymen. The stories of their individual heroism in the certain face of death are deeply touching. Our nation is distraught with sadness and mourning. But we must take courage. We are Americans. In God we trust. We pray for the families and friends who are left behind, and we reach out to them in comfort and support. We will go forward. Truth and right will prevail. The precious blood of our innocent citizens can not . . . must not . . . will not be spilled in vain. Let us pledge to demonstrate by our lives and our choices that a system of "liberty and justice for all" can be a reality for everyone who is willing to abide by its guiding principles.