Workers continue to sift through

the rubble in New York's financial district. The images haunt us from

nearly every media outlet newspapers, radio, television, all of it.

Virtually everyone you meet

knows somebody who knows somebody who was there, or lives nearby, or had

been at the World Trade Center the day before. It has been many years

since a single event touched everyone like that.

Now you can't drive 100 yards

down any street without seeing an American flag. People of every religious

faith and political persuasion are banding together in a conflict that,

as President Bush so eloquently pointed out, has only two sides, with

no room for neutrality.

And there is already speculation

as to how this will affect American life in the months and years to come.

How long will the flags fly? How long will we talk continually about how

we should strike back?

Volumes have been said about

how this has "united" the American people. But there may be

a bit more to it than that.

A large portion of this country's

population, especially the younger generations such as my own (I'm 34),

has found, for the first time in their lives, something to believe in.

Something that might actually be bigger than themselves. A cause .

After being deluged by moral

relativism from every direction on college campuses, in the workplace,

through the entertainment industry, and in the mainstream media, to name

a few examples some people are realizing that things can actually be measured

in black and white. Right and wrong.

Millions of folks will never

look at their families the same way again. I suspect that many of those

who narrowly survived the attacks will find the time for their loved ones

in the next few months, and especially around the holidays, where they

might not have done so in the past. For the victims' families, those special

times will resonate in a tragically different way, but family ties will

be emphasized as well.

And as we reevaluate what is

really important in life, perhaps a few lonely souls who never before

considered the possibility of anything resembling God in their lives will

decide that, in times like these, believing that He is in control is the

only thing that will keep you from losing your mind in a world filled

with such evil.

It's impossible to predict

what will happen down the road. But there's a tremendous opportunity to

see emerge from this struggle a generation of better Americans, with more

devotion that ever to their faith, their spouses, their children and their

country. What a message that would send to those who committed this despicable

act and would dare think of doing so again.

[Monroe Roark can be reached

at [email protected] .]