"We gather this morning to remind ourselves that despite terrorism
and violence in our word, we bring each other compassion, courage, and
love," writes colleague Duane Fickeisen.
Someone else wrote: Small griefs make us talkative, Great ones strike
us dumb.
Now, 5 days after the destruction of the World Trade Center and part
of the Pentagon, we gather to reflect, as best we can- given the immensity
of loss, and recency of the shock- we gather to reflect on where we
are now. And we are grateful to be in community.
I have some observations, and after a musical interlude, I would invite
you to [come forward and] speak from the heart.
Some Lost their Life, Others Gave their Life.
When the destruction hit, people ran away to try and escape with their
lives, to escape trouble & danger. Those that didn't make it lost
their lives. Their lives were taken from them. Stolen. Not only the
pain of death, but robbed of whatever future was available to them.
When the destruction hit, other people ran toward the crashing, burning,
smoking, destruction. They ran toward trouble & danger. These were
the firemen, police, doctors, nurses, other uniformed people. People
whose job it is to march carefully into the gaping maw of hell, in order
to try and see if they could save one or two, or drag someone out. And
some of those gave their life in this pursuit. This they did willingly.
For complete and total strangers. What impulse moved them?
TV Reveals, TV Conceals.
We get drips & drabs. We get here and there. We get announcements
about future announcements. We get details about the ping noises echoing
around in the rubble. The ping noise is from an airplane black box.
Maybe if we get the black box, we'll know more about HOW it happened.
We get lots of HOW it happened. Names, dates, how it worked. Where the
terrorists lived and went to flight school.
TV tells us this. It gives us a few facts, a commercial break, comes
back, and tells us the same information again, while in the background,
the smoke and dust and plane-into-the building video plays over &
over & over again, as if it will gain more reality if we just keep
seeing it again.
But TV conceals too. TV doesn't tell us much about WHY these suicide
bombers did what they did.
No one claims responsibility. That's how we know it is cowardice.
TV can't tell us much about the WHY because they don't know. No one
seems to know or care. Instead, over & over again, the focus is
on the slow motion crash, the officials at the microphones looking solemn,
people talking about what other people are talking about.
And while no one seems to know much of consequence or to be saying
anything new, they can't take their eyes off the destruction.
Helpless, Hopeful
A TV reporter is interviewing someone who saw what happened. In the
middle of a discussion, a woman interrupts! She has an 8 ½ x
11 piece of paper. On the piece of paper is written in large letters,
a man's name, and underneath, a posed picture of a family. She is looking
for her brother. She speaks clearly, slowly, and with fear. It is as
if she knows her brother- an accountant on the 74th floor- is buried
underneath all that rubble somewhere, but she is doing her best to pretend
he might still be alive and walking around, and- has anyone seen him?
And another woman gently pushes through to come forward- perhaps a
psychologist, ready to take the first woman by the arm, and gently lead
her to a bench or chair where she may speak and cry. But no, this woman
too, has a picture. An 8 ½ x 11 piece of white paper. With a
name handwritten on top, and a family portrait taped on to the paper.
And she says much the same thing, and with much the same feeling as
the first woman.
It is as if by saying their relative's names out loud and on camera
and to the small crowd gathered around, it is as if by speaking out,
they keep their relatives alive or at least they are bearing witness
to the fact that it was real people in that building, and on that plane.
And as the camera pulls away, so the reporter can wax metaphysical-
we can see in the background another woman, a man, a couple- come forward
to the small crowd of strangers who are too polite, too in shock, to
move away. And they each have 8 ½ x 11 pieces of paper with names
in pen, pencil, crayon, and family pictures underneath. And they speak
slowly and clearly, and no one- but no one- interrupts.
We stop, We don't stop.
We stop. From 3,000 planes in the air, to none. The stock markets closed,
major league baseball didn't suit up, the national football league cancelled
their games. Some schools let out early. Lower Manhattan was closed
off- no getting in or out. Many of us stopped what we were doing, laid
down whatever was in our hands, and found the chair or couch in front
of the TV. To watch and to listen.
We stop. 4 airplanes, one corner of the pentagon; hundreds officially
killed, thousands missing and presumed dead. Two towers at first, now
5 more buildings gone. 4,000 businesses- gone. $40 billion dollars unanimously
moved from one ledger column to another.
We don't stop. If we stop our normal way of life, we will let the terrorists
know they have won, said Madeline Albright, former secretary of state.
Today, our airline flights are at 1/4 capacity and moving steadily up.
The stock market should re-open Monday. Sports will once again be on
TV, schools will be in session, we will go back to work. We will lower
our voices when we speak of this.
We stop. On Friday, the World stood still. At noon, in Paris, in London,
in Helsinki, in Brussels, in Lockerbie, Scotland. In the most heavily
traveled street intersections, cars simply stopped where they were.
In banks, on trading floors, in airports, everyone stopped for a moment.
Strangers held hands. Someone spoke a few words. There were moments
of silence.
We don't stop. The news will carry this story for a long time. We will
see pictures of people we never knew, and hear some of their stories.
Somewhere, sometime, a monument will be built. Books will be written,
a movie will be made. That future is not in sight yet.
We should stop- our old way of thinking, we have been told. The tragedy
changes history forever. The role of the United States in the world
has changed. Our president says we must stop thinking about our military
and our security in the same way as we did before. And he says our new
job is to "rid the world of evil."
Perhaps, a Holy War.
The Jihad, or holy war, in Islam, means to fight against what causes
imbalance. I do not understand the motives or whatever perverse logic
drove the terrorists to do what they did. I am clueless as to what they
hoped to accomplish and why they would think their actions would bring
about some desired result and what that result would be and why anyone
would desire it. What impulse moved them?
But I tell you this. I plan on learning about that. I want to know
what those 20+ suicide bombers were betting their lives on. I want to
know what their thinking was that this terrorism would somehow move
the world to more "balance."
Will the United States and its allies now respond in a holy war of
our own? It may be that the perpetrators of this terrorism have a medieval
understanding of justice, or maybe even Old Testament biblical understanding.
And it may be that our leaders will want to pursue a "scorched
earth" policy of revenge and retribution.
This would mean going in and wiping out their military. Completely.
And not only that, but the civilian men. All the men, every last one
of them. Like they tried to do in Bosnia. And not only the men would
we go after, but the women, pregnant women, and children, and babies,
and in fact- all human life. In the area we draw a circle around and
call evil, we would kill every single person.
And not only all the humans but all the livestock, all the pets, in
fact- all the animals, and plant life too. And then we would burn everything,
we would scorch the earth. And then we would radiate or poison the ground
so that no one could live off it or live on it for generations to come.
You can read about this in the bible.
We could do it again. We could vanquish and then utterly annihilate
our enemy.
And I have to wonder. Would this stop terrorism?
And I have to wonder. What would stop terrorism?
Let us pause to consider.
