Be Vigilant – New Orleans Terrorists, Life, and Your Children

Never has it been more important to keep your eyes open. In a world overwhelmed by endless inputs and  biased information, it’s easy to fall into tunnel vision, focusing only on what entertains or briefly interests us. This is exactly what those with harmful intentions—be they literal terrorists or those profiting from our distraction—are counting on.

Tragically, vigilance failed in New Orleans last night. A hydraulic steel blockade, down for maintenance, allowed a terrorist to drive through Bourbon Street, killing 15 people and injuring many others. What began as a night of celebration descended into terror and heartbreak. Authorities report that four or five others were involved, but the deeper issue lies in the thousands of others we’ve allowed into our country over the past 20 years—individuals whose intentions may range from apathy toward our way of life to actively seeking its destruction.

Warnings unheeded can be fatal. The same voices in Afghanistan that alerted us about Osama Bin Laden years ago now warn of thousands of trained operatives who have crossed our borders, blending in, indoctrinating others, and waiting to strike. Their ambition? To kill tens of thousands of Americans. Last night’s attacker in New Orleans may be part of this broader plan—a grim reminder of what happens when we fail to protect the soft underbelly of our nation.

But the dangers aren’t just those who wield physical violence. They include those who profit from our apathy, feeding us distractions to keep us away from what truly matters—family, community, purpose. By focusing on trivialities, we’ve neglected the vigilance needed to protect what’s good and true.

For decades, we’ve allowed our communities to be reshaped by those who neither embrace nor respect the principles that make our way of life meaningful. Without proper assimilation, these individuals—and sometimes entire communities—recreate the environments they sought to escape. In Texas and Arizona border towns, you’ll see firsthand how this manifests: neighborhoods ruled by cartel violence and criminal networks. These aren’t isolated problems; they’re spreading across the nation, into your towns, your schools, and now, into your everyday life. What happened in New Orleans is a chilling reminder—it’s not a question of if, but when.

The question we must ask is: where has our attention been? For the past 25 years, it’s been glued to screens. The internet, and now the smartphones in our hands, has brought much good, but it’s also become a direct pipeline for harm—pouring misinformation, division, and destruction into our minds and our children’s minds. Instead of parenting with purpose, we’ve too often opted for the path of least resistance. Noisy kids get iPads. Unruly teenagers get phones. And when that’s not enough, they get drugs.

I recently spoke with a third-grade teacher who shared a shocking truth: in her colleague’s class, 15 out of 21 students were on psychiatric medications. The implication was that hers was the same but she was discreet. This isn’t an inner-city school; it’s a middle-class neighborhood. Think about that. What kind of future are we creating for kids raised on a cocktail of screens, drugs, and institutionalized parenting? Are we raising them to be good—or are we raising them to be zombies, numb to purpose and meaning?

Being vigilant is hard, but it’s the only path to goodness. When my wife was pregnant with our first child, I told her that the hardest thing we’d ever do as parents would be to raise our children to be good. Not just “well-behaved,” but truly good. Now, more than ever, I believe that to be true. Zombies are neither good nor bad—they simply are. But raising your child to be a zombie? That makes you bad.

So, be vigilant. It will hurt. It will require sacrifice. But it’s the only good path forward. Be vigilant against the literal terrorists who may already be among us. Be vigilant against those who profit by robbing your children of their purpose and turning them into the living dead. And most of all, be vigilant in your pursuit of what is good, true, and meaningful.

If you want a deeper understanding of the threats we’ve allowed across our borders, I highly recommend listening to the Sean Ryan podcasts linked below. They will open your eyes. And I promise, nothing I’ve said here will feel alarmist after you’ve heard the facts.

Stay vigilant. The time for awareness is now.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=T50pRCNaQCA

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yh_3yrAgBEU

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=RudLmL9kCSY