IX.  AFFLICTED BUT NOT CRUSHED “We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed...” (II Corinthians 4:8)          We left the scenes on TV in our motel room to walk along nearly deserted Century Boulevard that leads to the Los Angeles International Airport. As we walked past a parking lot, a man carrying a microphone called to us and asked if we would speak with him. He said he was a news service reporter, and showed us his ID. We agreed to answer a few questions. It wouldn’t be long, he promised, because he had to get back to the airport for the noon briefing.          We had already found out that our plane to Switzerland had been canceled and that our next flight opportunity was September 28. That pretty much took care of our plans to go to Switzerland. A minor blip on the screen of life when you think of what lots of other folks were going through.          Like so many reporters on TV, he asked, “What were your feelings when you saw what was happening?”And like so many who answered those reporters, we used words like “disbelief,” “horror,” “shock,” “anger.”          Then I added, “It brought back memories.”          “Could you tell me what kind of memories?”          With the microphone in my face I told of remembering a trip to Palestine in the ‘60’s and the fiery bitterness and anger of Arabs looking across the Israeli border to property they once owned, vowing that they would never quit fighting until it was returned to them. I had never seen such anger. I have not been surprised at any violence that has erupted during the 40 years since. In fact, with such seething anger and bitterness it is surprising that there is not more violence and bloodshed than there is.          I told of memories from traveling in Germany and standing in the city square of Nuremberg and seeing pictures of the total devastation that resulted from the allied bombings that took lives of countless men, women and children during World War II. I remember wondering how we would feel if that happened in America. Then I remember thinking that at some time in history it will be America’s turn to experience this kind of horror.          “We Americans are naïve,” I told him. “Most of us don’t know enough about history. We don’t know that nations rise and fall, that the mighty are not loved and are vulnerable sooner or later. We don’t know that when the difference between the powerful and the weak, and between wealth and power becomes too great, the seeds for revolution and warfare are sown.”          The reporter stopped to check his recorder. Maybe I was talking longer than necessary. But he asked me to continue. I was saying things he hadn’t heard.          I apologized for running on so much, but added, “We are also naïve about the deep anger and hostility that exists in any number of groups. They are not all on the same track, like during the riots at the WTO meetings in Seattle. Different groups protested with different degrees of violence regarding issues over which they were passionate. They are not all foreigners. Timothy McVey was not a foreigner. There are white supremacists who rob banks and make bombs and carry weapons in our own streets. Two were arrested outside our motel room one year in Yakima. And there’s that guy who murdered with letter bombs. We will probably try to bomb someone to get even, but it is naïve to think we can ever be safe from some kind of anarchist or fanatic or terrorist of some kind or another.”          I can’t remember all else we talked about. We ended up talking about our 50th year anniversary and about his 13-year relationship that he wished was a marriage but probably would never be. He put his microphone and recorder away and headed off to write up our report for his news service.          I wondered whether we Americans might have become soft and weak toward endurance of hardship. Our kids are coddled and overprotected. We fall all too easily into despair and depression. I thought of the Apostle Paul who was always harassed, occasionally beaten, often in prison, talking about living “in spite of.”  “We have this treasure in earthen vessels, to show that the transcendent power belongs to God and not to us.”  He assumes that affliction, persecution and threat of death are part of life that must be faced with faith, hope and courage. It is naïve to believe life is any safer for Americans than anyone else. It is also naïve to think that there is not some underlying spirit in our lives that makes it possible for us to be afflicted, but not crushed. — Art Morgan, September 2001