Day before I start my teaching-thoughts on September 11. Many of you have said good things over the past few days that truly are about fostering peace. We really need to prevail.

Went to the Manhattan Youth and Downtown Community Center on September 11 where community members come together in poetry, song, prayer and discussion. Bob Townley who along w/ community leaders willed the center into existence is the force behind this gathering. While there was some discussion of the Islamic Center and the voices in opposition to it and their motives, what the gathering wanted to discuss was their experiences on September 11 and the weeks after. One wonderful woman, short, busty, NEW YAWK in her every being said that as she watched the first plane hit the Tower that she wasn’t sure what would happen. Then she had a “spiritual” epiphany as she watched people just take care of each other. “no one was looking out for themselves, they were asking “can I help” The capacity to come together, to share in the suffering and to help each other is the narrative of these people who lived in the lofts and housing projects that dotted lower Manhattan in 2001. These were people who dealt w/ the military occupation where the soldiers simply could not believe that people lived downtown. These were the people who guided children out of the public school. These are the people who had no electricity; who were lied to by the EPA and these are the people WHO STAYED. Another, elderly Jewish woman stated that she wasn’t bothered by the Center-the organization has been in the neighborhood for years, and she said that there were other more important things that must dealt with (she is working to keep affordable housing for the elderly downtown).

Mostly everyone was angry that a day that had for many represented remembrance, renewal and rebuilding has almost been hijacked by angry, fearful people whose agenda has little to do with the civic fabric of lower Manhattan or indeed this nation. Contempt is too small a word is what I felt they have for these people. Not everyone wants the Center there, but most are resigned to its being built and they already know the price paid for religious intolerance and fanaticism. I wonder why it is so hard for others to see their own bigotry and the harm they do to the very people they claim they care about. Remembrance, renewal, rebuilt and “reconcilation” said the minister who led the discussion. Reconciliation seems to be the hardest nut to crack.

Patricia Spears Jones