Beyond September 11th

Towers of Light in New York City

Speech given by The Rev. Deon Johnson  on September 11, 2011 at the Dedication of the City of Brighton's 9/11 Memorial

On a clear crisp day in September the world was turned upside down. Against the back drop of an unusually cloudless and warm day the unimaginable happened.  I was beginning my second year of seminary and started my morning on the subway, headed to St. Paul’s Chapel for an interview. As I came up from the subway the usual bustle of Manhattan seemed muted and as I got to the top of the subway stairs almost everyone was looking up. Smoke was coming from one of the World Trade Center towers. It all seemed unreal. My first thought was that a movie was being filmed, something that happens often in NYC, until I heard the sound of an airplane.  I watched in silence as the second plane crashed into the second tower of the World Trade Center, continuing to think that it was all part of a movie.

The realization that this was not some elaborate special effect hit home when pieces of the World Trade Center tower came raining down. All I could do was jump into a cab and make my way back to the seminary all the while listening to the commentary on the radio. As I arrived outside the seminary I remember hearing the bells, tolling a slow mournful toll, calling us to prayer. In the seminary chapel I joined my classmates in prayers for the nation and for the people on the planes and in the towers. Afterwards we made our way to the Westside highway, which looks directly down towards the World Trade Center and the Statue of Liberty. We stood there as those towers collapsed.

The next day I was dispatched to Ground Zero with the rest of my seminary classmates to be chaplains to the first responders and to offer care to the families of those missing. I spent a week praying, comforting, talking and trying to make sense out of all that happened on September 11, 2001.

September 11^th 2001 is forever etched into the fabric of our common history as a day of tragedy and loss. But September 12^th is a day of shared unity and common cause. On September 12^th we were at our best, living fully into the ideal of being the shining beacon on the hill that our forefathers and mothers envisioned.

One of the images that stuck with me from the days following September 11^th was the hundreds of fire trucks, ambulances, police cruisers and other emergency vehicles lining the Westside Highway in New York City for miles. Vehicles from almost every state showing the unity found in common cause.

I spent September 12^th and after praying with those who rushed in to collapsing buildings, praying over remains that were recovered, but most of all seeing the best of who we are as many different people united as one.

It is that sense of unity, of purpose, of hope that enveloped New York City in the days afterwards that is our focus on this 10^th anniversary.  We are a nation comprised of people of many faiths and differing beliefs, but we all look to a God who calls us to hope.

On September  12^th we lived more fully into that hope that unity brings. If we dwell too much on the pain, the fear and the resentment of September 11^th and let them be a cause of division and discord then we dishonor the lives of those who died on that day.  If we dwell on what happened in NYC and Washington DC and Pennsylvania, and we use it as an occasion of separation, disconnection and conflict with each other, then those who would insight terror would have won, they would have fulfilled their cause in making us fear each other and to turn our hope into despair.

Let us instead live into the best of September 12^th while commemorating those horrific acts of September 11^th.  On this 10^th anniversary let each one of us be a testament that we as Americans, called from differences, can be the best of who we claim to be. Let us live the words of the motto of this great nation, e pluribus unum –from many one.

I will never forget that day that changed my life and has influenced my ministry and my call as an Episcopal priest. I will remember those who lost their lives, those who rushed in when instinct said run away, I will reflect always on the events of that faithful day and strive once more for the sense of unity and hope that September 12^th inspired in us all and I ask you to join me in that journey, that together we can be one united people. 

Therefore go forth into the world in peace; Be of good courage; Hold fast to that which is good. Render to no one evil for evil. Strengthen the faint hearted. Support the weak. Help the afflicted. Honor everyone. Love and serve the Lord.

And may God continue to richly bless and keep you and those you love, filling you with hope for the journey ahead and may we once more find that common bond that unites us as one.  Thank you and God’s peace.