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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Historic Anniversaries, Unfinished Agendas. Part I ANOTHER ANGLE: the occasional musings of a Kentucky pastor.HISTORIC ANNIVERSARIES AND UNFINISHED AGENDAS - Part I This essay first printed in The Hart County News-Herald, 11 September, 2005. This has been slightly edited - Robert H. Stone The next earlier Another Angle: Lessons from those Burma Shave signs By The Rev. Joey N. Welsh This is a time for remembering the anniversaries of some tragic and terror-laden events. Those anniversaries are more than markers for past events, however, because each date reminds us of a vast unfinished agenda for our society in this nation and for the larger human society. This is not a time for jingoism or simplistic slogans. This is a time for somber contemplation on incomplete journeys, for remembering how far we have come as well as how far we must yet go. September 11, 2001 September 11, 2005 marked four years since our great national trauma when hijackers took planes loaded with fuel and passengers into the World Trade Center Towers in New York City, the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., and a field in Pennsylvania. The events of that morning seemed like science fiction at the time, and they still seem unreal to me. Osama bin Ladin remains uncaptured, and our troops are still on the field in Afghanistan. (Troops remain in Iraq, with no real end in sight; there has never been solid documented connection between Iraq and the events of September 11.) Our countrywomen and men deployed around the world are one unfinished agenda for us. Another closely related agenda item will remain even if bin Ladin is captured and American troops come home, for the origins of the events of 9/11 stretch back into the lack of peace and wholeness in the region of Israel and its neighbors. The establishment of Israel allowed the Jews of the world to have a homeland after centuries of persecution and the 20th century terror of Nazi genocide, an era when supposedly civilized nations were complicit through their silence and inactivity. That region still is home to thousands of Palestinian refugees who have been displaced by war and border changes. They have become increasingly bitter over the last half century. Some of them were relocated from lands that had been in their families for dozens of generations, and they have lived their whole lives and become grandparents while living in temporary camps and carrying the title of refugee. Their plight has fed a desire for vengeance throughout the Islamic world. Until there is real peace in the lands where the Prince of Peace once walked, there is little hope that the impulse for terrorism will fade. While we pray for our troops in Afghanistan and Iraq, we should also hope and pray for orderly progress in Gaza and a mutually satisfactory solution for the West Bank, and for Jerusalem itself, as the idea of an independent Palestinian state is pondered. September 12, 1977 September 12 marks the anniversary of the death of South African student activist Steven Biko. He died in the hands of white South African police, a martyr in the struggle against the terror of apartheid. His death sparked indignation around the world. Though South Africa has made the rocky transition to democracy, this date reminds us that the rest of the world has often acted as an uninterested bystander when injustice, genocide, and starvation have reigned in Africa. Rwanda's 100 days of slaughter in 1994 will always cast a shadow on the world's conscience. Disaster relief began flowing to Niger and Darfur in 2005 well after emergency aid workers had sounded their alarm. Learning to respond with timeliness and compassion to crises in Africa is another of our fractured agendas. September 15, 1963 Not all acts of terrorism have foreign roots. More than forty years ago on a Sunday morning, September 15, 1663, four girls were in their Sunday School room in the basement of 16th Street Baptist Church in Birmingham, AL. At 10:22 a.m. a bomb exploded into the basement, collapsing a wall of the building and destroying nearly all of the church's stained glass windows, save one. (A window portraying Jesus mostly remained, though the image of his face was shattered, perhaps, I imagine, because Jesus was hiding his face in shame.) Lying under the debris in the basement were the shattered bodies of Addie Mae Collins (age 14), Denise McNair (12), Carole Robertson (14), and Cynthia Wesley (14). Justice in this case came very slowly; the last of the men who planned and executed the bombing was found guilty in 2002. Though the final trial in the murder of the four Birmingham girls is now past, racism remains an agenda item for America. Anytime African-American kids the age of those four girls are denied opportunities for better health care or education, and anytime they are under close surveillance by retail workers who see them primarily as potential shoplifters, and any time they are robbed of hope in life, then they are being wounded and terrorized as surely as if they had a bomb tossed at them. These three anniversaries remind us of some ways our world has changed in recent years -- and also of some ways it still should change. NEXT WEEK: The September 17 anniversary of the 1862 Battle of Antietam Creek (the bloodiest day in American history) and the unfinished agenda left by the Civil War.E-mail: joey_n_welsh@hotmail.com This story was posted on 2010-09-12 03:27:56
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Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Palaces for transportation, palaces of memory Ken Hill: On having whittling at Downtown Days HS bullying left scars, but she succeeded, anyway Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Two Kentuckians and Supreme Court legacies 65 years ago: A few thoughts about the end of World War II A Kindred Spirit: Thoughts on winning, losing and playing the game Glenna Cowan: The flag is for all people Billy Joe Fudge, the tree man, thinks right Rev. Joey N. Welsh: Lessons from 40 years ago Creeping Fast Time: Once only Ashland had Eastern time View even more articles in topic Commentary |
 
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