E-Mail Messages on September 11, 2001 Tragedy
I pray for a more friendly, more caring, and more understanding human family on this planet. To all who dislike suffering, who cherish lasting happiness, this is my heartfelt appeal.
- His Holiness the Fourteenth Dali Lama
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From: ECMCM - Boston, MA
Sent: Saturday, September 15, 2001 8:13 AM
To: aliciamr@sclmcoach.com
Subject:
I have concluded that God needs a good lawyer! There are too many cranks and crackpots doing hurtful things in God's name. That's got to be actionable in some higher court. It
probably will be too.
Yes, I too am sure that we'll get through this New York tragedy - somehow. My favorite Mother Teresa quote is this: "I know God never gives me
anything I can't handle, but sometimes I wish He didn't have so much confidence in me."
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From: "P. H."
To: aliciamr@sclmcoach.com
Sent: Wednesday, September 12, 2001 11:41 PM
Subject: Re: September 11, 2001: EDE Special Edition
Deb and I have just returned from two weeks in Utah. We heard the news
shortly after it happened Tuesday. Ironically it was the first news of
any kind we had heard in ten days. We had just left the river and were
driving east. We crested a tall ridge driving across the Grand Staircase /
Escalante National Monument, just west of Boulder Utah and were finally
able to get a weak AM radio station to tune into. Suspecting that we would not
really hear anything that interesting we were not really listening but
were watching the scenery. We heard a brief snippet about the WTC being hit by
a plane and collapsing...then nothing but static. One word: disbelief.
Could we have really heard what we thought??? A little while later we regained
a radio signal and the full weight of that report sunk in. Boulder Utah..about as far away from NY City in distance and
culture as can be found. One of the most remote areas in the Continental US. As safe and removed as possible. No targets or icons here. No real towns for that matter. Miles and miles of red
rock. Yet when we stopped for gas you could tell that even here everything and everyone had changed. The silence in the gas station/cafe was more profound than the silence in all of the vast
desert. And yet strangers spoke to each other who might not have otherwise. All in quiet, "hushed" tones. And expressed real feelings instead of vague pleasantries. A
road construction flagman felt sorrow, and said so. There was talk that the National Parks would close, which meant driving several hundred miles around (in stead if directly through) Bryce Canyon. A
small delay compared to the thousands of stranded air travels, but enough to hit home that there will be very real, fundamental shifts in our lives, in ways that we can not control and cannot even now foresee.
We all know someone who was lost. We may not realize it now, but eventually we will. How many Colby Grads went into "big business" in NYC and worked at| the WTC? I can't think of one off
hand, but I'm sure there are dozens. How many meeting planners that I worked with before moved offices or jobs and worked there? I'm sure several, although I don't know who. How many of the 200,000
tourists who pass through the WTC daily were there at the wrong time? And who were they? And how will we know?? A count of the rosters of employees will not turn up names of tourists inside
or passerbys outside. A hotel guest who never returns may be the only clue.
How many of these people do we each know? The "six degrees of separation" seem compressed to no more than one degree. Every person lost could be some one we know.
The thought of the unknown ends to so many lives leaves enough desperation in each of us for this tragedy to hit home. I go back to work tomorrow and I know our hotel will be filled with guests who were
meant to leave yesterday or today. And that later it will be empty of those who were supposed to arrive. And that travel patterns will change, groups may shrink or cancel. The continuing silence
will become even more profound in the coming days. Revenue will be lost. Our economy will be affected. Eventually we will return to a semblance of a normal routine. We are a resilient
people. But we will always look over our shoulder. And we will look at all icons as possible targets. Here, a part of each of us will give pause when we look at the Golden Gate Bridge or the
TransAmerica Pyramid. The vacant stares of tourists will tell the same tale.
The real test of change will be how much we let this experience alter our "Game" versus our "Real Life". To be sure, it will alter each. We may not be able to control how it
alters the "Game"; we may just need to learn some new rules. But, we can look at our real lives and make sure that any change is born of positive thought and action which results in a change
for the better.
P.H. San Francisco, USA
From: P.H. San Francisco
Sent: Sunday, September 23, 2001 6:38 PM
To: aliciamr@sclmcoach.com
Subject: A few thoughts from a weekend of some reading and reflection
Hi Alicia,
Took a thorough
"tour" of your new website and found it to be quite interesting. I read through the "Memoriam" section and think you have assembled some well balanced wisdom.
