Thoughts about 9/11 observances
Sep. 7th, 2011 03:18 pm![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png){kind=small}
rowanfI'm going out to a 9/11 observance tonight http://www.sivicouncil.org/events.htm#lovehatelove. I'm going to be there as a "Faith Leader" and they are asking us to answer the following question: "how do you, as a faith leader, turn a national tragedy like 9/11 into an opportunity to positively transform your community and, furthermore, as a means to encouraging volunteerism and community engagement." I have been looking around the web, curious about what Paganfolk have said about 9/11.
I admit that my feelings are pretty ambivalent. I don't feel any more connection to New York than to say Dublin or Mumbai or Johannesburg in terms of feeling compassion for those who lose loved ones to tragedy. So the "National Tragedy" aspect doesn't resonate.
I was horrified by the reaction many Americans seemed to have toward Islam as a result of the terribly biased reporting and the crazy reactions of the Bush government. So I can totally see how the Muslim community has been forced to make it about more community engagement because it is harder for people to hate the known than the unknown. But do Pagans need to tie community engagement we are doing to 9/11? I'm not really seeing it unless you are local to NYC or other communities that were actually impacted.
Some of the things I've found include Jason's posts including one last year, Remembering and Reclaiming September 11th http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2010/09/remembering-and-reclaiming-september-11th.html and What’s the Pagan Response? http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2010/09/whats-the-pagan-response.html
Also Peter Dybing shares a 9/11 Ritual for Tolerance
http://www.patheos.com/community/paganportal/2010/09/11/guest-post-peter-dybing-shares-a-911-ritual-for-tolerance/
It doesn't really help me answer the question. That happens a lot for Pagans in interfaith. We get posed questions that really don't resonate with our worldviews. Or maybe this is just me.
I admit that my feelings are pretty ambivalent. I don't feel any more connection to New York than to say Dublin or Mumbai or Johannesburg in terms of feeling compassion for those who lose loved ones to tragedy. So the "National Tragedy" aspect doesn't resonate.
I was horrified by the reaction many Americans seemed to have toward Islam as a result of the terribly biased reporting and the crazy reactions of the Bush government. So I can totally see how the Muslim community has been forced to make it about more community engagement because it is harder for people to hate the known than the unknown. But do Pagans need to tie community engagement we are doing to 9/11? I'm not really seeing it unless you are local to NYC or other communities that were actually impacted.
Some of the things I've found include Jason's posts including one last year, Remembering and Reclaiming September 11th http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2010/09/remembering-and-reclaiming-september-11th.html and What’s the Pagan Response? http://www.patheos.com/blogs/wildhunt/2010/09/whats-the-pagan-response.html
Also Peter Dybing shares a 9/11 Ritual for Tolerance
http://www.patheos.com/community/paganportal/2010/09/11/guest-post-peter-dybing-shares-a-911-ritual-for-tolerance/
It doesn't really help me answer the question. That happens a lot for Pagans in interfaith. We get posed questions that really don't resonate with our worldviews. Or maybe this is just me.
