In the Aftermath of Sandy Hook

In the Aftermath of Sandy Hook

I imagine that most of you, like me, are still stumbling with unrelenting grief for the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre of this past Friday. We lived through too many of these events these past years, but it feels different this time. I think a lot of that has to do with the sad fact, that twenty young children—children the same age as my own—were mowed down, mowed down at a school, much like the one in which my children are sitting in as I write this. But it is more than that. It seems like not just me personally, but as a nation, and even as a world, we have reached a tipping point. We can no longer console ourselves with mere words, with soul searching that turns back to carrying on the same as before.

We can no longer feel helpless in the face of politicians who are more beholden to special interest and corporate lobbyists and to the war machine and culture of fear than to the American people and our children. We can no longer say that we are powerless in face of corporate and financial interests who have taken over our government. Instead, I feel an overpowering urge overtaking myself and I sense all of us that as human beings we want to take a new yardstick for our actions. We desire to refocus our intentions. Not simply is what I am doing positive or is it helpful in some small way, but how will my actions today, tomorrow, and every moment impact the world and the future for our children. Is what I am doing creating a better social, spiritual, and physical world for my children, for all children because if we focus on this intention it forces us out of the petty politics of today, it broadens our time horizon, it makes us think carefully about our choices and actions, it gives them a different urgency and a far reaching quality when we reflect on the ripple effects of our decisions today on the future world our children will inhabit.

I don’t want our kids to grow up in this culture saturated with a thick soup of fear and paranoia, a dense fog that I find myself constantly trying to burn away as I seek to make my way through to connect past apprehension to link to the shared humanity of my neighbors and coworkers. I don’t want our children fearful to walk the halls at school. I don’t want them to dread recess where they might be called a Muslim terrorist or to be scrutinized by their teachers as a possible future terrorist when they engage in normal, everyday boy behavior.

I still remember the moment four decades ago when I was in second grade and my dad told me that I didn’t need to ever be afraid because God was watching over me every moment and taking care of me. This was so comforting to me and made me feel so secure and gave me such an all-embracing armor to navigate my seven-year-old world.

I have always appreciated the long time horizon of the Hizmet Movement. It is unique in its approach to world peace. I mean who out there is starting with nurturing babies all the way through adulthood in the hopes that at the peaks of their careers, they will be a position to bring about world peace? Who is dedicating their entire lives to service in this cause of world peace knowing that they might never see the payoff in their life times? Hizmet is doing this work. In 1991, the first volunteers, most only 18 to 24 years old at that time, set-off for countries of which they had only the barest of knowledge to start schools for a better world. And every year since then, the migration continues until now these schools, sometimes called “peace islands,”  are in about 130 countries. Sure Hizmet has its conferences, receptions, and endless meetings with politicians and heads of state where everyone can congratulate themselves and feel good, as if merely talking about tolerance, coexistence, and interfaith dialogue is actually making the world a better place. I don’t want to discount these efforts—they serve an important role in disseminating ideas and in many countries, they serve as catalysts for new ways of thinking among the political and intellectual elite, but the real story of Hizmet, the real backbone of the movement,  is the schools—schools that are designed to educate our youth by addressing both their intellectual and emotional needs, nurturing a “Golden Generation” saturated in understanding and living universal human values, never losing sight of the fullness of their humanity – not just their “head needs,” but their “heart needs” as well. While conforming to the highest intellectual standards, these schools on purpose bring children together from diverse backgrounds to learn the human values of cooperation, teamwork, fairness, tolerance, love for all humanity, patriotism for their countries, and a desire to serve. The schools have been so successful that in many countries, educational ministers and leaders are working to implement the model of these peace islands throughout their nations’ school systems.

I met one teacher in Nigeria who playing on the term “Golden Generation” referred to himself as part of the “Copper Generation,” perhaps alluding to the fact that in his youth in Turkey, he lived in an overly secular culture, with an unstable government prone to military take-overs. But now, he was living everyday focusing his intention and his work on how it would affect the children entrusted in his care, hoping that with his dedicated service and commitment, he could help build this “Golden Generation” so that in the future, we would have a chance for peace, a chance to escape this culture of fear, and turn to each other embracing our full humanity across the diversity of our cultures, languages, and religions towards a happier horizon. Here in America, we too, must build a “Golden Generation.” As President Obama starkly proclaimed Sunday night in Newtown, “We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.”

