NYC: Empire State Building
Yesterday was the day on which Americans remember the September 11, 2001 attack upon American soil. Four planes commandeered by men filled with hate and zealous pride for their own ideals crashed into the World Trade Center in New York City, The Pentagon in the Nation’s capital, and a field in Pennsylvania. People around the world remember where they were when they heard the news. I certainly do; I happened to be at the airport in Norfolk, VA walking down the corridor to board a plane to fly home to California.
America had never known such devastation by a foreign attacker on the homeland. We, as a people, were numbed by the magnitude of lost. Americans, for the most part, are very good at coming together and supporting one another in emergencies. We give money, volunteer help, all those acts of caring and support for our neighbors. These acts of kindess are humanitarian efforts, human being to human being, for which Americans are known in emergency situations.
I sat yesterday morning for some time and tried to sort out my feelings about the day and the memory of what happened 13 years ago. I think for me, it is important to consciously separate patriotism and the genuine sadness and horror we feel from the lost of lives and devastation. I believe it is perhaps easy to, in our grief, let hatred and fear of “the other” become the remembered and dominant “take-away”. The ever-constant videos and photos of the attack and devastation serve as stimulus to continue and grow the hate and fear. Ultimately, fear and hatred become habits and grow in the process and contribute, in a major degree, to our blindness to viewpoints other than our own.
In the study and practice of the work of F.M. Alexander, we learn to stop and become aware. Within our valid reaction of grief and sadness in remembering the devatation and loss of 13 years ago, there must be a stopping and an honest questioning as to the why the attack happened. What causes human beings to attack and kill civilians and children? Sadly, it is not an uncommon scourge in our world today. These events do not happen just becuse THEY are evil atackers and WE are victims. The civilians who died were innocent victims and we owe them more than big memorials and ceremonies. We own them honest consideration and recognition that American policy makers and maybe even we as individuals, are not blameless. Somewhere, somehow, we, as Americans and as human beings, need to take and share responcibility for the ugliness as well as the beauty in America and in the world, starting in our own neighborhoods.
I would like to suggest that in our stopping to remember those who needlessly died, we can honor them best by moving forward with hope and determination. What would it look like for us to imbue every day with the caring attitude and the humanitarian efforts we so generously share in emergencies. By stopping and considering day by day, we can truly honor those who are gone not by blind partiotism, but with open eyes, consciously living in that space of caring for our neighbors, whether they be next door in our communities or next door in our world, whether they look just like us or not, whether they believe what we believe or not. To me this is really honoring those who have died.