Kids were leaving school on a bright autumn day. The bike path that underlined the gentle meandering of the Hudson River was full of the things that had come to represent all that is innocent, pure and wholesome in America.

That path brings us back to carefree childhood memories. Perhaps the recollection of a parent as they ran alongside your first bike, holding the handlebars so securely, breathing heavily with the anxiety of one too many years behind a desk and the moment of having to let go. The moment they trusted you to learn. 

“America has always been a country…” and “We have always handled things like…” and “It’s not the way America does things…”

These are quotes that you may see on billboards throughout our nation, advocating unconditional tolerance. But, at what point does our tolerance turn into ignorance? And, at what point does our ignorance provide an unchecked breeding ground for terrorism?

Predators prefer to eat where it’s safe.

On that wonderous day where it was business and play as usual in America, an engine revved, brakes squealed and shots were fired. Children’s screams could be heard mixing into the metro traffic with the shouts of “Gun. Run. Run inside.” And there, above the screams was the voice of terrorism shouting “Allahu Akbar,” Arabic for “God is great.”

The soft underbelly of America’s bike path and the safety and sanctity of our way of life is covered with blood and we are becoming a safe place with open arms to a world that hates us. 

It’s not just the grand scale wake-up calls that we must force ourselves to look at, but in our own small-town communities where we have adopted the trendy, national tone of expecting the ship to right itself by simply a call to remembrance of who we are and the way we’ve always done things.

Throw in a spoon full of sugar and take the medicine of tolerance. Question nothing. If you see something, walk quietly the other way. 

We take pride in living in our Lake Wobegons. “Where all the women are strong, all the men are good-looking, and all the children are above average.” – Garison Keillor 

We have become a nation whose most popular statement of the age is, “we never thought it could happen here.” Unless we can open our eyes and see that America “didn’t” do it this way in its inception and that we can’t continue “business as usual” in the wake of being dismantled from the inside out, we will continue this slow and painful death.

While I was in a sleepy small town of Iowa, a great injustice had been done to the children after we let go of the handlebars as parents and educators. We found that we could not live in the reputation of who we were or how we have always appeared. We learned that we “must learn” from what had happened, or we are subject to live in a chronic misery.

Where are the safeguards and security systems of the 21st century? Should we not be wise to exhaust ourselves in exploring every avenue? When we let go of our children and encourage them to pedal on their own, what kind of a world are we sending them into?

Have we taught them to pet the bears?

We must remember that it’s not the same America, and because of the sentiment, “it’s not the way we do things” that we are in the messes we are in now. Change advocates action to move with it. Whether we like it or not.

Be sober and vigilant for the enemy is among us. Where is our plan to move forward in this community? What should be on the lips and the dockets of our city planners, our educators, our religious leaders and our families?

We need to be ready as this generation is just about to let go of the handlebars.