While many Americans will commemorate the fifth anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, Alabama’s Marco Delize is one for whom remembering the cost is a little more personal.
After the 9/11 tragedy launched the nation into the war on terror, Delize, a sergeant first class in the Alabama National Guard, served in Afghanistan for nine months before being injured and returning to Alabama in August 2003.
Now, as interim music minister at Park Avenue Baptist Church, Oneonta, in Friendship Baptist Association, he is helping his church prepare for “America, We Must Not Forget,” a patriotic service set for Sept. 10.
Of Park Avenue Baptist’s almost 70 active members, three are active military and 12 are retired from the military.
“The rest (of the members) have family members who have served or still serve,” Delize noted.
This military background helps the church understand the need to remember the sacrifices made by those fighting for freedom in Iraq and Afghanistan, said Dan Delize, interim pastor of Park Avenue and father of Marco Delize.
“When we forget what it’s cost to have the country we have, it’s easy to act in such a way that it will be easy to lose it,” Dan Delize said.
Like the Delizes, national leaders are emphasizing the need to remember the lives lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on 9/11, as well as those who are fighting or lost their lives in the current war.
On Aug. 31 in Salt Lake City, President George W. Bush began a nearly three-week series of speeches about the ongoing war on terror. They will culminate Sept. 19 with his speech at the U.N. General Assembly.
In Washington, the U.S. Department of Defense is participating in several events centered around the Pentagon, including the National Freedom Walk Sept. 10 from the National Mall to the Pentagon and memorial ceremonies Sept. 11 for employees that died in the attack on the Pentagon.
Media outlets nationwide — including Baptist Press and Associated Baptist Press — are covering the anniversary with analysis of the attacks, their causes and aftermath and the war and military response, as well as how churches and related ministries have changed.
In northwest Alabama, Winston Baptist Association is helping with a communitywide patriotic rally Sept. 17.
Observing the anniversary reminds Americans of the ongoing war, said Joe Bob Mizzell, director of the office of Christian ethics and chaplaincy ministries for the Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions. “We still have the enemy out there that would like to take away the freedom we have here in America.”
He will speak on that Sept. 10 at First Baptist Church, Cedar Bluff, in Cherokee Baptist Association and Sept. 11 at Northside Baptist Church, Selma, in Selma Baptist Association.
Mizzell noted that 9/11 observances offer the chance to commemorate the way Baptists reached out to help fellow Americans in a time of crisis. “I think that we as Southern Baptists, and especially as Alabama Baptists, can be very proud of the way that we responded to the needs,” he said, noting that about 20 Alabama Baptist chaplains went to minister at Ground Zero within two to three weeks after the attacks.
And just 20 blocks from Ground Zero sits East 7th Baptist Church — Graffiti, New York. The church, commonly known as Graffiti Church, has had a focused 9/11 recovery program since the attacks. It will hold a morning service Sept. 10 that will reflect back and look ahead, said Pastor Taylor Field.
“I think the thing that was intended to break us as a city has really helped make us,” he said.
In that light, Graffiti’s 9/11 recovery ministries program, directed by Kareem Goubran, will be renamed adult ministries. While some of the 9/11 ministry aspects will remain, “after five years, it is time to say in name that we’re looking ahead,” Field said.
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