We could not help but watch, and listen, as the Sept. 11 memorial service from Ground Zero began.

It seemed the right thing to do.

As children read the names of innocent lives lost on Sept. 11, 2001, our emotions rise with the ticking clock. Even two years later, we find they lie just beneath the surface.

We find there is still anger, there is still sadness, and there is still a fearful expectation that it will happen again; in fact, we believe it is likely. In a recent CNN-Time poll, almost three-fourths of those say another terrorist attack in this country is likely within the next 12 months.

Still, the young voices continue with the roll call of the fallen in New York — "my uncle … my mother … my cousin … my loving father … my grandfather …" — and we find ourselves asking, "How long? How long?"

There is a great possibility that the souls of the fallen are echoing that sentence fragment, wondering not when and where the next attack will strike from outside of our borders, but rather "how long" will it take before we self-destruct from within.

Perhaps they are now endowed with the reality of perfect Wisdom. Like the children whose voices more than 30 minutes into the memorial service have only reached the Cs, the writer of Proverbs 1 cries out: "Wisdom calls aloud in the street, she raises her voice in the public squares; at the head of the noisy streets she cries out, in the gateways of the city she makes her speech:"

Wisdom cries out that our "simple ways" endanger the very existence of what is still the Great Experiment of democracy. The simple ways of material and political greed for office and wealth have taken us in two years from "United We Stand" to a divisiveness that must have the Osama bin Ladens and Saddam Husseins of the world intoxicated with glee.

As the economy moves shakily toward recovery and the number of wounded and dead from the war on terror inches upward, the sharks gather in the Potomac. They are intoxicated with the thought of a bloodless coup. They raise their fingers and eyebrows before the network cameras and the pens of printed press, voices screeching of economic failures and a lack of "exit strategies."

Still, contrary to radio talk show opinions, not all criticism of current foreign policies is giving "aid and comfort to the enemy."

There are almost concurrent monastic chants of "Retreat, retreat!" and "Fight! Fight! Fight!"

At what point does legitimate democratic discussion turn into a destructive divisiveness that chisels away at our nation’s foundation?

One hour into the service, the children drone on, but we can only estimate that they have now reached the E’s, for the talking heads have moved on to the ceremony at the Pentagon.

Still, the voices of the fallen cry out, "How long will you simple ones love your simple ways?"

By tonight’s 6 o’clock news, it is likely the political power brokers will be all too eager to resume the feeding frenzy as the simple ways of greed, wealth and ideology again taken center stage.

As to the youthful nature of our democracy, and its fragile existence, one political pundit writes, "How far can America pursue the Great Experiment without succumbing to the inherent, destructive tendencies of democracy?" Rhetorically, he asks "Is America dying?"

The old Soviets used to say America would be taken without firing a shot. As the voices drone on, it would indeed seem that we are bent on killing ourselves from within.

Like the voices of the martyrs gathered around the throne in Revelation, the voices of Sept. 11’s fallen cry out, "How long? How long?"

Indeed, how long will be too long?

The Rev. Frank "Buzz" Trexler is managing editor at The Daily Times and pastor of Green Meadow United Methodist Church, Alcoa, Tennessee. You can e-mail him at PastorBuzz@nxs.net.