3rd House Journal: Wall of Hope

WALL OF HOPE

'VISIONS of a BETTER WORLD'

A public art project under way will consist of 10,000 tiles

handpainted by Rhode Islanders to commemorate September 11.

Behind this "living statue" is the Wall of Hope, an installation of tiles painted in early 2002 by a spectrum of people in the community:

Inmates at the Rhode Island Training School are painting the tiles, as are some students from Providence Country Day School. Worshippers from the Musilm American Dawah Center of Rhode Island have painted tiles, as have workers at Textron, and students at Johson & Wales University. People have painted sunsets and inspirational quotes; someone painted the World Trade Center in heaven.

It was a time when we were stunned into seeing ourselves as one world, one family, one planet. Ignorance shattered but somehow innocent, devastated but hopeful that we could come together and make a better world out of the tragedy. After all, hadn't we seen photographs of people the world over showing solidarity with us, the innocent, attacked in the heart of our daily human lives? We were suddenly connected with all thoughtful, caring people around the globe.

Hundreds of tiles have been painted so far. The word "hope" has been painted in Chinese, Hebrew. Spanish and Arabic...

The first time I saw these tiles in Providence I was struck with their beauty and the thought that one by one, tile by tile, we really can build a hopeful world. Last night they made me sad. How little has changed, except for the worst it seems. We are more than ever under threat, our "leaders" are blind men with no real understanding of how they themselves create the conditions for hatred and danger, how they threw away the opportunity and challenge to be a force for oneness and healing, how wrongheaded, stubborn, persistent in digging our grave deeper.

"Hope is something that will always be there, if people just believe in it, like love,"...

It seems harder now to have hope, and I applaud those still working hard for peace, for understanding. This morning on the radio a British Muslim perhaps youth worker talked of the roots of anger among young people in their community and of the work he and others are doing to turn them around and bring them back into a more hopeful and responsible world view. To the hardliners, of course, to suggest that there are causes beyond "evil desire to hurt us" is justifying terrorism. Lock 'em up, kill them off, even as more spring up behind every one cut down. Or bomb innocent civilians - that'll teach 'em for living among terrorists, terrorists created by similar actions in the past.

Sigh. I have nothing to add. Other than vote, sign a few online petitions and so forth, all I can do is return to the small joys of everyday living and hope for the best.