Finding Clarity When The World Is Upside Down

This isn’t a rumor. It’s just taken a while for it to become public. As of today, there are six planes filled with American Citizens and Afghan interpreters at the Mazar Sharif Airport being held hostage. It is finally being reported by mainstream news sources such as CBS.

From a news report:

A satellite image that was released on Sunday reportedly shows six airplanes that the Taliban is not allowing to fly out of Afghanistan. The planes are supposed to be carrying American citizens and Afghan interpreters who helped the U.S. Military.

The satellite image follows a report from CBS News and remarks from a top U.S. lawmaker on Sunday that both said that the circumstances have effectively turned into a hostage situation.

“Multiple planes that are ready to take American citizens and green card holders out of the country are being denied permission to leave by the Taliban,” CBS News reported, according to congressional and NGO sources. An email viewed by the network said that the flights were cleared to land in Qatar “if and when” the Taliban agreed to let them leave.

A senior congressional source told the network that “the Taliban is basically holding them hostage to get more out of the Americans.”

What has happened to America 2021 that this isn’t leading every news program? What has happened that our government so cavalierly has left these people on the tarmac? It’s enough to drive one crazy.

In our upside-down world, we just visited the community of St. Tikhons Monastery and Seminary in the rural community of South Canaan, PA, nested in the hills of the Pocono Mountains. To many people, the scene of family and kids all centered around church might seem crazy. But it isn’t. It’s probably one of the sanest things I’ve seen in years.

Counterculture and radical is a big family centered on faith and each other. Nothing crazy about it, just living as human beings were created to live, focused on the things that matter in life.