those who demonstrated what it is to be a hero, and to pledge ourselves to live
in honor of their bravery."
And I was very touched yesterday to receive the following e-mail from a precious friend who is a United Methodist pastor in Moscow, Russia:
"Dearest brothers and sisters in Christ,
Tomorrow we will have special worship service of remembering of tragedy September 11th in USA.
Our hearts are suffering with you about this awful terror act.
May God continue to bless USA and all Americans and give His Peace, His Mercy, His Grace for all people around the world.
We love you and thank God for you.
With love in Christ.
Ludmila Garbuzova and First UMC of Moscow Russia"
What Ludmila wrote to the people she knows and loves in the U.S. was very gracious, especially since the people of Russia, too, have suffered because of terrorism, as recently as last winter when there was a suicide bombing at the arrivals area of one of the Moscow airports. Less than a week before I spent a month in Moscow during April of 2010, there were also those attacks by two women suicide bombers on the Moscow subway line that goes back and forth from the United Methodist Seminary.
Sometimes it seems absurd that in the 21st century people would still be resorting
to the use of violence and the threat of violence. Over and over friends say, "You
think we would have learned by now!" And certainly for those of us who have lived
through most of the 20th century or longer, we can't be blamed for feeling like
peace is a very elusive state
And of course there is the issue concerning violence on behalf of religions, belief
systems or power struggles between ethnic groups. Domination, hatred and the tendency to demonize an enemy--or to make and enemy or enemies for a plethora of reasons--all seem to be human responses to life on earth.
So as with many, many other people today, my first thought upon waking was about
this anniversary. In the last ten years there is much more to mourn than just
the victims of the tragedies perpetrated on that bright beautiful September day.
The suffering that resulted from our response to what happened hasn't ended.
When I go to the VA Medical Center, instead of a preponderance of veterans from
the wars of the 20th century, there are many more young people who have lost limbs or have head injuries among other wounds. When I get into a taxicab in Washington, D.C., the driver might easily be a refugee from a nation in turmoil or one that is ruled by a fundamentalist or repressive regime.
As a nation we seem to have come to regard ourselves as the kid on the block who
takes on the bullies for all the other kids, though of course we usually get our
other buddies to help. Not everyone sees us that way. But every person and every
nation has their own way of viewing whatever reality is.
Our response as a nation was dictated by our government, but not every citizen feels the same way. I do not envy the people who had to make the decisions and sent troops to far away places or ordered houses to be stormed to make sure terrorist leaders could no longer lead.
And I can't drive by the Pentagon or see a photo of the skyline of New York City
without still feeling a stab in my heart. Remembrance of such a day is not something you have to dredge up from some corner of your mind. There is both a personal and a collective memory, individual trauma and a traumatized society.
Just as I paused to check on something in my e-mail inbox, I saw that the memorial
ceremony at Ground Zero was on t.v. and I tuned in just in time to hear that the
second moment of silence commemorating the second plane flying into the second
of the twin towers was being observed. Then former President Bush quoted a letter that President Lincoln wrote to the mother of five sons who had died fighting the Civil War.
I had to turn it off for a while.
In Washington later today there will be other observances. It seems very strange
that the service planned at the National Cathedral--that beautiful "House of Prayer
for All Nations" had to be cancelled because of damage done on the grounds when
a crane being used to repair damage from the recent earthquake. And since I know
Washington so well and know there is a Triathalon today, I can imagine what the
traffic will be like for the people trying to drive into the city for church or
the memorial services or whatever.
And being able to imagine triggers the memories I personally have of waking up that otherwise nondescript day like so many other in the previous year for me. I was living in a lovely apartment in Arlington, Virginia about two miles from the Pentagon, teaching English as a Second Language in a private school near the Ballston Metro Station. I am not a morning person, so I rarely put on the radio or television when I am getting ready for work, but for some reason I turned on the TV that morning.
