Our second CD is a special collection of the patriotic numbers from the May You Always sessions as well as three bonus tracks, including two tracks narrated by our special guest, Bob Hidey. This CD was produced in response to the September 11th tragedy. At that time, May You Always was already well into production and could not be changed. The Ladybirds, however, felt very strongly that a special honorary CD of patriotic tunes should be released specifically in memory of 9/11.

A New America CD Cover Art

Several extra recording sessions were arranged to create the bonus tracks, and Bob Hidey, the man with the “voice of God,” was enlisted to perform the narration of a special essay about the September 11th tragedy, entitled Don’t Go Back To Normal, by Max Lucado, as well as some work on another short piece for the CD. This second CD was also produced and designed by Ken Batchelor. The cover art speaks eloquently of a time now gone by. The horrible terrorist attack on the United States has forever changed our definition of the word “normal.” The Ladybirds offer this CD as a tribute to the United States and to those victims and survivors and, indeed, the entire populace who have all been sorely affected by this never-to-be-forgotten attack on our homeland.

Bob Hidey during recording sessions for A New America

Don’t Go Back To Normal

Written by Max Lucado

Narrated by Bob Hidey

Do we want to go back to normal?

Four thousand gathered for mid-day prayer in a downtown cathedral. A New York City church filled and emptied six times last Tuesday. The owner of a Manhattan tennis shoe store threw open his doors and gave running shoes to those fleeing the towers. People stood in lines to give blood, in hospitals to treat the sick, in sanctuaries to pray for the wounded. America was different this week.

We wept for people we did not know. We sent money to families we’ve never seen. Talk show hosts read Scriptures, journalists printed prayers. Our focus shifted from fashion hemlines and box scores to orphans and widows and the future of the world. We were different this week.

Republicans stood next to Democrats. Catholics prayed with Jews. Skin color was covered by the ash of burning towers. This is a different country than it was a week ago. We’re not as self-centered as we were. We’re not as self-reliant as we were. Hands are out. Knees are bent. This is not normal. And I have to ask this question, “Do we want to go back to normal?”

Are we being given a glimpse of a new way of life? Are we, as a nation, being reminded that the enemy is not each other and the power is not in ourselves and the future is not in our bank accounts? Could this unselfish prayerfulness be the way God intended for us to live all along?

Maybe this, in His eyes, is the way we are called to live. And perhaps the best response to this tragedy is to refuse to go back to normal. Perhaps the best response is to follow the example of Tom Burnet. He was a passenger of Flight 93. Minutes before the plane crashed in the fields of Pennsylvania he reached his wife by cell phone. “We’re all going to die,” he told her, “but there are three of us who are going to do something about it.”

We can do something about it as well. We can resolve to care more. We can resolve to pray more. And we can resolve that, God being our helper, we’ll never go back to normal again.