Like most Americans, this morning found me rather melancholy as I remembered the thousands of Americans killed seven years ago today during the 9/11 attacks. Those who died were ordinary Americans---Democrats, Republicans and Independents---and we should all take a moment to honor their memories.

America has withstood many wars in our history and we have generally become stronger and more unified as a result. For whatever reason, 9/11 and the resulting wars in Iraq and Afghanistan have revealed bitter partisan divisions. The tragedy is that George W. Bush, while ascending to the presidency followng the controversial Florida recount of 2000, had an awesome opportunity to rally the entire nation behind the flag and forge bipartisan consensus on the war, and quite possibly, other issues.

Instead, we have been left with a war that is stagnant in Afghanistan and a war that should have never been fought in Iraq. Billions of dollars have been spent on both while thousands of American service men and women have lost their lives as a result. For all of that, we have yet to bring Al-Qaeda or Osama Bin Laden, 9/11’s mastermind, to justice.

And yet, thanks, in part, to the work of the Bush administration, we are safer now than we were 7 years ago, or at least it seems that way. While we are certainly inconvenienced by having to almost completely strip naked to fly on an airliner, that is a liberty that I am willing to give up to avoid being a human missile.

Still, in our pursuit of justice, Bush has led us deeper into injustice. Be it the use of torture in Abu Ghraib and Guantanamo or the failure to swiftly try and punish those captured as enemy combatants, many of our world allies believe that we talk a good game about the “rule of law” while practicing the “rule of the leader” and his cronies. Hopefully, the next president, whether it is Obama or McCain, will be able to restore the world’s faith in America’s leadership.

As for “we the people”, while remembering 9/11, we must strive as far as we can to avoid the xenophobia that is being espoused in our schools, churches and homes. We must remember that while prior generations “Remembered the Alamo”, that did not stop Mexico from becoming a valuable ally.

Just as prior Americans “Remembered Pearl Harbor”, lest we forget that within a decade of the attack, Japan was on the way to becoming one of our most valuable trade partners and Allies in the Pacific. The same goes for Germany, which remains one of the economic stabilizing forces in the European Union and a staunch ally.

I mention these things because all too often it is easy to cast 9/11 as a sign of the Apocalypse and that those 19 Islamic suicide bombers are indicative of a pending war between Islam and Christianity. I am no theological expert, but it was always my understanding that the Apocalypse would pit the forces of Christ (good) versus the forces of Satan (Evil). Last time I checked, Islam was not synonymous with evil, as it would take me all day to list the many evil people and institutions that have claimed and claim to be Christians.

Historically speaking, Christians have been wrong---way wrong, in trying to predict the end times. The end times have been predicted from Nero’s sacking of the Temple in AD 68 to the beginning of the First World War (not to mention Jim Jones and David Koresh). Each time the doomsday predictors have been wrong.

What we must recognize is that a number of Americans are using religion to inspire a belief that “we” (Christians) are against “them” (Muslims). Again, while this may make for stimulating Sunday School debate, as Americans, bound by a Constitution that neither establishes nor inhibits Religion, we cannot use such fears to inspire violence or hatred against the millions of peace loving American Muslims who were equally angered by the 9/11 attacks.

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