I was at my desk 20 years ago when Islamic terrorists attacked America.

I vividly remember the sequence of events. An airplane struck one of the Twin Towers. At first, we thought it might be a horrible accident.

At that time, our office was in a building across from our home. I rushed home and grabbed a small TV so I could watch the coverage.

Moments after the second plane hit the second tower, we saw live pictures of the explosion on our screens.

It was horrible.

It reminded me of when I was working in a newsroom in Tulsa and the Murrah Building was bombed in Oklahoma City.

After the second plane hit, we heard about the attack on the Pentagon.

That sealed. America was under attack.

We watched dismayed as people leapt to their death from high-rise windows to escape the flames. We were stunned when one tower collapsed and then the second one fell.

The carnage was unspeakable.

This was on a Tuesday and our paper had been printed for the week. I knew this was an historic event and that I would have to create a special edition.

A special edition wasn’t in the budget. I hit on a plan to sell a full page ad for $1,000 – about the cost of the printing. I called our printer at the Muskogee Phoenix and he said they could accommodate our production.

I made a few calls to see if I could get financing. One call was to the campaign manager of Cathy Keating, the wife of former Gov. Frank Keating. She was running for Congress.

I was running out of time. Not only did I have to secure an ad but I had to write and layout an eight-page special edition and I had about seven hours to get all that done.

Then Cathy Keating walked into my office. She handed me a check for $1,000. I asked her what she wanted for an ad and she said she didn’t want an ad. She didn’t want me to tell anyone who paid for the edition. She just wanted the news to go out in the Tulsa Beacon.

What a great lady.

What a great family.

I called a few of our writers and asked if they could contribute. I went online to a news service that sells pictures and articles. I scoured websites for press releases. I laid out papers.

It all came together. We produced the special edition and mailed it to our subscribers. Our distributor put  it in dozens of convenience stores.

We stopped to pray.

This cowardly attack was anonymous at first. This was no conventional enemy. No country in their right might would launch such an attack on America for fear of retribution.

People initially reacted in several ways.

Schools in Tulsa put “God Bless America” on their marquees. Air travel was halted. There was a run on grocery stores. U.S. Muslims stayed home in fear (that was mostly unjustified).

In the aftermath, commerce came to a screeching halt. Our paper almost went out of business. We had started the Tulsa Beacon in April of 2001 and fortunately we still had some startup capital to carry us as nobody wanted to advertise.

America’s churches filled up with people who had stopped going to church. People were scared.

Would there be more attacks?

America changed.

We started taking the threat of terrorism seriously.

We started taking off our belts and shoes and getting x-rayed before we get on a commercial airplane.

For a time, the nation was united in a time for peril. That dissipated in time.

America’s mistrust of the Middle East grew. News reports showed Muslims dancing in the streets in the Middle East in celebration of the attack on “the Great Satan” – America.

Some businesses went bankrupt.

Finally, President George W. Bush pushed for wars in the Middle East, one that wound up lasting 20 years. We conquered Iran, liberated Kuwait and tried to occupy Afghanistan.

Again, in Afghanistan our enemies don’t fight directly. They depend on terror. They know better than to take on the U.S. military directly. They would be crushed.

But thanks to the cowardice of President Joe Biden, America has surrendered to the Taliban in Afghanistan and we have been humiliated just like we were when we lost the War in Vietnam. History is repeating itself as American helicopters fled from Kabul, leaving behind billions of dollars of military equipment and supplies and some American citizens.

Have we learned the lesson of history?

America is unique among nations.

When we conquer, we rebuild our former enemies. We did that with Japan and Germany. Throughout history, conquering nations looted their enemies and left them desolate.

The heart of the 911 attack was faith. Muslim extremists wanted to strike a blow against the Christian West.

For 20 years we tried to turn the Middle East into a western democracy and it failed, capped off with a humiliating end ordered by Joe Biden.

The only hope for peace is in Jesus Christ. And true peace will never happen until He returns. We need to spread the Gospel and pray for His return.