This year, the “cancel culture” infiltrated the holy ground of the Twin Towers and tried to cancel the annual live reading of the names of those who died in the terrible tragedy of 9/11. First, the annual “Tribute in Light” in which the Twin Towers are recreated by light and the names read out was canceled by the National Sept. 11 Memorial and Museum, which has sponsored the event since it was started by former Mayor Rudy Giuliani, ostensibly because of concerns over COVID-19. But after an outcry, New York City reinstated the tribute. And the people of America, led by Frank Siller, CEO of the Stephen Siller Tunnel to Towers Foundation, who lost his firefighter brother on 9/11, stepped up to make sure the live reading of names happened.
“The horrific loss of life from the largest terrorist attack on U.S. soil requires that we read these names—out loud, in person, on this day, every year,” Siller said, according to Newsday.
The fierce reaction to the initial cancellation caused Siller and the families who lost their loved ones and who by tradition read the names every year to continue the tradition of reading the names aloud at a new event near ground zero on Liberty and Church Streets, where the event was held before the 9/11 memorial was complete, according to Fox News. Here, the words of Vice President Pence and the second lady rang out to the silence, then cheers of the assembled family members, so grateful that the tradition had been preserved.
Karen Pence began with the words of David in Ecclesiastes 3:1-11 (NIV):
There is a time for everything, and a season for every activity under the heavens: a time to be born and a time to die, a time to plant and a time to uproot, a time to kill and a time to heal, a time to tear down and a time to build, a time to weep and a time to laugh, a time to mourn and a time to dance, a time to scatter stones and a time to gather them, a time to embrace and a time to refrain from embracing, a time to search and a time to give up, a time to keep and a time to throw away, a time to tear and a time to mend, a time to be silent and a time to speak, a time to love and a time to hate, a time for war and a time for peace. What do workers gain from their toil? I have seen the burden God has laid on the human race. He has made everything beautiful in its time. He has also set eternity in the human heart; yet no one can fathom what God has done from beginning to end.
The vice president followed without comment, reading David’s Psalm 23 (KJV), “The Lord is my shepherd; I shall not want. He maketh me to lie down in green pastures: he leadeth me beside the still waters.He restoreth my soul: he leadeth me in the paths of righteousness for his name’s sake. Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me; thy rod and thy staff they comfort me. Thou preparest a table before me in the presence of mine enemies: thou anointest my head with oil; my cup runneth over. Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me all the days of my life: and I will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.”
As bestselling author of God, Trump and COVID-19, Stephen Strang, says, “Endorsed by Senators Kamala Harris and Corey Booker as well as John Podesta … Brown Is the New White is the guidebook for the communist revolution now unfolding ever so slightly under the radar.”
The key is—precisely as happens in every communist revolution from the Cultural Revolution in China to Cuba to the former Soviet Union—the erasure of history and the past. And the weapon to stand up to this resurrection of evil was best exemplified by the dignified words of Vice President Pence and the second lady, who along with the restored public reading of the names of those who lost their lives during 9/11, read the simple but powerful words of Scripture. These profound acts stood front and center against the evil trying to erase the blessed history of America in a lesson to all of the constant and never-ending power of the Word of God.
As the Scripture reading ended, the families of the 2,996 who lost their lives in the tragedy began to spontaneously shout, “Four more years; four more years,” reflecting their gratitude to a president and vice president who stand firmly on the Word of God. But unless the 37 million believers who did not vote in 2016 do so, in just 53 days, this will be the last 9/11 memorial marked by the Word of God. {eoa}
Amir George is the author of Liberating Iraq and directs The World Helpline at theworldhelpline.org.
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