Dear Members and Friends,
In my last missive to you I mentioned our recent family experience at the center of a great and terrible storm. Yet, there was another event that took place during our trip to Florida that holds as much space in my memory as Hurricane Charlie. It happened at the airport in Orlando as we were preparing to return home.
The security lines were fairly dense, but definitely moving; snaking along in similar fashion to what one would experience at an amusement park. As a committed “people watcher” it’s always fascinating for me to get into the back and forth pattern of seeing the same faces and families making gradual approach to the metal detectors, which, by the way, no longer think my surgically treated knee is a potential weapon.
Moving to within a few yards of the final approach, a security official rechecked our tickets and decided one of us needed a specific and detailed search. It was Niue. Our four and a half year old. We were asked which parent would accompany her to the special zone, and so while Billy Jr. and I were allowed to move on, Niue and Lisa were taken aside. Following her mom, Niue dutifully wheeled her clear plastic Barbie carry-on bag and happily submitted her valise and belongings for direct scrutiny.
Watching from far away, I felt myself wondering what it was about our little Kinder Kid that would trigger this particular treatment. Perhaps it was some kind of Darwinian model of random selection wherein even a 99 year old in a straw hat was as likely a candidate for heightened examination as, say, a single 25 year old fellow with a one-way ticket. Perhaps in this way we were demonstrating an undeniably egalitarian approach to airline safety, in which we are all suspect – even infants and toddlers!
I found myself mentally running through a document I’d come across a few weeks earlier. Without embellishment, it simply lists various acts of terror taking place around the globe over the last few decades. Printed in a very small font, it goes on for about thirty pages. Looking for the logical rationale behind what was transpiring in my daughter’s young life, I recited the following names in my head: Abu Nidal, Abu Abbas, Ramsi Yusef, Mohammed Atta, Niue Keane. Hmmm. To my untrained mind, nothing significant seemed to click. There appeared to be no common thread.
Then it occurred to me. Considering the big picture of international terrorism, a correlation emerged as clear as a bell connecting Niue to the infamous bunch who have so often and for too long committed acts of Neanderthal treachery. It wasn’t that she had any similarity to the perpetrators of these crimes. It’s that she bears a very strong resemblance to the myriad number of their victims – children whose skin may be black or red or white, but children nevertheless – children who may live in Manhattan or Beslan, or in the Sudan. Even so, they are defenseless little ones who deserve a response to terror that reflects the very best of our national intellect, our collective character and our personal faith. If you listen carefully, you will hear their cries. As the seasons pass, may they bear witness to our courageous response.
From Reverend William J. Keane,
Senior Minister of First Baptist Church of Branford
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