Notes from Montgomery (on
9/11)
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Ladder 15 is the only known fire company to have reached
the floor of impact on 9/11. My stepdad, Lt Joe Leavey and his
men were on their way to WTC when they saw the plane hit the
second tower. Without hesitation, he redirected them to tower 2
where they proceeded to run up 78 flights of stairs when so many
were running down and out.
Twenty two years later, I am writing and reflecting from
Montgomery,AL where I am deepening my
understanding/responsibility in the horrific and heartbreaking
legacy of slavery. I cant help but think this is another kind of
ground zero, one that is demanding a reckoning and reconciliation
of epic proportions. While these wounds are markedly different, I
can see and feel how the lie of separation and supremacy got us
here - a nation wounded many times over and caught up in an
endless cycle of violence.
Since 9/11 alone, people of Arab and South Asian descent have
been intimidated, surveilled, incarcerated, and killed in
exponentially increasing numbers. Military service members have
given and taken their lives through suicide. Families have been
torn apart through brutal immigration policies and mass
incarceration. Millions of Americans have been surveilled and
harassed. Black and brown communities have been targeted by
racist militarism turned inward through law enforcement. And too
many of us have given into a culture of fear, distrust and
division. Here's how I wrote about it in American Detox:
Every year on 9/11 we are told to never forget. Society sponsors
rituals and ceremonies to commemorate the memory of the almost
3000 people who were lost on that day. We gather at firehouses,
mourn in churches and pay our respects at gravestones. But rarely
are we asked to remember the millions of Indigenous lives
sacrificed for the colonizer’s cause. There is no holiday to
reflect on the many Muslims killed in the so-called war on
terror. The politics of memory is constructed and contrived. It
is the story told by the people who benefit from it. But is that
really remembering?
And it leaves me wondering what have we learned from the last 22
years since 9/11, or last 400+ years since the first enslaved
Africans arrived in Virginia or 600+ years since white settlers
began colonizing turtle island? Where has violence and militarism
gotten us? How do we repair the harm at home and around the
world? And how do we create the conditions for true safety and
care for all people?
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To #NeverForget is to reckon with and remember not just
what happened that day, but all of the injustice and resilience
that are a part of our complicated history - from colonization to
slavery to mass incarceration to the war on terror. And it is an
invitation to do something different - to honor the legacy of all
those we have lost - not thru more violence and war - but thru a
politics of care and justice.
My step dad wasn't a hero. He was an ordinary guy who did an
extraordinary thing. And I think that's what's needed from all of
us right now...we are all first responders on the front lines of
our collective healing and shared future. What is your part to
play? What needs to be healed within you and around you? How can
we support each other on the unchartered and uncertain path
ahead?
Grateful to be on this journey with y'all.
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Kerri Kelly email signature
PS - I'm hosting a community of practice this month called
Perfectionists Anonymous ( [link removed] )
which is a community of practice to help us heal from our
conditioning and attachments to proving, pleasing and performing.
September 25-29th, 2023. Sliding Scale fee structure. All are
welcome.
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Learn more about Perfectionists Anonymous
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Learn more about Perfectionists Anonymous
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| Sent by American Detox
PO Box 1193 • Topanga, CA • 90290
