Remembering 9/11

By Michelle Martin
Staff Writer

When terrorists flew airplanes into buildings on a sunny September morning five years ago, the world changed.

It changed in big ways and small, for nations and states and individuals. Some of the changes were predictable; some less so. Many of the Chicago-area residents The Catholic New World spoke with in the weeks following the tragedy would never have thought things would turn out as they have.

Catholic New World staff revisited several of those people on the anniversary of the attack. Among them is Christopher Cooper, an associate professor of criminal justice at Saint Xavier University on Chicago’s Southwest Side.

Cooper, a former police officer and Marine, headed for Manhattan as soon as he saw the news. He arrived on Sept. 12, and volunteered to dig through the rubble of the World Trade Center, hoping to find someone alive, recovering the remains of those who were not.

He spent three days at Ground Zero, hours every day in the dust and dirt, digging under the pile of debris that had been Tower Two.

Since then, he also spent four months on duty with his National Guard Unit in Iraq, was injured in a Humvee accident, and now suffers a variety of symptoms, including severe and recurring upper respiratory infections—symptoms that could be a result of his exposure to toxic dust in New York or to roadside bombs in Iraq or some combination of the two.

In June 2006, he joined the World Trade Center Medical Monitoring Program at New York’s Mount Sinai Hospital, and he was on medical leave from his teaching duties last semester.

“People are still dying,” said Cooper, speaking of the rescuers who have suffered health problems over the past five years.

It was a very chaotic time, Cooper said, and no one ever told the workers that they should change the filters on their breathing masks—advice that he thinks might have made a difference for him.

But without the attacks, Cooper said, the United States probably would not have gone to war in Iraq the way it did, he said. “I think the Bush administration would have proceeded with more caution,” he said.

But the lessons he has taken are not those of caution or fear.

“What I saw in those three days at the World Trade Center, it increased my appreciation of life, living every day, what life has to offer,” he said. “What impacted me most was not the three days at the World Trade Center, but what followed, with the war in Iraq. Human rights are of the utmost importance. I don’t think war is the solution. Too many people in Iraq who had nothing to do with any of this are dying meaninglessly, as well our men and women in the armed forces. My human compassion meter is really up because of the devastation and human suffering I saw.”

Father Daniel Brandt, now pastor of Nativity of Our Lord Parish, also felt a deep sense of the sanctity of human life when he spent time near Ground Zero.

Brandt, then associate pastor at St. William Parish, and Father Paul Kalchik traveled together to New York provide to pastoral care for the recovery workers who combed the debris, bringing the remains they found to a temporary morgue.

The two Chicago priests spent a week there, “but it felt like we were there for three months,” said Brandt, who arrived about a month after the towers came down.

“I think what all stands out for me five years later is the sanctity of life,” he said. “Every little bone fragment, every finger, every toe was received as part of a human being. In that way, every victim was given respect and honor. It made me feel good because we live in such a disposable society, even disposable human life.”

Brandt also values the relationships he formed with the recovery workers, police officers and firefighters who would break down and weep over the remains of colleagues they never knew. He has traveled to New York for retirement parties and will go soon for a wedding, and he has hosted groups of people he met then when they visited Chicago. Last year, he also became a chaplain for the Chicago Police Department.

“In New York, similar to Chicago, 80 percent of the uniformed services are Catholic,” he said. “The big thing I noticed was how important faith was to people. I felt blessed to be able to be there.”

Scott Alexander is a Catholic, but as director of the Catholic-Muslim Studies program at Catholic Theological Union, he spends much of his time working with members of the Muslim community.

He also helps educate Catholics about their neighbors in faith—a service that has been in high demand in the past five years.

“I’ve been busy,” said Alexander, who has made presentations to schools, parishes and religious congregations, among other Catholic institutions. “And that’s good.”

That has translated into more avenues for Catholics and Muslims to get to know one another, developing relationships and sharing their faiths, he said. Catholics once again have been invited to the Islamic Society of North America convention Labor Day weekend, and the Interfaith Unity Banquet. Meanwhile, Dominican University’s Siena Center’s fall Matthew J. Lamb Dialogue Series will focus on Catholic-Muslim dialogue.

But in the wider society, the Muslim community has not fared as well, especially since the beginning of the Iraq War in 2003.

“Things have gotten worse in terms of rashes of stereotypes and deepening suspicion,” Alexander said, noting that some commentators use terms like “Islamic fascists.”

“It’s highly problematic for people who don’t know anything about Islam. Islamophobia has opened a new chapter in racism in the United States.”

That racism is felt by Talat Othman, a leader in Muslim-Catholic dialogue who received an honorary doctorate from Catholic Theological Union in 2005 for his work.

“I cannot over emphasize how important the Catholic Community outreach to Muslims has been since 9/11,” Othman said. “This is particularly true when you consider some congressional persons are now calling for airport profiling of all Muslims. Their message is only not rational, but it serves to fuel fear and hate within our society.”

Dr. Shakeela Hassan, a physician who serves on the National Advisory Board of the Bernardin Center, remembers coming as a medical resident from Pakistan more than 40 years ago and being asked if she was a “Mohammedan.”

“It has improved,” said Hassan, who has offered much insight to Christians about Islam. “At least now people are asking questions and listening for the answers.”

But, she said, there is still far too much ignorance. Most Americans do not know that Muslims from 80 different countries of origin reside in the United States—the most diverse population of Muslims anywhere outside of Mecca at the time of the Hajj.

Others spend too much time finding differences, she said.

“I feel everybody who has faith has good human values,” she said. “God did not create us different.”