<em>I wrote this nine years ago, just after the first anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks. I was re-reading it today and thought it was worth a second look.</em>

I made one promise to myself this week that I was able to keep.

On Sept. 11, even though it was difficult, I managed to avoid completely the wall-to-wall coverage television gave to the one-year anniversary of the terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. I went to work and then I went to a special Wednesday evening Mass to commemorate the anniversary.

<a href="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/190.jpg"><img class="alignleft size-medium wp-image-1435" title="190" src="http://mikerappaport.net/onevoice/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/190-300x225.jpg" alt="" width="300" height="225" /></a>I enjoy going to Mass under any circumstances, because it's one of the few times during a busy week that I actually get the chance to sit and think about things greater than my mundane concerns. That was especially important this week, I think, as our country looked back at terrorism and ahead to a possible war with Iraq. I'm sure there were eloquent moments in the ceremonies at Ground Zero in New York, at the Pentagon in Washington or in the field near Shanksville, Pa., where Flight 93 went down. I didn't see any of them, though, and I don't feel as though I missed anything.

I prayed, both alone and with the congregation, for the souls of those who died on Sept. 11 and for the families they left behind. I prayed for guidance for those misguided fools who think murder of innocents is any sort of path to salvation. I prayed that our own leaders would see that war – an unprovoked war of the type America has never fought - is rarely the road to any meaningful sort of peace.

One of the responsorial prayers was particularly illuminating.

<em>"I believe I will see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living."</em>

Strangely enough, I do believe exactly that. I believe it is possible for men and women to learn, to gain enlightenment and to be good to one another.

It would be difficult to explain where I get that feeling. Our culture is in a shambles, with the quest to appeal to the lowest common denominator the only goal most people in charge of media companies seem to have. Our films are soaked in blood and sex; our television shows smothered in innuendo. If there is a lowest common denominator, it appears to be that everyone can be degraded if they're offered enough money and that there are no real heroes anywhere anymore.

People who run businesses are seen as maximizing profits at the expense of all else, while those who run for office are seen as being willing to sink to any level to win their election.

One thought people had in the wake of Sept. 11 last year was that what had happened would somehow mark an end to cynicism and irony in this country. Ironically, both seem to be stronger than ever. We have become more cynical, more ironic, in the days since the planes hit the Twin Towers and the Pentagon. I have no doubt that individual families, especially those touched by the tragedy, might be living their lives differently, but I don't see any sign of a sea change in our national psyche.

Do we see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living? I would like to believe so. I know people who devote their weekends to working at food banks or building houses for the poor through Habitat for Humanity. I know others who devote time they really don't have to coaching youth sports or working with the Boy Scouts.

It may be a slow process, but I believe race relations are getting better. I believe my children look at people without immediately pigeonholing them by race or ethnic group, and I see more mixed couples with multiracial children all the time. I believe we are seeing less hatred toward people of different ethnicities, religions or sexual preferences. Again, a slow process. Again, real progress.

During the Wednesday evening mass, one of the hymns we sang was Katherine Lee Bates' lovely "America the Beautiful," the song many people feel should be our national anthem. I love the melody and the words, particularly the fourth verse.

<em>"O beautiful for patriot dream that sees beyond the years, Thine alabaster cities gleam undimmed by human tears ..."</em>

When Bates wrote the final version of her song in 1913, I doubt it would have been possible to imagine the Twin Towers that climbed so far toward the skies above New York City. Even though I didn't watch the television coverage the other day, I seriously doubt New York was "undimmed by human tears."

We didn't sing the fourth verse, which is my favorite. We sang the third, the most overlooked one.

<em>"O beautiful for heroes proved in liberating strife, Who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life! America! America! May God thy gold refine till all success be nobleness and every gain divine!"</em>

I know we see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. I know it when I read of firefighters, police officers and medical personnel who ran into the Twin Towers and up the stairs, all the while knowing there was a very good chance they would never make it out. &lt;p&gt;I know it when I read of the people who devoted days, weeks and months to the search for the missing after Sept. 11, those who rededicated themselves to working for more than just their own personal gain.

We have been through a terrible time in this country, a time that started long before the planes hit. For several decades, we have made money and success our twin gods and have used whatever means necessary to achieve them.

Greed was never good, despite what Gordon Gekko said, but we convinced ourselves that maybe it wasn't really one of the Seven Deadly Sins. While we were at it, lust and gluttony were sort of fun too.

Well, no matter how much we may rationalize, good remains good and evil remains evil. And whether you believe in a higher power or not, whether you take your philosophy of life from the Bible or from "Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure," life all boils down to one thing.

Call it "love your neighbor as yourself" or "be excellent to one another." It's really the same thing. If you live your life for your own happiness, you probably won't see the goodness of the Lord in the land of the living. If you live for others and the good of your community, you'll be part of the solution.

I don't know if there's any great lesson to be gleaned as we start the second year after the attacks, but part of that one verse keeps going through my mind.

<em>"... who more than self their country loved and mercy more than life."</em>

Twenty years after completing her first version of the song, Bates commented on its success. "That the hymn has gained, in these twenty odd years, such a hold as it has upon our people, is clearly due to the fact that Americans are at heart idealists, with a fundamental faith in human brotherhood."

I don't believe giants ever walked the earth in this country. I don't believe the patriots who founded America were somehow better men and women than we are in 2002. I do believe we have taken the easy road for far too long.

It's time we stop selling ourselves short and really look for the goodness of the Lord ... in the land of the living.

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