I guess like everyone, I remember every little thing about where I was and what I was doing on that fateful day. I remember saying out loud, "The terrorists have already lost because those first responders are going up those stairs when everyone else in the buildings are running in terror to get down them." God, I never felt prouder to be an American. Really. That day I hugged more strangers than I ever had before or since. I sat down and cried on the steps of St. John's Cathedral in downtown Boise. I grabbed the hand of a young man and we sat and cried together.I remember thinking that maybe this country will unite in response to the horrific events of that day. And we did for a short time. But of course it didn't last. And now I think our divisions are even worse than they were then. The Beloved Community of Martin Luther King's dream seems more and more distant and beyond reach. And the world continues to be threatened by terrorism, maybe more so than then.
So beyond remembering and honoring the sacrifices of that day, what else? How do I really honor the people who were sacrificed by a bunch of lunatics bent on murder and destruction? Here's my thought on that: turn the words "remember" and "honor" into action verbs. For me that means doing what I can to uphold what is best about our country and our democracy in an age when the forces are great that want to turn our democracy into an oligarchy. What I want to support and uphold are the values that have to do with civil liberties, the protections of the Bill of Rights, our innate compassion and sense of fairness, our instincts toward inclusion rather than fearful exclusion. These are the values that have always glued us together and will prevail one day I hope. I think that often Americans are perceived as a bunch of spoiled, overly privileged, children by some people around the world and that becomes an exaggerated and distorted viewpoint of persons who join the ranks of terrorists. So my way of honoring and remembering will continue to be to uphold the best in us, the better angels of our natures as our beloved Lincoln once said during another fearful moment in our history.
Yes, this would be the question. Everything else might seem kind of anti-climatic. Well, in my view, if we white folks just admitted to the terrible reality of racism, we would all be better off and might actually get somewhere in combatting it. Anyway...I see that guy who posts on Facebook, HONY (Humans of New York) is discovering the great big world out there outside of New York City in areas of conflict around the world. Today he writing about a former child soldier who has made his life into helping others avoid his fate:
I had the distinct and unusual wondrous experience of working with refugees from around the world for the last 10 years of my career. So I learned so much about what we Americans tend to be sheltered from of some of the terrible happenings in the world. I am forever grateful for the lessons taught me by my former clients. Listening to their stories put my trivial problems into the perspective to which they belonged. Another wonderful site to learn about what is going on in the world of refugees is the UNHCR site (United Nations High Commission On Refugees):
Photo by Steve Lester
