Perspective from Inside the Clothes Rack Sep 20 '01 (Updated Sep 22 '01)    Write an essay on this topic. Tweet The Bottom Line For reasons you'll discover, I've had many years to think about this. There are many things we can do locally to help our country survive this crisis. I burst out of bed singing a rousing song. "Hallelujah! Today is a BEAUTIFUL day!" Yes, after a month and a half of the most horrible things happening to us, I was finally, yes, FINALLY, going to get back to normal life. I would clean the house, get on a schedule and live life like "other" people this day.... "Oh, what a BEAUTIFUL morning! Oh, what a BEAUTIFUL DAY!!! Yes, sir, there is not a thing that could happen to me today that would EVER keep me from what I have waited so LONG for. No matter WHAT happens, I am going to clean my house and get back to NORMAL LIFE! YIPEE!!!" Then the phone rang. "Capri? Um, are you watching television?" I quickly spouted off my vow to let nothing stand in my way while I celebrated normal life after so many horrid weeks of hellish happenings.... My friend waited patiently while I spewed forth my reverie. "Well, you might want to turn on your television. It appears that a plane has flown into the World Trade Center in Washington DC, and it is pretty bad." "Oh, well, I can catch it on the 6 o'clock news. Hey, wait, where is a world trade center in DC? I don't remember them having one there too." I spent the next few minutes trying to figure out where the heck a world trade center branch might be located in DC. I was missing my friend's soft reply. Oh well, I could deal with this later, after all, the aviation industry was really getting careless with all of these accidents.... I was about to make an excuse and hang up when she said, "They not only flew into the other building, but they have now hit the Pentagon." "THE PENTAGON??!!??" "I think you had better turn on your television." I was in such a state of confusion (still pretty hung up on the location of a world trade center in DC) that I really did not get the total jist of what my friend had said. Then it hit me. It was here. A DIFFERENT PERSPECTIVE As some of you who know me a bit may be aware, I come from a bit of a different perspective on this matter. For the last twenty years, I have experienced what the rest of the world experienced over the last week or so with the horrific events in NYC, Washington DC and Pennsylvania. I have seen some pretty horrific things myself and spent the better part of two decades trying to deal with what some have dealt with for the first time concerning the future and safety of our country. You see, unlike most people, I have had to deal with future revelations and visions of some things that this country is in for, speaking, of course about the United States of America. I have always wanted to be a person who is prepared for things, so seeing into the future fits right in with my personality. I have spent many nights in agony over what I have seen, trying to make sense out of it, and trying to figure out how to best prepare for it. However, there is still the horror and realization that comes with seeing such things either before they happen or even as they do, that there is nowhere safe on this earth. FROM FEAR TO FAITH Imagine seeing the horrific things that we all witnessed on television recently, but seeing it 17 years ago. Imagine the terror you would feel, and maybe the urge you might have to want to warn people about what is coming. Imagine living through a horrific vision so real that you "wake" to find yourself hiding in a rack of clothes in a store, not once but every time you are in the exact same doorway of the same store for several months. Imagine the pain of realizing that no one is interested in your information. Or the laughter you hear as people prefer the trivia of life over the grave images that have been etched into your mind. I have been through a myriad of thought processes over the years. First of all, I learned all that I could about survival. I tried to find out everything about food, water, building shelters, etc. But when you are in an apartment like we were for many years, you are limited to what you can actually do. Every thought I had was related to what I saw was coming. How long would it be? How could we survive? How could we help the most people when it finally hit so hard that most people were left stunned? These questions were on my mind most of the time while the rest of people were obsessed with what movie they were going to see, or how they would do their hair for the day. Everywhere I went, I looked around me to see who or what was there. My senses were on high alert. I became so concerned with survival, that I started to adopt a fatalistic mentality. I became very negative in thoughts. I could see what was coming and when elections were here, I would think that "this was it". The events that most people shrugged off that were of dire importance I knew were leading to what was coming. I started speaking of the negative aspects of everything. I was beginning to not like being with myself. THE LIGHT WENT ON It was a long time before I could finally stop thinking of every meal as my last and every trip as a potential disaster with survival as its consequence. We live in a rural area and preserve food to last through the winter. However, I had become so obsessed with preserving everything for survival that I could never keep up with the demands of my fear. Through this period in my life, I began to learn something. I began to learn that there is a whole new way to live with this kind of knowledge. I was slow to learn it, but I am glad I did. I trust in God. I learned to give my fears into the hands of the living God who said He cared for me and would take care of me. However, it was not easy, and at times it still is not. Sometimes experiences from my life have tried to lead me to believe that God does not care. It is a lie proven wrong time and time again to me, but still the battle is there when things get tough. I began to care about people at the moment. Where they were. Where I was. I