Despite differences in culture and geographic distance, we are all connected. We, all of us, together with our planet, form an interdependent web. This web is complex beyond our imagining. And our goal must be finding the ways to peace, even when the web seems tangled and twisted.
It will come as no surprise for me to tell you that this is not the service, or the sermon, that I wanted to give this morning. The events of this week have overturned our previous realities, our plans. The pictures now imprinted in our memories are outside anything we had considered even remotely possible. Our minds are numb; our hearts torn. None of us will ever forget the way we first heard the news or the unfolding tragedies of Tuesday, September 11th, 2001. It has been a week of anguish. Ironically enough, both my title and the reading I had already chosen will serve the morning's needs, though I added a subtitle. Of course, the focus is entirely different. Perhaps someday those other ideas will again be appropriate.
Let me repeat a few lines from this morning's reading:
"It matters what we say yes to
It matters what we say no to…
To say no to what denies and destroys is also to say yes to what affirms, builds, creates."
A great number of questions and challenges has been raised this week, and a great number of yes's and no's have been offered. I imagine that many of you had the same reaction I did when I first put on the television news. "No, no!" It was a cry of denial. The things I was seeing could not be real. But I was wrong. They were very real indeed. So my initial 'No' became a protest. No! this is wholly, entirely wrong. No! this cannot be understood. I will not; we will not be reconciled to this! My heart, along with the hearts of millions of Americans, cries out in compassion for the victims of this tragedy. Those who have been injured or killed, the children orphaned, the siblings, parents and grandparents whose losses can hardly be imagined are in our hearts and prayers. We mourn with those who have lost loved ones, lost friends, lost colleagues.
Even in the first moments of this unthinkable situation, Americans sprang to respond. Police forces and firefighters, medical personnel and emergency workers, people who simply happened to be in the area acted immediately. Each day brings out more stories of courage and heroism. Officers raced into the towers to help people evacuate, heedless of their own safety. Passers-by helped direct traffic. An office worker took a burn victim to a hospital in New Jersey by ferry. He knew it would be the calmest nearby facility. Shopkeepers offered shoes to people walking north, who had literally run out of their own shoes, to escape the falling debris. In the days that followed, ordinary people across the country have overwhelmed blood donation centers, gone to New York to help remove debris and organized or contributed to relief efforts of various kinds. We have participated in religious services and public gatherings. Again and again, in countless ways, we have said 'Yes:' yes to compassion, to courage, and to unity.
Yet with all this, we also hear calls for actions and attitudes we must reject. Some raise cries of suspicion based on places of origin or religion - especially toward followers of Islam. I am proud to be able to tell you that both the UU Service Committee and the UUA President, the Rev. Bill Sinkford have spoken out against such scapegoating and snap judgment. Bill's statement, after expressing deep sorrow and sympathy for the victims and their families, goes on with these words.
"The terrorist attacks are being likened to the bombing of Pearl Harbor, a day that "will live in infamy." Pearl Harbor did galvanize this nation into action, and my hope is that this tragedy, too, will impel us to address the brokenness of our world that makes violence an imaginable option. Remember also that Pearl Harbor led to the impounding and imprisonment of thousands of innocent Japanese Americans. There are Arab and Muslim communities in this country and around the world that grieve as we do, and fear as we do."
He also visited the offices of the American Muslim Council in Washington D.C. The officials there received him with much appreciation and sent his words over the internet to all their congregations..
The interfaith clergy group, of which I am a member, specifically sought out Moses Saleh, leader of the Islamic Community of Modesto, to be a part of our service this past Thursday evening. He reminded us that his community, like all the varied communities of this country, has suffered an attack on their home. Now they also suffer the suspicions of many of their fellow Americans. Judy Sly's editorial last Thursday decried particular cases here in Modesto. Yesterday's paper included a report of vandalism against a statue in front of Modesto's Hindu center.
A more personal story: I've spoken with my husband David several times this week. During one conversation, he told me that one of his most valued colleagues, a man of Indian descent, had canceled his planned trip to Chicago next week. He had been scheduled to give a presentation there. The reason was fear that he would be mistaken for an Arab or Afghan and that harm would come to him simply because of his appearance. We must say No to any abuses similar to these.
We have also heard cries for vengeance, for immediate military action, even heavy bombing. To all of these, and others like them, we must say a steadfast 'No'. Actions taken in that spirit, while they may seem demanded by our pain and anger, have a damning flaw. They compromise our values as a nation, a people. They turn us away from liberty and law, from justice, from proclaiming that all are created equal. They give the real victory to the terrorist by turning us from our own high ideals. In saying No, we affirm them. We must refuse to abandon our historic values.
Across the country, our people have searched for ways to help, to do something about this terrifying situation. Flags have sold out of every store. Folks are decked out in red, white and blue. Songs have been sung again and again, prayers and hopes offered, and thousands of candles lit. These are symbols, ways of saying that we are united, standing firmly together, that we are strong in our refusal to bow to terrorism, to become divided, or to give up in despair. All this is well and good. At the same time, we must resolve to be steadfast in our quest for true justice, which will mean, in part, patience, and also a seeking for understanding of the situation of others in the world, and the difficulties and terrors in their lives that breed such desperation.
Despite differences in culture and geographic distance, we are all connected. We, all of us, together with our planet, form an interdependent web. This web is complex beyond our imagining. And our goal must be finding the ways to peace, even when the web seems tangled and twisted. No one promised us this would be easy. That idea is an illusion. But we can resolve to break the cycle of violence, to take the first steps that begin a journey toward peace. It's a journey that may, metaphorically, be at least a thousand miles.
Viktor Frankl has written, "We can't control what happens to us, but we can control our responses to what happens." Terrible things happened to us in New York, in Washington, DC and in Pennsylvania this week. The pain has spread across our country and around the world. We are responding - as individuals and as a nation. Let us choose wisely. Let us say yes to compassion, to courage, to upholding the importance of freedom, justice and equal protection of the law. And let us move these principles into action. Our hearts are torn; our security shaken. Let us reach out to help those most affected, and let us stand together, insisting on the dignity and worth of all people, regardless of group labels, both here at home and beyond our borders. Let us say yes to life, yes to justice, and yes to peace.
