Middle of Everywhere - Mary Bray Pipher [2]
After September 11, we are all refugees from what was once our America. We have been exiled from a country that felt safe and calm and now we live in a new country filled with fear. We can learn from the refugees among us how to deal with our fears and sorrows. Our newcomers have experienced panic, loss, disruption, and vulnerability. They have learned to cope with catastrophes, and they can teach us how to survive these things. They can help us learn to live in the world with broken hearts.
Now that we have been terrorized, we have more empathy with others. When I returned from Canada I told Mohamed that, for the first time, I felt I could understand how he felt in Sierra Leone, not that our situation was as terrible, but that I had experienced similar feelings of shock, fear for my children, confusion, and depression. He was very quiet and then said, "I'm sorry you have to know how I feel."
On September 11 Americans felt what many of the world's people have felt for years. That day ended our illusions about our invulnerability and our isolation from the rest of the world. We joined the world's huddled masses yearning to breathe free. We need more than ever what I call "the attributes of resilience." We all want and need what refugees want and need. We yearn for family and friends, meaning, calmness, routines, useful work, and spiritual solace.
One of the main points of this book is that identity is no longer based on territory. The world community is small and interconnected. We are all living in one big town. This tragedy has provided us with the most significant teachable moment in our history. We can learn from this to be kinder and more appreciative of life. And we can learn the importance of understanding the perspectives of all our neighbors in our global village. We can learn that the entire world needs stronger international courts and policing bodies and an agreed upon standard of acceptable conduct. All of us can work together to enforce the Universal Declaration of Human Rights in all countries and to provide our global community with economic and social justice.
The great lesson of September 11 is that we are all connected. Either we all are safe or none of us is safe. Either we are all free of fear or none of us is. Right now we have a window of opportunity to rethink our policies and to deal with the world differently, more fairly and compassionately. These events can lead to a national renewal of energy and compassion as well as to what Gay Talese called "an enlargement of our capacity to be human."
Buddha was asked about the effects of enlightenment on his life. He said, "Before enlightenment I chopped wood and carried water. After enlightenment I chopped wood and carried water." That is how I feel about life now. Everything is totally different. I see the world and feel the world in a new way and yet, I carry on as before. In the end, I decided that to let this book die was to let terrorists be the storytellers for our global village.The Middle of Everywhere is my way to chop wood and carry water.
Prelude
ELLIS ISLAND
Jane and I sailed to Ellis Island from Battery Park on a gorgeous summer morning. As Manhattan, once called New Amsterdam, sparkled in the distance, we found a place on deck among the other tourists.
Jane has been my editor for the last seven years. She's the first-generation daughter of Polish-Jewish immigrants. I'm the great-granddaughter of Irish peasants who came to America escaping the potato famine and of Scottish immigrants who came as bond slaves.
Our ferry retraced the immigrants' voyage into the harbor. We stopped briefly at the Statue of Liberty to unload sightseers. Jane told me that one immigrant saw the statue and asked, "Is that Mrs. Roosevelt?"
Jane recited from memory the famous words:
Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses