Lessons after Sept. 11

(Children’s Defense Fund) – As the nation and world commemorate the anniversary of Sept. 11 this week, I remember again that it was a gloriously beautiful morning in Atlanta, Georgia, on Sept. 11, 2001. I saw a glimpse of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr.’s beloved community in his hometown as I attended the first public event of organizations that had joined together to sponsor a breakfast with several hundred Christian, Jewish, Muslim, Baha’i, Buddhist, Hindu and political and community leaders of every color to affirm our joint responsibility to ensure a safe and fit nation and world for all of God’s children. I was moved to tears as the angelic Harmony Children’s Choir, who looked like a little United Nations, sang the anthem of our Civil Rights Movement, We Shall Overcome, as sweetly and convincingly as I had ever heard.This taste of heaven and hope on earth was shattered by hate and hell on earth as my friend Andrew Young met me at the door with the news of the terrorists’ planes crashing into the World Trade Center and the Pentagon and the unknown whereabouts of President George W. Bush. I gasped aloud in horror at the world spinning out...