Rabbi Andrea Cohen-Kiener (ahuva@trincoll.edu) devotes herself to the Compassionate Listening Project and to the beginning Arab-Jewish dialogue in Hartford, Connecticut.
     The tragedy of September 11, 2001 caused her to think deeply.  And to write of not just her own nation, but of all peoples, all life -- One.
     As we grieve and heal together, may we help a phoenix rise from the ashes.  Together, we can.

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Ground Zero Plus 8 Days

This Is What It Looks Like
By Andrea Cohen-Kiener


The flickering memorial flame of a small candle before a photograph, all that
remains of a young man ripped from the fabric of life.

The palpable, ache of grief.

Widows and orphans holding pictures of their dead beloveds, close to their
chest, weeping as they walk.

Mothers, rocking and crying My future is dead, my future is dead.

Helplessness.

Smoldering rage as hearts and minds take in the numbing injustice of it all.

Rallying to feed the widow and orphan. Solacing.

Resolve, patriotism, a quiet willingness to kill and be killed.

Absolute rage, at God at Them at everyone who is not struck with this
blinding loss.

Compassion. Transcendance.  The prayer of the heart that no other mother be
subject to this aching emptiness.


This is what it looks like and feels like in New York.

And in Kabul.

And in Bethlehem.

And in Tel Aviv.

And in Gaza City.

And in Washington.

And in Baghdad.

And in...


God help us learn.  Everyone of us.  Once and for all.

There is only One way out of this.