My parents taught my siblings and me some lessons I find more and more meaningful with each passing day.  One of those lessons came from my dad whose approach was always a little more hands-on. 

Once when my two brothers and I were engaged in a little physical disagreement, which some might call a fight, my dad called the three of us over to where he was standing with a piece of cord string in his hands.  He handed the string to Charles, the youngest, and asked him to pop it.  He couldn't.  He then handed it to John and asked him to pop it.  After a great deal of struggle John gave up.  He then handed the string to me.  I struggled and struggled but could not pop it.  He took the string back and began to rub it in the palms of his hands.  Of course the more he rubbed the more friction he created, and the more friction he created the more unraveled the cord string became.  It was not long before that cord string was in three pieces.  He then handed each one of us one of the strands.  With very little effort all three of us popped them.  With this illustration, my father explained that we should not let the little disagreements that crop among us cause so much friction until it separates us because the world will pop you apart and you may never know the reasons why.

I shared that story publicly for the first at my father's funeral in 1978, and have told it often since.  But it seems to have more meaning, and in much larger terms, since September 11^th.  Our nation is like that rope.  We are made up of many differing strands.  Our list of differences is long.  But we also have as many if not more similarities.   By focusing on our differences we only serve to undermine our strength as a nation.  But if we can bring ourselves to focus on those things we have in common, our challenges can be met however insurmountable they may seem at the moment.

            A perfect example comes from the students of White Knoll Middle School in Lexington County, South Carolina.  They reacted to the horrors of September 11^th in an extraordinary way.  These students from diverse backgrounds came together to focus on one common goal - buying a new fire engine for New York City to replace one destroyed when the World Trade Center collapsed.  But in a strange twist of fate, they found that they were in fact returning a similar favor.

          Logbooks kept at the Columbia Fire Department Museum reveal that on June 27, 1867, two years after a Civil War fire destroyed the City, a group of New York City firefighters-former Union Soldiers-delivered a fire truck to the City of Columbia that, at the time, was using citizen bucket brigades.  The burning of Columbia left deep wounds in the South Carolina psyche, with many harboring ill will against the North for decades.  However, logbooks indicate that New York firefighters and Columbians of that period 134 years ago, looked at the gift as an act of healing. 

            The lessons we learn from the White Knoll Middle School students and the New York firefighters of 1867 are the same as that which I learned from my father's illustration.  Our diversity strengthens us, and our spirit unites us as families, as communities and as a nation.  By putting our differences aside, and building upon our similarities we can conquer any challenges that may come our way.    

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