9/11 Walks: Remembrance through Reconciliation
by Bart Campolo Monday, August 8th, 2011
OK, so imagine you had this great idea to help people all over the world to do something really meaningful on 9/11/11 and just four weeks to pull it off?
Actually, you don’t need need to imagine anything. You DO have a great idea, a seriously great idea, right here and now. We all do! Now we just need to work together to turn that idea into an even greater reality.
Think about it: Wouldn’t it be great if 9/11became a day to reach across your boundaries to connect with ‘the other’, the way Martin Luther King Day has become a day for community service? We won’t get all the way there this year, but people all over the world – and especially in the USA – are beginning to move in that direction. Our 9/11 Walks are part of that movement…and recruiting people to organize them is my part.
Please help me out by going to www.911Walks.org and organizing a walk in your neighborhood. It doesn’t have to be anything big and fancy, just you and a few of your friends calling up a nearby congregation of a different kind to see if a few of them will come out to walk and talk kindly with you on that afternoon.
The 9/11 Walks website makes it easy to get involved, and easier still to spread the word on Facebook and Twitter. COME ON…HELP A BROTHER OUT!
Do I seem desperate here? Good, because that is just how I feel. Desperate, needy…and totally inspired!
So go ahead, organize a walk! Call or email a friend and share the idea. Tell your spouse. Tell your dog. Something is happening out there…but people need to see it!
Four weeks doesn’t seem long enough to start a movement, but it is plenty of time for you to organize a neighborhood walk where strangers can become friends for the sake of peace. And for me to do it, too. And him over there. And her a few towns over. And her cousin too.
Get the idea?
—-
Bart Campolo is the USA and International Coordinator of 9/11 Walks
