911 is a number that has become synonomous with the word "emergency" in the minds of most Americans. The terrorist attacks that brought down the twin towers of the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001 in New York City created a climate of national emergency in America and empowered George W. Bush to declare a global war against terrorism and to engineer an invasion of Afganistan and Iraq in the name of national security.So, what has been learned in the six years since 9/11? Have we become any better at distinguishing truth from falsehood? Have we become more aware of the methods used to manipulate belief and influence behavior? Have unfolding events deepened our understanding or merely heightened our confusion about what is going on?
Is it possible that out of this "emergency" will come the "emergence" of a transcendent redemptive truth that will lead to a transfiguration of the world in which we find ourselves, the one seemingly tottering on the edge of destruction?
The fact that Barack Obama is now president-elect suggests that we have learned a little something. Just what remains to be seen.
The truth about what really happened on 9/11 and during the days leading up to and following the attack remains open to question.