At about 8:40 when I was getting ready to head out the door, the weatherman showed a live camera shot of the twin towers and commented on the beautiful day. he said it was perfect flying weather. Worried that I would be late, I headed to my car and made the five minute commute to the school.
In the classroom behind ours the teacher often began the day with one of the network morning shows, so he and his students were the first people to see what happened as it began to be reported. He came and told me about it and confusion reigned among the teachers and administrators for a while. The owners of the school didn't think there was a reason to cancel classes for the day until the Pentagon was hit.
Since most of the students got around by bus and on the Metro, I just told mine
to go home despite the way the owners of the school seemed not to be aware of the seriousness of what was happening.
On the way home, in shock as we all were by that time,no doubt, I mailed a letter
at one of those drive-up mail boxes on a busy street in downtown Arlington. I put
on my emergency flashers, but didn't realize until September 12th when the car wouldn't start that I neglected to turn them off.
Everyone has her or his own memories of that day and the days following. Because I have friends who were working in the Pentagon, friends who worked at the Capitol and in many other government buildings, friends who had relatives or friends working in one of the twin towers, and because I was teaching in a school where about 1/3 of the students were from pre-dominantly Moslem countries, the aftermath was particularly difficult. Not like people who lived in New York City. And not like people who were directly affected because of the loss of a family member.
And not like someone who has lost a loved one in one of the wars.
But our collective trauma and grief is affected by being able to imagine in some
small way how those who lost the most must feel.
As far as what our response should be as Christians is concerned, I remember that
my home church pastor in Washington was amazed at how many people came to church on the Sunday following September 11, 2001. That was probably true for all the other places of worship including synagogues, mosques, Sikh temples and Hindu community centers, too. Despite a tendency to react in anger and seek revenge, many people have worked hard not to act out negatively in a prejudicial way toward our fellow citizens or immigrants from other cultures.
Suspicion and distrust are sometimes still acted out in hurtful ways, though. And
the troops have not all returned home yet. There are continuing questions concerning what will happen in the nations engulfed by armed conflict and civil strife, too.
It's one thing to ask what our response should be as Christians and it's another
thing to consider what our response as a nation should be.
We may be a nation whose people are predominantly Christian, but our Founders made sure that we would strive to be a nation where people of all ethnic groups and all faiths would be welcome. Our pride in the ideals of the Founders sometimes does not reflect the failures to live up to those ideals from the very beginning when
our Constitution allowed the slavery that existed to be continued.
Robert Frost once wrote, "Something there is that does not love a wall . . ." And
I think there is also "something" that does not love liberty, free enterprise and
equal opportunity. Thank God there is also "something" that does not love injustice,
oppression, terrorism, totalitarianism and murder.
Someone once wrote or said that there is nothing worth killing someone for, but
there are things worth dying for. That may be debatable, but the bottom line for
me is that it really would be wonderful if by now we were able to live in peace.
If we could only figure out how.
As Rodney King asked, "Can we get along?"
"Let's try to work it out.".
Does violence and the threat of violence have to be the only way we can guarantee
"peace."
Peace is characterized by wholeness beyond just the lack of violence. It is a state
where there is nothing missing, no freedom denied, the opportunity to have a roof
over your head and food on the table for you and your family. Peace allows everyone to live in harmony, respecting even those who do not agree with you or who look at the world in a very different way.
Human beings always have to work for peace when there are threats. And even when things seem to be going along beautifully and smoothly like they were before 9 am on September 11, 2001, there can be threats to peace and security lurking in the unknown.
So in whom can we trust?
On our some of our currency it is written, "In God we trust." That's a lovely motto,
although there are some who challenge it. Some people don't even believe in God
and there are many ideas about God and how to trust God.
We all just have to decide for ourselves as individuals and as a nation. But hopefully we can choose love as our governing principal and live out that love as our response to all that we remember this day and every day.
Kathleen Ware Harris © 2013
kwharris777@gmail.com
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