I imagine that most of you, like me, are still stumbling with unrelenting grief for the Sandy Hook Elementary school massacre of this past Friday. We lived through too many of these events these past years, but it feels different this time. I think a lot of that has to do with the sad fact, that twenty young children—children the same age as my own—were mowed down, mowed down at a school, much like the one in which my children are sitting in as I write this. But it is more than that. It seems like not just me personally, but as a nation, and even as a world, we have reached a tipping point. We can no longer console ourselves with mere words, with soul searching that turns back to carrying on the same as before.

We can no longer feel helpless in the face of politicians who are more beholden to special interest and corporate lobbyists and to the war machine and culture of fear than to the American people and our children. We can no longer say that we are powerless in face of corporate and financial interests who have taken over our government. Instead, I feel an overpowering urge overtaking myself and I sense all of us that as human beings we want to take a new yardstick for our actions. We desire to refocus our intentions. Not simply is what I am doing positive or is it helpful in some small way, but how will my actions today, tomorrow, and every moment impact the world and the future for our children. Is what I am doing creating a better social, spiritual, and physical world for my children, for all children because if we focus on this intention it forces us out of the petty politics of today, it broadens our time horizon, it makes us think carefully about our choices and actions, it gives them a different urgency and a far reaching quality when we reflect on the ripple effects of our decisions today on the future world our children will inhabit.

I don’t want our kids to grow up in this culture saturated with a thick soup of fear and paranoia, a dense fog that I find myself constantly trying to burn away as I seek to make my way through to connect past apprehension to link to the shared humanity of my neighbors and coworkers. I don’t want our children fearful to walk the halls at school. I don’t want them to dread recess where they might be called a Muslim terrorist or to be scrutinized by their teachers as a possible future terrorist when they engage in normal, everyday boy behavior.

I still remember the moment four decades ago when I was in second grade and my dad told me that I didn’t need to ever be afraid because God was watching over me every moment and taking care of me. This was so comforting to me and made me feel so secure and gave me such an all-embracing armor to navigate my seven-year-old world.

I have always appreciated the long time horizon of the Hizmet Movement. It is unique in its approach to world peace. I mean who out there is starting with nurturing babies all the way through adulthood in the hopes that at the peaks of their careers, they will be a position to bring about world peace? Who are dedicating their entire lives to service in this cause of world peace knowing that they might never see the payoff in their life times? Hizmet is doing this work. In 1991, the first volunteers, most only 18 to 24 years old at that time, set-off for countries of which they had only the barest of knowledge to start schools for a better world. And every year since then, the migration continues until now these schools, sometimes called “peace islands,”  are in about 130 countries. Sure Hizmet has its conferences, receptions, and endless meetings with politicians and heads of state where everyone can congratulate themselves and feel good, as if merely talking about tolerance, coexistence, and interfaith dialogue is actually making the world a better place. I don’t want to discount these efforts—they serve an important role in disseminating ideas and in many countries, they serve as catalysts for new ways of thinking among the political and intellectual elite, but the real story of Hizmet, the real backbone of the movement,  is the schools—schools that are designed to educate our youth by addressing both their intellectual and emotional needs, nurturing a “Golden Generation” saturated in understanding and living universal human values, never losing sight of the fullness of their humanity – not just their “head needs,” but their “heart needs” as well. While conforming to the highest intellectual standards, these schools on purpose bring children together from diverse backgrounds to learn the human values of cooperation, teamwork, fairness, tolerance, love for all humanity, patriotism for their countries, and a desire to serve. The schools have been so successful that in many countries, educational ministers and leaders are working to implement the model of these peace islands throughout their nations’ school systems.

I met one teacher in Nigeria who playing on the term “Golden Generation” referred to himself as part of the “Copper Generation,” perhaps alluding to the fact that in his youth in Turkey, he lived in an overly secular culture, with an unstable government prone to military take-overs. But now, he was living everyday focusing his intention and his work on how it would affect the children entrusted in his care, hoping that with his dedicated service and commitment, he could help build this “Golden Generation” so that in the future, we would have a chance for peace, a chance to escape this culture of fear, and turn to each other embracing our full humanity across the diversity of our cultures, languages, and religions towards a happier horizon. Here in America, we too, must build a “Golden Generation.” As President Obama starkly proclaimed Sunday night in Newtown, “We can’t tolerate this anymore. These tragedies must end. And to end them, we must change.”