Come together right now

You say the date, 9-11, and it pauses you. Eleven years after that day, if one stops long enough to remember, and I hope you did so today, you are brought silent and there is a somberness, a quiet introspection.

I spent the afternoon facilitating a discussion on the film SICKO and the US Healthcare system to a group of twenty Americorps students who are beginning their placement in a variety of health care settings that serve individuals and communities too often on the margins.

The spirited conversation focused on issues of community and caring for one another and who are we as Americans and what kind of nation it is in which we want to live. I found it appropriate that the students' responses led the conversation to this point especially on this day.

The energy, intelligence, and compassion of these young people gives me hope.

It is the hope that comes from the idealism of the young.
It is the hope that comes from re-membering what we can be as members of the human community.
It is the hope that we can come together and care for each other...for all "the others."
It is the hope that grounds the work we do as teachers, clergy, community organizers, social workers, members of our shared community....build from this.

sj;