I-40

Today being Tuesday September 11 is a good chance for me to post something inspired, in part, by a previous Tuesday September 11. In 2001 I was fairly fresh back from a mission for The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. My younger brother was preparing to go off to a mission in Switzerland when he drove from our old home in Texas up to Utah to see me and other people before he left. While he was staying with me I gave him a lot of things to take with him, mostly luggage and clothes. When he was heading back to Texas he blew a hole in the side of his engine just outside of Albuquerque on I-40. He hitchhiked into town and called our mother who had contacted someone in Albuquerque who could help and then got a plane ticket home for my brother. When the friend from Albuquerque drove my brother back to his car to tow it back into town, my brother was relieved to see that the tarp he had draped over his luggage in the cab of the little truck was still there. When he opened the driver side door and moved the tarp he found his luggage had been stolen and the passenger window had been broken out.

Fast forward a couple of months to when my brother was set to leave the Missionary Training Center (MTC) for the church. I was in the airport terminal in Salt Lake where my brother would take off for Dallas and then on to Switzerland. I finally spotted him heading toward the escalator. When he got to me he said that the girl behind the counter just told him that one of their (American Airlines) planes had just crashed into a building in New York. The picture that came to my mind was a small commuter with engine troubles losing control and hitting a building. I said, “You don’t say that to someone who’s about to fly” and kind of shook it off. A few minutes after 7:00 MST My brother and I then saw Joseph B. Wirthlin, who had a grandson going to Switzerland too. My brother and I kinda wandered over towards him. As I stood up to wander over that way though I thought I heard the woman who was watching the television, that I had been ignoring, say, “A second plane?” but I ignored it as it wasn’t clear if that is what she had actually said and I was very preoccupied. It seemed like just a couple of minutes before they called for boarding his flight. My brother got in line and I figured it was a good time to say good-bye. I told him I’d see him later and told him to “have fun” then walked away a little and watched him walk towards the jetway.

I then went out to my car and very quickly drove back down to my place on very clear and empty roads while not listening to the radio, but to the CD “The Pleasure and the Greed” by Big Wreck (still remember small details, as I am sure everyone else does). When I got home I was feeling good and picked up the old guitar to play a bit. I had played half of a song when mom called me and asked, “Did your brother’s plane take off?” I said, “Yes” and my mom was very disappointed. I said, “Uh, that’s a good thing ma. He’s on his way to you” (she was in the DFW airport waiting to see him on his layover). She then unknowingly quoted something that was amusing to me for only the next few seconds. It was from “Independence Day” and it was “David, haven’t you been watching?” She then said, “Turn on your TV.” As I got to my living room I asked, “What channel?” and the wall of normalcy was ripped away from me when she said, “It doesn’t matter.” As soon as the TV came on I saw smoke coming from both towers. My mother then said that they had also hit the Pentagon and may have more planes out there. Which brought my mind back to my brother. I hung up and started trying to call the MTC but couldn’t get through. I then just stared helplessly at the TV for the next 45 minutes or so while both towers collapsed.

As it turns out my brother’s plane had only made it to the end of the runway before being turned around. He was brought back to the MTC for another week before he was able to leave when flights were allowed again.

Now in order to understand somethings in what I present below you need to understand a basic tenet of LDS belief. In The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints we believe that people can only be held accountable for what they know. If someone is ignorant of something they cannot be condemned for what they do regarding that item. We believe that once someone knows something that they are then accountable for that knowledge and what they do with it. Whether a person takes a piece of knowledge and uses it to better their lives and the lives of those around them or if they ignore or misuse the knowledge they have they will be rewarded or condemned accordingly.

With all of that in mind I present the song I wrote for my brother at that time. I-40:

And now it’s time to calm down, calm down now.
They’ve taken everything, everything I gave you.
I know that you’d broken down, broken down alone.
And when you weren’t around to defend your ground, they came.

Don’t let them go away.

Today was to be a great day, you’d go away and learn.
But you never left the ground, they hurt that town away.

Don’t let them go away.
And life is stolen everyday.
Don’t let them go away.

The main point is telling him to go teach people to either open their eyes or bring them condemnation based on their, now informed, personal choices. It uses very extreme cases of people choosing incorrectly against things that I think they probably were already fully knowledgable of since stealing and killing are obviously wrong. I like to think that if more people had greater knowledge this world would be a better place and that very few would choose the low road if they knew more, but if they do they will have justice done to them. So don’t let them go away without the knowledge of what is true and right.

“Brothers and sisters, we live in sobering times. Now let’s get to work.” — President Gordon B. Hinckley