knew that future events would bring enough heartache when they came, so bringing premature fear and panic was senseless. I saw good potential in almost everyone I met and was amazed that people were not as far gone as I had come to believe. I learned how to pray open gates of prisons in other countries to set innocent prisoners free just by praying. I cheered heartily when reading the accounts of it a year or so later. I learned how to stand on the Word of God and see things happen that I never thought possible. I learned how to love people and see good in them and the potential that God put in there. After all Schindler did not really shine until the crisis hit, now did he? MY FIRST ENCOUNTER WITH REALITY I lived through one of the most unbelievable situations when a dear friend suffered through what many of you probably fear most- having her house taken from her with loaded guns pointed at her children's heads from authority figures that she had been raised to respect and obey. She did nothing to deserve this treatment, and it was completely illegal. After seeing this, I battled again with panic. Such horrible things, and no one knew about them. No one seemed to care. However, God was teaching me to see beyond the fear and pain. To look for the good and see His hand. When my friend called me (after about six awful months of not hearing from her) after her unbelievable ordeal, the first thing she said to me was that the thing that she had feared the most in the whole world had happened to her. Yet, despite the horror of the situation, that God spoke words of comfort to her in the midst of it all. She said that she had such peace and feeling of safety, despite the extreme danger and terror that they were in. Her children had suffered terribly, yet God had healed them as well from the tormenting nightmares and fear of authority figures. When she heard about the terrorist attacks in the country last week, she emailed me right away and began to comfort me with words that can only come from those who have victoriously overcome such terror in their own lives. AROUND THE BEND After twenty years or so of dealing with this knowledge and the feelings that accompany it, I had come full circle. I had finally let go of the knowledge of what was coming. I put aside the vision that George Washington had of the future of the United States (which , incidentally meshed with what I had seen also). I filed away the detailed descriptions of the few visions that I had come across over the years that were similar to what I had seen (I discovered them AFTER my knowledge of what I had seen). I finally stopped looking around me "just in case" wherever I went. I actually did not preserve any food last summer, and did not panic the whole year because of it. I even had absolutely no panic at the threat of Y2K and did nothing to prepare for it. It felt good to be free. After all, what I had seen may not even happen for a very long time. Maybe not ever, right? .....And then the attack on NYC, DC and Pennsylvania happened. Right in line with what I had seen for the future. WHAT CAN WE DO? I realize that I have said a lot here in background, but I wanted to let you know just a little of where I am coming from when I approach what we can do in this situation. I have had many years to think about this and have come up with some things that many people may not have already mentioned. FEAR CRIPPLES- STAY AWAY FROM IT I realize that this is a frightening situation. I have lived through the fear process about this already. It took me a long time, and may take you long as well. However, one thing I have learned is that fear does several things. Fear is the basis for prejudice. People tend to hate what they do not understand. Fear inhibits rational thinking. Fear prevents you from living a full life. Granted life may not be able to be as full as in the past, but living in fear cuts life potential way down in half. Fear makes you easily manipulated. Usually the manipulation leads to derogatory behavior in the long run too. Decisions made in fear are almost always the worst decisions ever made and they cause much suffering in the long run. Fear makes us self-centered and calloused to what others are going through. Focus on the courage of the heroes in NYC and DC who rescued people without fear or prejudice. Learn from them so as to honor them with modeling our lives after their heroism. Don't focus on fear, it will cripple you. FAITH ENABLES- BE EMPOWERED I have researched most religions in my lifetime. I have explored each one (just like I do with the products I review on Epinions). I have even been an atheist for a time (just a term for being very angry at God, so to get even, pretend He is not there). The most victorious and powerful life possible in a spiritual sense with the most potential for victory in life or death is Christianity. I speak not here of a religion or denomination, I speak of pure unadulterated Christianity (just from reading the Bible) also known as completed or "messianic"Judiasm. I prefer to have the biggest influence on the world around me, so I decided to skip the unnecessary rules and obstacle courses set up by men and go straight to God as He is without anyone interpretations on Him (yes, He is a Him just like you are who you are whether I choose to believe you are or make up my own definition of you). I have learned to unleash the power of prayer and see miracles happen that I never thought possible. I have learned to pray in ways that make a difference. However, not everyone chooses to do things as I do. Pray. If you are a believer in God, pray. If you are not a believer in God pray. Ask God to reveal himself to you for who He is and He will. You will need a strong foundation to survive the coming future and to reach out to countless others who will need encouragement and love. EMBRACE OTHERS- TALK ABOUT THE EVENTS I speak this not to the exclusion of other faiths. Pray. If you are a Muslim, pray. Read the Koran. Try to understand where these fundamentalist people get their hatred from and their ideas of Jihad (it is in there) and