Sept. 11, 2001, he said, brought an end to the “unprecedented time of peace and prosperity” that the U.S. experienced and created new and more difficult challenges that threaten its existence.

In the history of America, he said, “every generation is ultimately called to a challenge. … The days ahead are going to require your leadership. The world in which we live in this country is going to really need your generation to step up.

“I really believe deep in my soul that we’re going to have to step up and face these challenges and be tough and pull together and unify and be creative and be willing to sacrifice.”

Americans today, he said, “need to be very realistic about the threat of terrorism and the war we are in as a nation. I know a lot of people in this country who are in denial or they want to blame everybody else for the dilemma that we find ourselves in.”

Nevertheless, he said, there is a “radical invasion in Islam that is spreading around the world, and it is a real threat, a real enemy. We are very, very fortunate they have not struck our homeland again. I hate to say it, but I believe it’s just a matter of time because there’s too many of them that have made their way into this country.”

Concerning terrorists’ tactic of blowing themselves up to kill their enemies, the congressman said it is unfortunate that the religious leaders in Islam are not saying “this is not us” because it makes them “somewhat culpable.”

He stressed, however, that although the terrorist threat involves “extremely radical” jihad Muslims, he did not want it to become a Holy War of Christianity vs. Islam.

America is “not a theocracy,” he said, adding that “we stood against that.”

At one point in his message, the congressman noted that last month, he was with former House Speaker Newt Gingrich, “a Ph.D. historian,” who pointed out that the critical challenges America faced in 1861 and the “solutions offered” prior to the Civil War were similar to those the United States faces today.

And although the nation does not face a civil war today, Wamp said, Americans face similar “huge challenges” in addition to terrorism.

Those challenges, he noted, include energy, health care, and people living considerably longer than they did years ago.

Life as Americans know it today, he stressed, “is at risk in many ways.”

Just living longer lives, he noted, “puts a huge burden on our system.” The next 50 years, he added, “are not going to be a picnic.”

Wamp said that Gingrich also pointed out that out of challenges “comes opportunity” and that a person’s “character is even born out of your adversity.”

The challenges of today and the future, he added, will produce a “lot of winners and losers in our country.”

Wamp said Gingrich also told him that “technology in the next 20 years is going to develop by a factor of four over the last 20 years.”

He then noted that he and all other members of Congress have carried BlackBerry wireless communication devices since Sept. 11, 2001, when all the phones were shut down to Congress for four hours.

The day of the “foiled airline hijack attempt” involving the Shoe Bomber, he said, “I got messages all day on my BlackBerry updating me, as a member of Congress, about what was going on.”

Pointing out that the rapid advancement of technology in the future will make a Ph.D. degree in that field obsolete every 15 years, Wamp said, “That means learning is a lifetime commitment. It’s not just your degree at Bryan College, which is so important. It is a commitment to continue learning and continue growing because the world around you is changing so fast.”

Also during his message, Wamp briefly discussed alternate sources of fuel such as sugar cane, preventive health through diet and exercise and the problem of illegal immigrants being solved by tighter southern border security and profiling if necessary.

“If people who are committing terrorist actions against us are 22 to 35 years old and they’re all Arab males,” he said, “then we have to profile them because those are the people who are doing it.”