The Double Anniversary of September 11

The following is the text from remarks that Gandhi Institute director Kit Miller offered during Rochester’s Interfaith Remembrance ceremony on Sept 11, 2011.

 

I am here to speak about a call to action.  I have thought of dozens of things to share in these 5 minutes.  I have wondered about all of you, whose lives have been directly and indirectly changed forever by the events we remember today.  I would like to share three calls to action with you.

The first is a piece of wisdom I have treasured since hearing it ten years ago, at an interfaith gathering in Rochester just  after the events we remember today.  Responding to a heartfelt question from the audience, I remember Dr. Mohammed Shafiq from the Islamic Center of Rochester recommending ‘people of faith cool down and get humble’.  I repeat, ‘people of faith, cool down and get humble. ‘

I have carried that advice with me to many situations and it has served me well.   This is the first call to action I recommend today.

The second thought I would like to share comes from Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.  King pointed out that many of us focus the majority of our attention on the people involved in the situation, rather than on underlying issues.

He urges us to do the creative unexpected thing-to focus our attention on the issue instead of the people.  Individuals come and go, and the issues stay the same.  I have found this principle helps at home and at work as well as in community and political life.  The second call to action today is to keep your attention on issues.

Today is a double anniversary.  105 years ago a crowd in Johannesburg, S Africa stood with Mohandas Gandhi and made a vow of nonviolent resistance against a proposed law that would in effect reduce Indians and other ‘Asiatics’ in S Africa to semi-criminal status.  Sept 11, 1906 marked a new way of waging conflict, when thousands of people chose to peacefully harness their spiritual values to create political change.  The power of the golden rule, do unto others as you would have done to you, which every religion in the world espouses, was harnessed.  They vowed ‘We will not oppose the person, we only oppose the injustice that person currently stand for’, which frees us both.  What was born that day ultimately influenced more than fifty countries to shake off the yoke of colonialism.  It has been and remains a mighty force for change.   The events this year in Cairo in Tahrir Square which launched the Arab spring attest to that.

The third call to action today therefore is to watch your own thoughts and stories about what this day means.  If we believe that evil and violence are inevitable, then that is the future we will likely create.  Instead, include the golden rule in your dealings with others and let’s ask our leaders to do the same at the national and international level.  We are part of an unfolding story whose unknowable outcome is up to us.  Thank you.

 

For more information on the 9/11 double anniversary, view the booklet “Hope or Terror? Gandhi and the other 9/11” written by Professor Michael Nagler, founder of the Metta Center in Berkeley, California

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