To the Editor:
On Tues. we witnessed horrific acts of violence. Our eyes and minds
remain flooded with images of planes hitting buildings, buildings collapsing,
people running in fear, burning buildings, rubble.
People subject to such enormous horror are shocked, saddened, angry.
Some people may not be able to sleep, some may be irritable, some may
be afraid. All of this is understandable. It is how we humans respond.
Our countries political leaders are standing up to proclaim that we
will get the people who did this to us. They rightly perceive that such
an attack made the people of the U.S.A. feel afraid and vulnerable.
They are trying in the way they know how to reassure us.
As a religious leader, I too want to comfort and like all of us I want
to make sense of this. As a religious leader in this community I want
to exhort all the people of Evansville to live out of what is best in
them and try to keep their fears in check.
Our fear is what compels us to look for some one to blame. Our fear
propels us to look for targets for vengeance.
I was saddened to read in the Courier that there Americans among us
who are receiving hate calls because they are Moslem or because they
are perceived to be Arabs. It pains me that Moslem mothers might have
to fear that their children will be beaten in school. The Moslem and
Arab Americans among us are not our enemies, they are our neighbors.
As a person of faith, I write to remind you that in these horrible
days we can be the hands of God. We can be gentle with each other. We
can console one another. Let us use our hands to heal and not to harm.
Let us use our mouths to console and not to blame. That in the living
of these days we may be a blessing to one another.
The Rev. Julia Aegerter
Pastor, Unitarian Universalist Church of Evansville
