Plain Talk For Painful Times
by Eileen McDargh
September 11, 2001 became our new "Day of Infamy."
The calls started at 6:00 a.m. PST.
Mother's voice shrilled into my not-quite awake
brain. "Turn on ABC."
She hung up.
The devastation and the horror began
with a flick of power to the television. Hatred came
to life before my
eyes. With it came fear, a moment of panic, and then
calls to everyone
I loved and cared about. Like so many of you, I
alternated between
listening and watching "the news" to half-hearted
attempts at work.
On the day after this evil, I am
compelled to write. Everyone reading this has also
experienced both
the planned cruelty of humanity as well as its
generosity. People
stood in line waiting to donate blood. Firefighters
and police
officers gave their lives. Messages of support
swirled across e-mail
channels. And the "safety" we thought was ours has
disappeared in the
dense clouds of smoke that carried the World Trade
Tower, the
Pentagon, and four planes into destruction. All the
technology in the
world would not have prevented this attack. The human
technology of
hatred overrode all systems.
The question for me is deeper then
"who did this?" Instead, the question is "how can we
use this evil to
become wiser and more humanly connected?" How the
nation responds in
the aftermath of this horror will tell the world just
who we really
are. I pray that our wise responses will be words of
compassion and
reason in the midst of insanity. While the cold
inhumanity of
terrorism is horrific, it cannot lead us into
generalizations about a
race, religion, or nation. The actions of a few do
not denote the
mindset of all.
If this day of infamy is to be truly
life changing, we must tell ourselves the truth. The
truth is that
evil can be done to others when one feels no
connection with the
victim. The hate crimes that have been perpetrated in
our country are
the same evil. The difference is scale and the fact
that we have
witnessed the horrific killings first hand from a
televisions lens.
To truly honor the memory of the men,
women, and children who were murdered in yesterday's
attack, may I
suggest that we explore our own connections with
others. Whose voices
do we turn off because of prejudice? Are we willing
to explore another
point of view? What words of vindictiveness and
cruelty do we stand by
and hear without comment? Can we make our workplaces
open for the give
and take of ideas, opinions and the honoring of
differences? With whom
do we need to reconcile so that our space on this
earth is not
splattered with bitterness?
Let us not hide behind the fear of
vulnerability for such fear leads to either bluster
and posturing or
hunker-down and retreating. Rather, let us be
courageous and use this
event as a catalyst to connect the human web in our
work, our
community, our nation and our world.
Consider this plain talk for painful
times.
© Eileen McDargh, McDargh Communications. All rights reserved. You may reprint this article so long as it remains intact with the byline and if all links are made live.
Since 1980, Hall of Fame speaker Eileen McDargh has helped Fortune 100 companies as well as individuals create connections that count and conversations that matter. Her latest book is Gifts from the Mountain-Simple Truths for Life's Complexities. Her other books include Talk Ain't
Cheap...It's Priceless and Work for a Living and Still Be Free to Live, one of the first books to address the notion of balance and authentic work. A 59 year-old grandmother, she recently returned from climbing among the highest mountains in the world. Find out more about this compelling
and effective professional speaker and join her free newsletter by visiting http://www.EileenMcDargh.com.
McDargh
Communications
(949) 496-8640
Eileen@EileenMcDargh.com
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