To Bear Witness: A Journey of Healing and Solidarity

Grief and Renewal

112 113 I deal with epidemic diseases and the potentials of bioterrorism, I have been at the emergency command post and down at the Ground Zero site. No words at least I do not have words - can describe the rubble there, with fused body parts strewn across a landscape we knew so well. Since our American Civil War, almost one hundred and fifty years ago, we have been spared such scenes in the United States. Geography isolated us from recent conflicts. World War I and World War II passed our land by, but we must remember that the specter of death and destruction is well known in almost every otherpartoftheworld.WemustnotforgetthatLondon and Stalingrad, Dresden and Hiroshima, Dubrovnik and Grozny have all been almost obliterated and yet, with courage and hard work, with help from friends and former enemies, they came back to life as cities and societies. In our sorrow today, as we honor our thousands dead and missing, we must also remember that a million people were hacked to death a few years ago in Rwanda. I worked in Somalia when hundreds of thousands of innocent women and children starved to death. Every one of those dead had a father and mother, a sister or a brother, a child or a lover. Somehow keeping that perspective has always helped me to carry on, to try to help others to heal. I firmly believe we are all part of one world. We in America have been the most fortunate, and we have every right to defend our way of life. But we would indulge in an obscene and dangerous deception if we think this is the only tragedy to befall mankind. Those are not, I hope, unfeeling words on a day when one rightly expects sympathy. But healing will take more than mere expressions of sympathy. It will begin - as your university proudly does every day - by mixing Grief and Renewal UN Chronicle, 2001 It is a privilege to be asked to share in this memorial service at Pace University but also, and just as important, to be present at your time of renewal. These emotions - grief, approaching despair, and overwhelming, abiding hope are not contradictory or mutually exclusive. Particularly for the young, hope for a better future is a fundamental part of your being. It is why you study at a university. To learn, to expand your minds so that you can contribute to others, and maybe, just maybe, make a saner world for your children and their children. Today, it is both your solidarity with the dead and the injured, combined with your determination and commitment to begin a new era, that offer the finest tribute to the memory of those we honor. To you who have lost loved ones and to you who are physically or mentally scarred by this trauma, do not be afraid; do not underestimate your capacity to heal and to grow. You can, and you simply must, go on, and we all must learn from this disaster. My own perspective on tragedy is somewhat unusual. Every day most physicians deal with human tragedy, since pain and death are integral parts of medical life. Usually these are individual events, and few physicians are prepared for enormous catastrophes. But for over forty years, I have worked in troubled parts of Africa, Asia, and Latin America. My perspective on human tragedy is tempered by such experiences and may offer a necessary balance as we Americans ponder the terrorist acts that destroyed the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon, killed thousands of innocent people, and disrupted life around the world. Because 112 113 I deal with epidemic diseases and the potentials of bioterrorism, I have been at the emergency command post and down at the Ground Zero site. No words at least I do not have words - can describe the rubble there, with fused body parts strewn across a landscape we knew so well. Since our American Civil War, almost one hundred and fifty years ago, we have been spared such scenes in the United States. Geography isolated us from recent conflicts. World War I and World War II passed our land by, but we must remember that the specter of death and destruction is well known in almost every otherpartoftheworld.WemustnotforgetthatLondon and Stalingrad, Dresden and Hiroshima, Dubrovnik and Grozny have all been almost obliterated and yet, with courage and hard work, with help from friends and former enemies, they came back to...