why they find it necessary to focus on the section of the Koran that urges them to ambush the enemy and vanquish the "enemies of Islam", unless they convert in which case they (the converted enemy) owe alms. (abbreviated in my own words but essentially the same message) Then explain this to anyone who does not understand. It is important here to communicate with each other. Explain why these fundamentalist sects are different than you are. Help people to understand so they do not turn in fear on every Muslim. If you are not Muslim, regardless of your belief system, make a concentrated effort to reach out to the Muslims if there are any that you know of in your community. Ask questions. Ask how they feel about all of this. Are you a Christian? This is the time to be the "skin and bones" to people who need to SEE the love of God in person, and not in some nebulous remote idealism spouting forth from a condescending believer in religion. Who cares why this happened? (For all of those who feel morally obligated to explain this tragedy away as an act of God for whatever bizarre reason they come up with). Pray for Jesus to show you how to reach out to every single American and foreigner you meet who has been jolted by this tragedy that has threatened to destroy our nation. Pray for the love that goes beyond yourself to lay down your schedule and life ambition for the sake of comforting and listening to others. Take time to converse with people left hurting and confused by this tragedy. Take time to be there to listen to how people feel. Ask yourself if this schedule that has been distancing you from people until now is REALLY that important in relation to what we have experienced in the last week. Talk to people of different races from yourself. Talk to people you normally would not talk to. This is a time to reach out across the broken walls before they get built up again. Find out what others are thinking. We ALL need to talk as Americans. This has been a brutal crisis and the more that we communicate about this, the less fear and hatred will develop and fester. And remember, many other countries lost people in this tragedy too. Not only Americans died in these attacks. REMEMBER THE ELDERLY We have not experienced a crisis in this nation of this magnitude since the early-middle years of the 1900's. There are many precious people in this country who have seen and lived through things that none of us younger people can relate to. There are many who are sincerely frightened of what has happened. Memories of horrible sights from our history offer the chance for younger people to learn and older people to vent out what no one seemed to be interested in over the last few decades. Find some older people and talk to them. Find out what has happened in their lives and share in their memories and insights. Learn that it is possible to survive war and pain. Are you older? Reach out to younger people who are sincerely shaken and willing to listen. You have a lot of comfort to offer and insight to give. You are valuable to this generation in understanding that we CAN survive a war. DON'T PANIC FINANCIALLY Giving money to help the relief effort in NYC has been really noble. It makes us all feel good as Americans to see what people in the country are capable of. There has been much done to aid the people there. All of you undoubtedly know of many places that are receiving donations of money and blood in honor of the victims. There are many fatherless and parentless children left in the wake of this disaster. They need to be cared for. However, in the best interest of the country to withstand any more of these attacks, we also need to be spending money in our economy. Don't be frivolous, but perhaps you can buy a food dryer so you can dry some food in case of need sometime. Learn how to live without electricity or supplies for a month if necessary. Take stock of your situation. Could you not only survive, but could you help others who may need it should the need arise? You can buy some extra supplies in case this kind of thing hits in your area. Then you can have extra to help people. Keep your car repaired and see to any kind of needs you may have should the system be held up in your area for a length of time. Do you need extra water? How about a reserve container of gas or kerosene? This is spending money, but not neglecting the economy. It is imperative that our economy keep functioning if we are going to succeed in this battle that we are now up against. Y2K may have come to no big problem, but it was a dress rehearsal for what many people may face and are facing now. Learn what you can about basic survival needs should a situation arise where the information would be handy to help your family and others in need. TEACH YOUR CHILDREN RIGHT FROM WRONG Thousands of little children (ages 3 and up) from Sudan wandered for 4 years over 1000 miles to find safety when the Muslim extremist government raped, slaughtered and sold their parents and families into slavery. Most of them were with the cattle in the country areas and came back to see the vicious murders and abuses of their families. They wandered for 4 years and saw horrors that none of us can imagine with no adults to lead them. They saw their friends eaten by lions, alligators, die from exposure, and many other things that they can not even talk about today though many of them are now in their teens. However, after finally finding safety, they were thankful to the strength that their parents had taught them about God and that He watched over them and gave them strength to go on when there was no hope left. Had their Christian parents (exterminated despite their peaceful ways by the same kind of Muslim extremist mentality that attacked our country last week) decided to keep their children protected from the horrors of war and not tell them anything, these children would not have made it through a terrible ordeal that no one expected or foresaw. Many people here in the States are talking of protecting their children from this by telling them fairy tales or nothing at all, and I am here to