This evening, I saw a commercial on television that was sponsored by Homeland Security. The commercial began with the announcer saying, "In the case of a terrorist attack, do you have a plan"? Then the commercial showed a series of children, each one asking, "Am I going to be safe"? "Are we safe"? And, "What do we do if there is an attack"? I was horrified that the fear mongers were now targeting our children. It is bad enough that we are constantly told that the "other " is dangerous, not wanted, or will take away our job, but that we are supposed to pass that fear down to our children is unconscionable.
I remember as a child, we had atomic bomb drills. We would hide underneath our desks, or we would go out into the hallway, where there were no windows, and on our knees face the wall and cover our head with our hands. We now know that were there an atomic bomb, all the drills we did were nonsense and would not have saved us. As a child, however, we didn't know the drills were useless, and so we were often afraid that we might die on a beautiful and clear, sunny day when we were in a places that were supposed to be safe, our homes, our schools, and our neighborhoods.
I thought how blessed my children were that they didn't have to grow up and worry about cosmic fear. If they were afraid at all, it might be a fight in school, a bully on the playing field, or later on the dangers of alcohol and drugs. They are grown now and I am thankful they are not children worrying about their own lives ending in some horrendous, cataclysmic event.
Rowan Williams, the Archbishop of Canterbury, was part of a Trinity Church, Wall Street panel discussion September 11, 2001. After the plans had crashed into the World Trade Center buildings, and the first building had toppled, he came out onto the street. He was struck by the dust floating all around him, especially the dust that coated the cars parked on the street. He wrote a book about his experience that day. He called it "Writing in the Dust". The cover had words written on the front page as though a child had written on the window of a dirty and dusty car. In the book. he says, in terms of response to the attack on the World Trade Center, our leaders had a number of possibilities. He mentions two. The first was that we could immediately do nothing, but take a step back and try and understand what had happened and why it had happened. Not taking the burden of the responsibility for the event on ourselves, but recognizing that events are shaped more then just by one side's position. Or, he says, we could immediately find someone to blame for the attack and set about a revenge response using a military response. He believed that the second response would lead to a culture of fear in this country.
He believed, however, the first response allowed our leaders to assure the people that they were safe, and that their leaders were taking time to understand what had happened and how best to respond to it. He didn't say that a military response was not reasonable, he just felt that time was required to understand the issues that underlined this event.
We know now that the second response was the one that was chosen. On the East Coast, immediately after the event, the highway signs that lit up when there were icy conditions on the road or an accident ahead, now stated "If you see anything suspicious, immediately call the authorities." If you see anyone suspicious, immediately call the authorities. They didn't detail on the signs what an event or person who was "suspicious" looked like, but in the newspapers and on the television there were constant pictures of middle eastern men and women, with swarthy complexions who would instill fear in us if we saw them.
As time went on, especially men, who looked middle eastern, were taken into custody and the jail at Guantanamo Bay begin to fill up. We became wary of people who looked different and talked differently.
I have struggled long and hard with this particular blog. Because I wanted to be careful of how people may perceive this, and the fact that we have many military retired and active in the parish and I do not want to insult them or hurt them in any way. As a priest, I feel strongly that, at times, events call for me to challenge what may be the prevailing mind set. I am not against war, however, I pray that our leaders will always take slow, deliberate discussion and thought prior to entering into any armed conflict, especially where the lives of our young men and women are at jeopardy.
I ask you to reflect on what I have written. If you wish, I hope you will share those reflections with me. I ask that we pray for wisdom for me, our leaders, and each other.
God bless from me ...and Charlie!
Rev. Pat
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