They didn’t say a word as they walked by this morning. Silence. Each one carrying an American flag over their shoulder. It was a memorial walk through the streets of Chattanooga remembering September 11, 2001. It was peaceful. It was heartbreaking. Sad, of course, at the memory of such devastating loss 19 years ago, but sad also because the sight of so many flags stirs so many emotions in the people that watched. Some understood. Some rolled their eyes. Some were disgusted. 2020 has been such a hard year to process. We’re more polarized than ever before. We’re angry, agitated, triggered. Racism. Hatred. Critical. Mouthy. The underbelly of our society has been revealed in the 9 months of this year worse than ever before. Some idolize the president while some want him erased from our collective conscience. Pro-life doesn’t really mean pro-life it means anti abortion. Pedophilia is normalized. We boycott Netflix but we cage victims of human trafficking at our borders. We pull out our phones to capture others at their worst hoping our video will go viral, then we turn the camera around to capture a selfie that we will then filter to give the world the best version of ourselves. The filters hide the dysfunction in our homes and the ugly arrogance in our hearts. We love our guns. We hate our masks. We fear the worst. Our coins say in “God We Trust” but we don’t. Not really. Not like we should. The self righteous protests – “yes, I do!” But we also trust in a lot of other man made crutches that will crumble beneath us, like twin towers assaulted with hatred. We say we will never forget, but the American conscience has selective memory. We remember only what we want to. Oh God // i can’t ask You to “bless America, I can only beg you to have mercy on us. This is my lament.
B E H I N D / T H E / B A R 
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