What does one do? When planes and buildings fall out of the sky, killing those in them who trusted their solidity, their stability, their absolute functionality, what does one do? Learning that it was not a breach of the laws of physics and nature th
What does one do? When planes and buildings fall out of the sky, killing those in them who trusted their solidity, their stability, their absolute functionality, what does one do? Learning that it was not a breach of the laws of physics and nature that brought everything crashing down, but fanaticism and hatred, what does one do? How does one set the world right again?
Like all Americans, and most people around the world, we spent as much time as we could on Tuesday, September 11 watching the horrible news unfold in New York, Washington, and Pennsylvania. And we couldnât help but ask these questions. For those close at hand to the destruction, the answer became clear: one does what one can to survive and to help others in desperate need to survive. Tragically, the heroic efforts of so many people to survive and to help others survive were consumed in the great maw of fire, steel, and stone.
We heard many stories of the plight of individuals on Tuesday and in the hours and days that followed, and almost all of them were sad, poignant, and disturbing. But the ones that stood out for us above all others were the stories about the voices that called out from the very center of the calamity. People on cell phones â in hijacked planes, in rubble, in the thickening smoke of their own demise â who called loved ones with this single most urgent message: I love you.
We did not just hear these stories. They overcame us. On the drive to work, in the middle of the office, wherever we were, these stories pulled our hearts into our throats and blurred our vision with tears⦠because we all know what it is to love someone. A parent. A child. A brother or sister. A spouse. All of us have that urgent message to deliver.
We stand in unanimous support of our nationâs leaders, and pray that they are granted wisdom and strength in doing what is necessary to strike at the heart of hatred, eliminating the threat of those who would kill and maim thousands and celebrate at the end of the day. For those of us who have no role in that sobering task, who must watch and wait, we now have a better idea of what we must do thanks to those voices calling out on cell phones from the edge of their lives. We have messages to deliver in a world turned upside-down by hatred.