• Home
  • Posts
  • Column: How Should We Move Into an Uncertain Future?

Column: How Should We Move Into an Uncertain Future?

jim-lemler-fi

By James B. Lemler
Sentinel Columnist

How did you commemorate the 15th anniversary of September 11, 2001? How did you remember those who lost their lives and others who were so terribly affected by the violence of that day and its aftermath?

What have you decided to do differently in your own life due to the experience and remembrance of September 11?

These are but a few of the questions that came into my heart this past Sunday as we observed the anniversary of September 11, 2001. It is always a somber day, and to approach it 15 years later had a special punch and poignancy to it.

Several things have spoken to me about moving forward in hope as a primary way of remembrance and commemoration. Yes, we have tears. Yes, we need to mourn. Yes, there are still so many hard and harsh things that remain. But… moving forward requires hope and commitment to new ways of peace and community.

One movement that has captured this spirit so well is called Tomorrow Together.

It is sponsored by the Corporation for National and Community Service and by several eminent organizations and foundations.

The purpose and goal of the effort is to commemorate September 11 and its effects by putting aside enmity and hatred so that all of us can approach tomorrow together. David Paine, the president of Tomorrow Together, says it hopes “to rekindle and reinforce the important lessons of empathy, service and unity that arose from the 9/11 tragedy.”

Like you, I remember that empathy, service and unity 15 years ago.

It was truly remarkable. People cared so deeply for each other. Hundreds of thousands of people served other human beings in remarkable ways.

There was a palpable spirit of generosity and unity in our communities, in our nation, and indeed throughout the world. These things made a difference for people who suffered injury and loss and for us as a whole people.

The Tomorrow Together movement holds that those dynamics are just as important for us today as they were a decade and a half ago and says that they are the most powerful and meaningful modes of remembrance that we can offer. One leader, David Winuk, who lost his rescue/first responder brother that awful day, puts it this way: “We owe more than discord and disunion to those who perished from the attacks and those who served in the aftermath.”  Indeed we do.

So here we are 15 years later. It has been a perilous 15 years, and now we find ourselves in a time where discord and disunion assault the fabric of our society. Can we discover and recover the empathy, service, and unity that helped heal us after the terrifying September 11 events?

Tomorrow Together, along with other organizations around the country, organized service and community renewal events to commemoration 9/11 and to launch us in some new ways to live out these values.

We need to go further on this pathway as individuals and as a community. In our own hearts and souls we need to touch the empathy and care that prompt each one of us to act in ways that build unity rather than promote division and anger. As a community we need to engage issues, challenges, and opportunities with a spirit of reconciliation and forgiveness. Only we can minimize discord and disunity.

Only we can offer meaningful remembrance of those who lost their lives or who suffered great loss on September 11, 2001 in a manner that repairs the fabric of society and brings hope to our future.

One way or another we are going to move into our future. We can do that in a way of honor, remembrance and hope that restores the fabric of our souls and society, or we can do that in a manner that magnifies and increases discord and disunity. We can tear things down, or we can build things up.

We can seek reconciliation, or we can fuel the angry fires of accusation and recrimination. There will be a tomorrow. That’s not the question.

No, the question is how we will enter it, how we will proceed into it.  I much prefer “Tomorrow Together.”

The Rev. Dr. James B. Lemler is the rector of Christ Church Greenwich.

Related Posts
Loading...