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Reaching Out to Create Moments of Communal Healing 213

school–age children from Sunset Park, Brooklyn (they sang “The Impossible
Dream” and I cried), offering their talent in pursuit of love, peace, and
understanding (the 60s trinity). A woman who serves as the executive
director of South Asian Youth Action program was invited to speak to the
group of mostly African Americans and Latinos. She gave a warm greet-
ing, spoke elegantly about the significance of this peace vigil and then
closed with a Hindu prayer for peace.
While we did not know what she said, we (I) felt like she ministered to
us all. I told the young people in the audience, in as direct a manner pos-
sible, that children of oppressed people cannot become the oppressor of
other people’s children. This statement was picked up by a reporter from
The New York Times in the audience and was written for the world to see
and ponder:

O my people, hear my teaching, listen to the words of my mouth. I will open
my mouth in parables. I will utter hidden meanings, things from old—what we
have heard and known, what our fathers have told us. We will not hide them
from their children; and will tell the next generation the praiseworthy deeds of
the Lord, his power, and the wonders he has done … he commanded our forefa-
thers to teach their children so the next generation would know them even the
children yet to be born … Then they will put their trust in God and would not
forget his deeds and would keep his commandments. They would not be like
their forefathers—a stubborn and rebellious generation whose hearts were not
loyal to God, whose spirits were not faithful to him. (Psalms 78:1-4, 5a-8 NIV)

My Brother and Sister’s Keeper

I was invited to speak at the New York Academy of Medicine several weeks
after the tragedy. The focus of the meeting was to bring members of the
nonprofit community together to discuss strategies to help people cope
with the aftermath of 9/11. Given the fact that it now took hours for people
to make trips around the city that once took 20 minutes, there was plenty
of down time while waiting for people to arrive. Most of the conversa-
tion was about the new normal: machine gun–toting soldiers in the street,
street closures, and what would happen next. It was during this waiting
period (which no one seemed to mind at all) that I spoke to Dr. Mindy
Fullilove at length about her plan to launch a citywide, civic-led move-
ment to help people address and recover from trauma, stress, anxiety, and
fear. Her theory, drawn from her earlier studies on the impact of crack
cocaine on communities of color, was that it was crucial to involve people
in their healing.