(This was posted
as by Vietnamese Buddhist monk, Thich Nhat Hanh. This is not true. I am
left with mixed feelings about including it.
It well reflects my personal views – but was mislabeled. I can only hope the person who added the
false label was not the person who wrote it.
– Gus diZerega)
I am a World
Trade Center tower, standing tall in the clear blue sky,
feeling a violent
blow in my side, and
I am a towering
inferno of pain and suffering imploding upon myself and
collapsing to the
ground.
May I rest in
peace.
I am a terrified
passenger on a hijacked airplane not knowing where we
are going or that
I am riding on fuel tanks that will be instruments of
death, and
I am a worker
arriving at my office not knowing that in just a moment
My future will be
obliterated.
May I rest in
peace.
I am a pigeon in
the plaza between the two towers eating crumbs from
someone's
breakfast when fire rains down on me from the skies, and
I am a bed of
flowers admired daily by thousands of tourists now buried
under five
stories of rubble.
May I rest in
peace.
I am a
firefighter sent into dark corridors of smoke and debris on a
mission of mercy
only to have it collapse around me, and
I am a rescue
worker risking my life to save lives who is very aware
that I may not
make it out alive.
May I rest in
peace.
I am a survivor
who has fled down the stairs and out of the building to
safety who knows
that nothing will ever be the same in my soul again,
and
I am a doctor in
a hospital treating patients burned from head to toe
who knows that
these horrible images will remain in my mind forever.
May I know peace.
I am a tourist in
Times Square looking up at the giant TV screens
thinking I'm
seeing a disaster movie as I watch the Twin Towers crash
to the ground,
and
I am a New York
woman sending e-mails to friends and family letting
them know that I
am safe.
May I know peace.
I am a piece of
paper that was on someone's desk this morning and now
I'm debris
scattered by the wind across lower Manhattan, and
I am a stone in
the graveyard at Trinity Church covered with soot from
the buildings
that once stood proudly above me, d! death meeting death.
May I rest in
peace.
I am a dog
sniffing in the rubble for signs of life, doing my best to
be of service,
and
I am a blood
donor waiting in line to make a simple but very needed
contribution for
the victims.
May I know peace.
I am a resident
in an apartment in downtown New York who has been
forced to
evacuate my home, and
I am a resident
in an apartment uptown who has walked 100 blocks home
in a stream of
other refugees.
May I know peace.
I am a family
member who has just learned that someone I love has died,
and
I am a pastor who
must comfort someone who has suffered a heart-breaking loss.
May I know peace.
I am a loyal
American who feels violated and vows to stand behind any
military action
it takes to wipe terrorists off the face of the earth,
and
I am a loyal
American who feels violated and worries that people who
look and sound
like me are all going to be blamed for this tragedy.
May I know peace.
I am a frightened
city dweller who wonders whether I'll ever feel safe
in a skyscraper
again, and
I am a pilot who
wonders whether there will ever be a way to make the
skies truly safe.
May I know peace.
I am the owner of
a small store with five employees that has been put
out of business
by this tragedy, and
I am an executive
in a multinational corporation who is concerned about
the cost of doing
business in a terrorized world.
May I know peace.
I am a visitor to
New York City who purchases postcards of the World
Trade Center Twin
Towers that are no more, and
I am a television
reporter trying to put into words the terrible things
I have seen.
May I know peace.
I am a boy in New
Jersey waiting for a father who will never come home,
and
I am a boy in a
faraway country rejoicing in the streets of my village
because someone
has hurt the hated Americans.
May I know peace.
I am a general
talking into the microphones about how we must stop
the terrorist
cowards who have perpetrated this heinous crime, and
I am an
intelligence officer trying to discern how such a thing could
have happened on
American soil, and
I am a city
official trying to find ways to alleviate the suffering of
my people.
May I know peace.
I am a terrorist
whose hatred for America knows no limit and I am
willing to die to
prove it, and
I am a terrorist
sympathizer standing with all the enemies of American
capitalism and
imperialism, and
I am a master
strategist for a terrorist group who planned this
abomination.
My heart is not
yet capable of openness, tolerance, and loving.
May I know peace.
I am a citizen of
the world glued to my television set, fighting back
my rage and
despair at these horrible events, and
I am a person of
faith struggling to forgive the unforgivable, praying
for the
consolation of those who have lost loved ones, calling upon the
merciful
beneficence of God/Yahweh/Allah/Spirit/Higher Power.
May I know peace.
I am a child of
God who believes that we are all children of God and we
are all part of
each other.
May we all know
peace.