9/11

"I'm totally unsentimental about that day in our . . . history, " a friend writes. Another friend says, "that's in the past; we are in the present and have to look to the future." "I don't know . . . " inserts a third, without any further elaboration.

These comments from people I respect formed a challenge to me as I looked toward the Fifth Anniversary of the September 11 attacks. They were reinforced by published interviews with some of the survivors who express a desire now to move on or to avoid going again through stories of The Day.

But grief is individual, and probably no two people adhere to exactly the same timetable. Other survivors, along with the visitors who come to the site every single day, are still very much in need of outlets for very strong feelings. I'm a survivor too and clearly belong in this latter group.

So I was heartened this morning in reading the statement for the occasion which was issued yesterday by the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. The printed version (it's in audio and video forms as well) is accompanied by a picture of Bishop Griswold inside St. Paul's Chapel a day or two after the disaster, inscribing a note; he's wearing protective clothing and a face mask. His current statement and the format of its presentation encompass both the significance of remembering that horrific time and the importance of using it as a guide in framing the way we move forward.

Bishop Griswold appeals to the Millennium Development Goals (MDGs) as an outline of an approach we can take. These were formulated by the United Nations and endorsed in June at the Episcopal Church's General Convention. We wrote a little about them here then. They aim at lifting the world's poor up from their dire poverty. We recommended a book called The Price of a Dream, and Mother Crafton and VivaBooks placed it in The Geranium Farm's inventory for you to buy through us. My comments then emphasized the conversations and the relationships the author has with the poor in the Bangladesh countryside and the reality of their poverty that comes across through his finely crafted text.

But there is much more to that book. It includes a solution. World poverty is big, and one solution, like one healing experience in the face of massive grief, doesn't begin to cover the entire situation. It is a step, though, and one, notably, that honors the personhood of each participant. The Price of a Dream explores the Grameen Bank, the institution that innovated "micro-credit", the granting of tiny, tiny loans to impoverished people – mainly women – enabling them to fix up their own home or start their own little tea stand or send their child to school. The challenge for them is repaying the loan, in even more minute installments; this means they must do something productive with the money so they will have the principal and add some interest. It works. People do live with less hardship; the quality of their lives is materially improved. Some who take more initiative can become employees of the Bank or attract other employers to hire them out of poverty. Perhaps with such a better existence, they won't fall prey to radical leaders who appeal to some extreme religious belief that forces them to do violence to others.

We can join in this kind of effort. The Grameen Bank model has spread, and among other institutions, Episcopal Relief & Development does micro-credit too. ER-D has other types of aid that also help people help themselves, such as "Gifts for Life", giving livestock for people to raise, not just to eat.

The Presiding Bishop again: "I can think of no better way to observe the passage of five years since the horrific events of September 11, 2001 than to commit ourselves, individually, as a church and as a nation to looking for new ways to pursue healing and restoration in the world God so loves. I can think of no better way to honor the memory of those who died on September 11 five years ago than by committing ourselves to working for a future in which the events of that day will not be repeated."

Give to ER-D: www.er-d.org or directly to Gifts for Life. ER-D works right in the messiest places.

Donate to the Grameen Bank Foundation: www.grameenfoundation.org

And to the Heifer Project, a 60-year-old organization in Little Rock, AR, that specializes in giving heifers and other animals to impoverished families around the world: www.heifer.org

The Presiding Bishop's statement is at www.episcopalchurch.org/3577_77651_ENG_HTM.htm

And The Price of a Dream is available here.

God Bless You all on this hallowed day and may God find His way into the hearts of the terrorists, helping them to find a better life. Amen.