Tamim Ansary, whose email
letter surfaces in a couple of the entries you've included is a local writer (mostly of children's books.)
Today's (Sunday's) San Francisco Chronicle has a short interview with him. If you go to sfgate.com and follow the links for Archive then select keyword "Tamim Ansary" you will find an online version of this article. It is interesting not only for the context of the author's message but for the dynamics it reveals about communications in this age of E-mails, Internet and websites. Tamim did not intend that his letter would be so widely read. The power of the word can be stronger than we imagine.
After my note you will see that I have forwarded an email to you from a fiend of mine who Deb and I met while hiking the Appalachian Trail.
She cites some very timely words that were read by Dr Martin Luther King in 1967. They echo the sentiments being expressed today by many of your correspondents and offer some timeless insight into what should guide our course of action. (See Dr. Martin Luther King: A Christmas Sermon on Peace, 1967)
The piece that you've included from Gordon Sinclair, I'm sure you know was written in 1973 as America was being "bashed" during the height of the Watergate Scandal and as we were pulling out from
Vietnam.
It is interesting that I last recall seeing it spread around via the fax at the time of the Gulf War in 1991. There's interesting background information on Gordon Sinclair on the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation's website.
Many of my hotel fiends are or soon will be laid off. Or, if they remain employed will face the void of watching morale in their workplace erode as a result of layoffs.
Interestingly enough there seems to be a rallying around each other. I have found myself reconnecting this week with many people that I haven't spoken to in quite some time. And, the relationships with clients I have coming in during the next months have grown stronger as we bond on new levels facing common problems.
Under the category of what we can all do I have two thoughts:
1. Learn a foreign language ( or refine our skills, if we already know one) so that we can better understand the world.
2.
Learn more about other cultures and perspectives, which I think many people are trying to do this week. We shouldn't let up on this effort to learn in the months and years ahead.
Phil
nowhere_man97@hotmail.com
Alicia's Reply, September 23, 2001:
From so long ago, the words of Martin Luther King echo what is happening in today's world.
We are always contending with means/ends as if they were completely polarized. And they are not. They are connected and many do not see that.
How interesting what you say about the letters from T.
Ansary and Gordon Sinclair. You are right, nowhere in the emails is there a context for these letters and writings. Thanks so much for pointing that out.
I will correct this and include it in the body of the documents. I will also include Martin Luther King's message.
I know the tourism and hotel business will be hit hard. Ironically, before all of
this, it was in the top 5 industries of the new millennium. My, how one day can change things.
You are very generous in your offers to the hotel. I have coached people who have been laid off. The first thing they say is "help me find a job". I say, "First, let me help you with your loss, then find the right job". People really do get hit hard, regardless of the reason for the layoffs. Your life flows better than most so you are right in saying that it is easier for you.
I grew up speaking Spanish and feeling more Colombian than American - sometimes feeling "different" as if it were a bad thing.
I learned at Colby to be happy with that, as that was a link for me to another larger world. Americans are USA-centric and have always been. I have traveled extensively in the world and know that many Americans expect others in other countries to adapt to them, as opposed to vice versa. It is time we all learned that we are a global community instead of fragmented pieces of ideologies. I agree, let's hope this event brings us to a deeper understanding, not only of each other in this nation, but of others in the world.
Thanks for writing!
Alicia
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From: KW - Spokane, WA
I am very disturbed by all the focus on "who" did this and not on why. I see this act as a clear wake up call to America about our conspicuous consumption and continued self-serving ignoring of the
pain that most of the rest of the world is in. I can imagine thousands of people abroad watching this devastation and thinking to themselves, "Now they know what my life is like every day." We
may be a world power, but I wonder how good of a world leader we are. When Bush says we will "hunt down and punish" those responsible I can't help believe that we are too responsible. Not for
the lax security measures, but for believing that we can be whole when so much of the world suffers. To seek out and punish only perpetuates violence. In all of human history violence has never
culminated in peace. At best it gains temporary compliance. Those who create this kind of catastrophe must be in incredible pain to kill to feel balance. We need to find greater equanimity in our
abundance or we will all share in the world's massive pain.
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