Items of interest

with contributions from Nancy Gibbs, Martin Luther King, Walter Wink

"IT WAS TEMPTING TO SAY that Sept. 11 changed [our perceived weaknesses], just as it is tempting to say that every hero needs a villain, and goodness needs evil as its grinding stone. But try looking a widow in the eye and talking about all the good that has come of this. It may not be a coincidence, but neither is it a partnership: good does not need evil, we owe no debt to demons, and the attack did not make us better. It was an occasion to discover what we already were."

Nancy Gibbs
"Sept. 11 Delivered Both a Shock and a Surprise—
The Attack, and Our Response"
Time Magazine, December 31, 2001
©Tribune Media Services, Inc. All rights reserved.
Reprinted with permission.

"WE MUST FOREVER conduct our struggle on the high plane of dignity and discipline. We must not allow our creative protest to degenerate into physical violence. Again and again we must rise to the majestic heights of meeting physical force with soul force. The marvelous new militancy which has engulfed the Negro community must not lead us to distrust of all white people, for many of our white brothers, as evidenced by their presence here today, have come to realize that their destiny is tied up with our destiny and their freedom is inextricably bound to our freedom. We cannot walk alone."

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