Thoughts on 9/11

On two separate occasions in two separate states this summer, people told me that they would not consider allowing children to travel abroad in today's climate. 

Does that say something about the power of terrorism?  About our willingness to concede defeat?  About American arrogance -- that we will venture forth only where we are certain of warm welcomes and friendly companionship?  Or just about parents' unwillingness to abandon their beloved offspring to a treacherous unknown?

I don't know.  All of the above and then some, I suppose.  One of my sons has long had a desire to join the Peace Corps, and the motherly and practical sides of me are certainly far more apprehensive about that plan now than I was three years ago.  The idealistic side of me, however, wants him to hang on to that goal.  He speaks a second language and has several months of volunteer construction experience with Habitat -- he has the potential to make an actual contribution to building up (quite literally) our planet and the relationships among its peoples.

My children have been in France, the Netherlands, Switzerland, and the Czech Republic this summer.  Two of them are in Canada as I write.  I just ran into friends newly returned from a month in Turkey, where they left a child who is spending a college semester there.  Many of my own students travel frequently to Israel.  One of my next-door neighbors is from Lebanon and his family has been here recently.  On the other side, one neighbor is from Germany, and the family was there this past summer for a daughter's marriage to a German man. Another daughter spend last year in Germany.  My children's camp counselor friends hailed from England, New Zealand, Russia, Poland, Kazakhstan, and Australia. One of their friends who also spent a high school year in France hosted his French sister here for her first visit to the U.S. in August.  I had a professor last year from Lebanon; I have one this year who is a spiritual and administrative consultant around the world and, as a Catholic priest, has developed close relationships with Buddhists in the Far East.  I have an online friend who traveled with her family in China this past summer.  Last week I learned that my eighth grade American history students have family members who within the past two generations have come here from Israel, Poland, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Guatemala, Libya, and Russia.

We are connected in an intricate web of relationships across this globe.  We need to foster and maintain those connections if we are to prosper, as individuals, as a nation, and as citizens of the world.  We cannot permit a cult of extremism, violence, and hatred to force us into isolation and a sense of false sense of security on this continent. The people who died on September 11 traced their roots to dozens of cultures and nationalities.  It is incumbent upon us to honor them by remaining open,  curious and friendly toward the other peoples of the world, willing to share in their lives and concerns as we hope they will in ours.

walked: 3 miles.