LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth |
After September 11, We Wish for Peace on Earth |
by Fay Jacobs |
With every imaginable news media, from Newsweek to Entertainment Tonight covering the aftermath of the September 11 attacks, we all have a tendency to reach overload and head for an afternoon of Animal Planet TV, QVC, or plain old peace and quiet. In fact, peace and quiet is what many of us are craving these days. While the national focus has been on survivor's stories and reports from Afghanistan, Letters wondered what thoughts and feelings our own community had to offer. Following is a random collection of comments in response to Letters posing the question "how has your life changed since September 11, and what are you thinking now?" The range of answers is as diverse as our community itself. Some people who commented are well known in the community and their messages are heartfelt. Eric C. Peterson, a frequent Rehoboth visitor writes, "My own personal reactionsyikes, it's really hard to articulate anything; it's just so huge and so permanent. But what I'm principally left with is that certain aspects of our lives pre-Sept 11 are most likely gone for good and forever. Which makes those things that don't changefamily, friends, good works, laughter, etc.all the more valuable." James "Fitz" FitzSimmons, Executive Director of the Henlopen Theater Project had a dreadful close call and then a rewarding revelation. He writes, "Well first and foremost I am grateful that Brian was here (in Rehoboth) on vacation (instead of in his Twin Towers office). As a New Yorker it was incredibly strange. I wanted to be there. I felt I should be there. It was difficult for us to watch it all unfolding on TV, knowing so many people involved on all sides. I wish I could say I was noble, I did my best to comfort my lover through his loss, but I am still frustrated by it all. But I'm so grateful for all our friends and neighbors, the overwhelming support and care was tremendous. If we didn't feel a full part of the community prior to this event, we certainly do now! " Some folks had straight-forward reactions. "I am now waiting on the 'other shoe to drop,' looking over my shoulder, uneasy and unsettled," said Julie Peters, although with great optimism she's building her dream house here and hoping for the very best. One e-mail, from Louisa brought forth some serious thought and glimpses of history. "Every 50 years or so civilization spews forth an individual that seems to serve as a crucible. These individuals are not the peace makers, innovators, educators, etc. They are the oddities among us. Often from humble backgrounds yet possessing messianic visions unhealthy to say the least. When they manage to succeed to power, everything that was is no longer... They do destroy complacency, smugness and any self-satisfying urge we tend to possess. And they often do it in the name of God. We appease them because we fear the loss of a comfortable status quo. We are civilized. They are not. We play by rules they mock...We choose to misread them until we are forced to relearn old lessons, lessons of a less civilized time... We have eaten cake too long. Our emotion raw, our lives disrupted, we are forced to feel again and wonder if these creatures are our own creations. The question...."did we bring this upon ourselves?" frightens us the most. We cannot turn from this so we summon up our innate humanity and sense of community. We must stop them... Once our wrath has been aroused we become as one. The ends of these creatures mirror their lives. Napoleon died lost on a forbidding rock, Hitler in a bunker of his own creation and Bid Laden.....he, though wealthy, lives in a cave in a half-country and will probably die in one. Are they our evil twins? They are the pariahs, the scourge, the other. Yet, they've been here before. In an age of mass and instant communication how could we have let this happen? The trappings of civilization have changed. But have we? We revisit the past by reading the histories of men and places. The reading is usually not pleasant nor does it serve as a diversion. It is a hard and true lesson. We must study it and learn..." Marsha Levine said simply, "I think about the tragedy as a "before and after." I feel most for the younger generations that will never know freedom as we once did. We can never be cavalier again." Some people were spurred to action. Mark Aguirre wrote, "As the twin towers were being struck by extremist fundamentalist Muslims, I was answering an e-mail from a fundamentalist Christian who objected to an editorial I authored defending the gay community for not having brought the AIDS crisis on itself. The leitmotif is that despite the fact that the fundamentalist Muslim would kill me for being American and the fundamentalist Christian would damn me to hell for being gay, neither of them know the true love of Allah or God. September 11th has strengthened my resolve to help pass HB 99 that would protect Lesbian & Gay Delawarean's civil rights. Join the Lesbian & Gay Civil Rights Project at 7:30 pm on the 3rd Monday of every month at St. Peter's Episcopal Parish Hall in Lewes." One of my favorite comments came without desire for attribution. "The 9.11.01 tragedies, in the most heartbreaking, terrifying, and traumatic way, demonstrated the power of our choices in life. If we embrace and model evil, in all of its manifestations, terrible evil acts will befall us. If we absorb and choose discrimination, fanaticism, lust for powersimply selfish gainthen, evil rules. On the other hand, that terrible event produced the most wonderful and awesome manifestations of good we can choose: devotion to duty, kindness, responsibility, love, faithfulness, brotherhoodsimply unselfishness. These are minute by minute, hour by hour choices, and we must live prayerfully and with determination to be aware of the division and pain we can cause or the goal of union and betterment of all mankind we can embrace." And finally, several e-mails made the case for optimism. This was my favorite. "The terrorist attack has helped us to see the best and worst of mankind. It made us realize that we're not invincible or untouchable. Our feeling of security has been shaken and our values have been put in question. However, we have been forced to evaluate what we consider to be important and this certainly isn't bad. On one hand, we see what evil has done to our world and we grieve for what we have lost, like our innocence. On the other hand we, see what we have gaineda strong sense of loyalty to family, brotherhood, and country. All someone has to do is walk through our country and see flags in abundance. We have been knocked down but not overcome. We grieve but aren't devastated. We are afraid but not overwhelmed. We will survive and be better for it." Here at Letters our hearts go out to all the people touched by the tragedy of 9-11 and to all in our community who are struggling to understand the evil that brought it about. At this time of Thanksgiving we wish for peace and understanding in our community with room for all. |
LETTERS From CAMP Rehoboth, Vol. 11, No. 15, November 21, 2001. |