tell you, that the parents in the Sudan gave their children what they needed to survive one of the most horrific things that any child could go through. For 4 years, these children wandered for over 1000 miles with nothing to depend on but God. And miraculously they survived. They can tell their stories to the rest of the world and add them to the other children who experienced similar miracles and hope. There are evil people in this world. There are good people. Surely children have encountered some others that have been bad to them. Use illustrations from their experiences to explain that bad people do things that are not right. There are rules and limits in every class and place. Everyone knows that you do not run naked down the middle of a shopping mall screaming obscenities and calling black people n!ggers. What would be the consequences of such foolish actions? You can bet that such a person would be not only arrested, but probably beaten by enraged people offended by such actions. So these awful terrorist people should be punished for breaking the rules too. Find examples that your kids can relate to. Punching other kids at school for no reason. Wearing offensive T shirts to school. Taking the wheel from the school bus driver and driving it into a teacher's house sounds stupid, but it is the same idea as the hijackers did with the planes. GRIEF LASTS A WHILE- BE THERE FOR THE LONG HAUL Everyone gets so interested in reacting to a crisis when it first happens. A car accident, a sudden death, and even what has happened in our nation recently. However, the grief from this event will not go away after a commercial break. No amount of soppy media events will make this better. TIME heals grief. In a few months we will all be heading back to our trivial lives unless some other thing happens. Some people are already bored of the discussions of the past week's events. Time to seek NEW entertainment. As enraging as that attitude is, we have to realize that when the hoopla dies down, that is going to be the hardest on the families hit by this senseless tragedy. Find out some names and addresses of some of the families involved with this crisis while they are still easily found. Write them down and keep them in a book. Add these families to your Christmas card list. Christmas will be a very tough time for many of these families. Find out, if you can, any of the foreign people killed in the WTC and have your children write them a card (to the families, of course). If you do not have children, write them one yourself. Whatever you do, don't forget that the families will be hurting for a long time to come and will need support when the others have turned the channel in their lives and get preoccupied once again. DON'T CRITICIZE THE PRESIDENT Some people have been raised in a generation where criticizing the president of the US has been almost a national pastime. Everyone has a beef of some sort and it seems like more people find reasons to be separated than to be united. We are AMERICANS. STOP differentiating between ourselves. We are AMERICANS with no subtitles or clarifications. When we are citizens of this country, we leave our ancestry behind. It is a part of our lives, but we are no longer of any other name but AMERICAN. The President of the United States, George W. Bush, has more pressure and responsibility on his head than any other president since Abraham Lincoln. There are others that have come close, but never has there been such a brutal attack on the United States homeland before. He and his administration need our prayers and our support in a very serious way. Respect President Bush. He is not only dealing with a crisis for today but a greatly weakened defense and intelligence system left to him by the preceding irresponsible and negligent administration. That is not to mention the crippled economy also set into motion by policies and actions taken by the same negligent people. BUCKLE DOWN This is not just an attack on a single place. It was an attack on our country. Let us not allow this to fade into our memories as we get back to life as usual. As a memorial to those who gave their lives in these horrible situations in NYC, Washington DC, and Pennsylvania, let's be more conscious of how to reach out to others. Let's prepare to help others in a time of crisis. If we carry on financially in the country, we are supporting NYC by being here for them months from now. Not losing jobs, or closing businesses. Let's not be caught unprepared should something like this come again. It appears that we have only just seen the beginning. Be aware of what is going on around you. Make the best of the time you have with your families. And please prepare your children with faith. There may come a time when that is all they have to depend on. Ask the boys from Sudan. NOTE: Back in 2000, a man who says he is a prophet from South Africa was sent to New York City to minister in his very unusual style. He sings songs completely unplanned and God talks through him. On this album of the LIVE recordings are some songs that are messages to NYC about the time that we are now in. The CD (2 pack) is one of the most beautiful CD's we have ever heard. The song called THE MOUNTAIN OF THE LORD is one of the messages directly to NYC about how Jesus was walking the streets of New York City and listening to the crying and bringing about healing and victory helping her to rise from the ashes. The song (as are most of the others on the album) is prophetic and the most beautiful music and words you could ever want to hear in light of what is going on now. I urge any of you who want comfort in a time like this knowing that God does care and He already said how He would help New York City before it even happened. Here is where you can get this unusual and fantastic CD set: www.kimclement.com Go to PRODUCTS AND MERCHANDISE Look for the MUSIC CD SET called KIM CLEMENT LIVE. ( Epinions will not allow me to give you the exact link as it claims that it is too long of a word) It is a CD you will never forget.

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