In Anticipation . . .

Jerusalem, Jerusalem, the city that kills the prophets and stones those who are sent to it! How often have I desired to gather your children together as a hen gathers her brood under her wings, and you were not willing! – Matthew 23:37

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“There is an old story about a henhouse that burns to the ground,” two clergywomen begin (they collaborate) in an Advent commentary.

“In the ashes,” Stephanie Spellers and Julie Hoplamazian continue, “the farmer discovers the charred body of a mother hen. When he lifts her remains, he is surprised to discover the chicks still underneath her, warm but unscathed. This is what a mother hen does. She calls her young to draw near and shelters them with herself, defenseless in the face of predators or natural disaster. A mother hen will die for love of her chicks.

“Jesus,” they conclude, “is like that mother hen: selfless, defenseless, giving everything. He calls out in his longing to gather us, like the hen who clucks and gathers her brood under her wings. He is willing to—and does—pay the highest price for love of us. Thanks be to God.”

For me, that mother hen is like the investigators and researchers and their supporters who dedicate themselves to bringing out the truth of the 9/11 attacks. They don’t cluck but rather lay out lots and lots and lots of evidence for all to read about, online.

These tenacious patriots started with examining the Executive Branch’s impossible cover stories under so far three administrations.

The chicks are civil liberties, severely eroded since even before Sept. 11, 2001. They are far from unscathed, and many of them may recover with the help of active citizens. But it will take continued persistence on the part of 9/11 truthers (a lot of us also truthers when it comes to the murders of JFK, MLKJr., RFK and Malcolm X).

Meanwhile the 9/11 atrocities, which generate new atrocities every day in the United States and abroad, will go on.

— Mark Channing Miller