A friend sent the message below to me this week. The author isunknown to me, but I think this piece makes a significant statementabout the unity the September 11 attack brought to this country.The job now for us as a nation is to build on that unity and notlet it crumble.

What a difference a day makes….

On Monday we emailed jokes

On Tuesday we did not

On Monday we thought that we were secure

On Tuesday we learned better

On Monday we were talking about heroes as being athletes

On Tuesday we relearned who our heroes are

On Monday we were irritated that our rebate checks had notarrived

On Tuesday we gave money away to people we had never met

On Monday there were people fighting against prayer inschools

On Tuesday you would have been hard pressed to find a schoolwhere someone was not praying

On Monday people argued with their kids about cleaning up theirroom

On Tuesday the same people could not get home fast enough to hugtheir kids

On Monday people were upset that they had to wait six minutes ina supermarket line

On Tuesday people didn’t care about waiting up to six hours togive blood for the dying

On Monday we waved our flags signifying our culturaldiversity

On Tuesday we waved only the American flag

On Monday there were people trying to separate each other byrace, sex, color and creed

On Tuesday they were all holding hands

On Monday we were men or women, black or white, old or young,rich or poor, gay or straight, Christian or non-Christian.

On Tuesday we were Americans

On Monday politicians argued about budget surpluses

On Tuesday, grief stricken, they sang ‘God Bless America’

On Monday the President was going to Florida to read tochildren

On Tuesday he returned to Washington to protect our children

On Monday we had families

On Tuesday we had orphans

On Monday people went to work as usual

On Tuesday they died

On Monday people were fighting the 10 Commandments on governmentproperty

On Tuesday the same people all said ‘God help us all’ whilethinking ‘Thou shall not kill’

It is sadly ironic how it takes horrific events to place thingsinto

perspective, but it does. The lessons learned these recentweeks, the things we have taken for granted, the things that havebeen forgotten or overlooked, hopefully will never be forgottenagain.

Write to Bill Jacobs at P.O. Box 551, Brookhaven, Miss.39601.