On 9/11

On 9/11 I had just started at Wellesley. It was our second week of class. I had come out of a Classical Mythology class when a woman I had done service week the week before said to me, “A bomb just went off at the White House. People you know are definitely dead.” Much of my life is based around negative models, and she is one of them. I am an educator now and I would NEVER put my anxieties onto a student like that. It was the opposite of how I see my teaching; it was wholly selfish. 

I also remember feeling nervous for Muslims. I knew they would be blamed for what happened and I knew that wasn’t fair. I knew that America was not blameless and that our anger would only feed into cycles of violence. So much of my life now is built around my being an activist, but it wasn’t then. I was just a person with a big heart who knew that there was a wrong side of history that I didn’t want to be on. 

On this day of tragedy and remembrance, I hold in my heart all those who suffered and continue to suffer. I also recommit myself to being a part of the solution, to doing my part to make the world a better place. I reflect on the query hanging outside Friends Meeting of Washington - how can my life remove the causes for war? - with the aspiration that my life speak the answer.