Good morning everyone. I can’t post as often as I used to… I just have to have more space between because it is so hard for me to think about what is happening to us.
Today would have been a day we were going to reflect on the events of 9-11 and remember our people who died then, and remember our coming together as a nation is response. I was living in Florida at the time, running a small sewing business, and I remember sending everyone home and running to the parking lot to my car. To just get home and safe. A Muslim woman stopped me in the lot, asking for some help with some sewing. For the first time in my life, I was afraid of her and told her to leave me alone.. not understanding what was going on, she left in tears. I have always regretted that. . For me, this day has always been a touchstone to remind me of how I fearful I was in the moment, but also of how I could overcome that.
But instead, today we are pushing the horribleness of the rape of young girls and hedonistic coverup by our own government out of our minds and dealing with the shocking events of the assassination of Charlie Kirk. Like most of you I am sure that he said very little in his life that I would agree with, but in our country, he had the right to say what he believed, and I will always defend that right. I was a young activist when Bobby Kennedy and Martin Luther King were killed, but I so clearly remember the horror I felt, and the emptiness. How could we be this?
Today I feel the same, as we seem to be rushing to a crescendo of hatred and violence.
The values of our hearts are being challenged today like they have never been before. We see the corruption, the arrogance, the greed now joined by violence more every day. We know this is wrong, we sometimes feel helpless against the onslaught. But we must find our way into our souls and find those glittering shards of hope- small as they might be- and grab on to them. We have to hold on tight to what is good in us, and find ways to share it. Even the tiniest thing will make a difference- a smile, opening a door, helping a neighbor. We can defeat this, we can build together a stronger and yes more perfect union of all of us together .
Charlie once made a comment that went something like this- a few guys deaths are a small price to pay for our 2nd amendment rights. I guess he would be okay with this. I am not. I find people who live by hate tend to die by hate. We must be better than this.
I remember 9/11…as head of very small group in a very small school. We went to the chapel to pray, first. We were proximate to an FAA center so parents began requesting their children’s release. We all worked at remaining calm and measured in our responses. Our students and teachers had parents or spouses in the air across the country, or were being deployed, the pastoral staff began arriving to support our precious children and staff. Understanding the response necessary for the situation reminds me that our response can be that now, empathetic, alert, measured and focused. Sure fear is there, but it’s not what’s going to get us through in this time and place. Blessings!