Got It? Get It!
by Dr. Robert M. Franklin
Presidential Distinguished Professor of Social Ethics, Emory University
An address delivered at the "9/11 Interfaith Service of Remembrance and Healing" on September 11, 2003 at the Ebenezer Baptist Church, Atlanta.

Governor Perdue, Mayor Franklin, elected officials, clergy, leaders and representatives of business, education, the arts, the nonprofit sector, the grassroots community and fellow citizens.

The more I consider it, the more I am convinced that this day, this memorial has the potential to become both a redemptive and an uncommon expression of our common humanity. An uncommon expression of our common humanity. That is how I describe the days and weeks that followed the breathtaking tragedy of that day. Americans from every walk of life put aside our familiar differences and focused on our common pain and vulnerability. And in the process, we discovered deep wells of goodness and generosity and friendship.

This memorial time is uncommon and unfamiliar because, we do not have a script for this day that is rapidly becoming a sacred time. When we gather for prayer in the mosque, we have a script. We know what to do and why we do it. When we come together in the synagogue for sabbath services, we have a script and we know the meaning of that sacred drama. When we gather in church or temple for song and communion, we have a map that points out when we speak and when we keep silent.

Even in the realm of secular holidays, when we arrive at the threshold of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.'s National Holiday, we know that we are called to remember, think and act. We have a script. But, for this day and this kind of service, there is no script. We are left to interpret and reinterpret a tragic and fateful day in our recent past.

Consequently, unlike other holy days, we cannot put our minds in cruise control. We have to work. To be sure, we must remember and grieve for our fellow human beings who perished that day. But, we can do something more. Although grieve we must, I believe that they would want us to go the next step. Grieve and then grow.

How should we grow from this tragedy? Today, we can reflect on what we have learned. We can discuss how our lives have changed. We can carefully consider the underlying causes of the misery in the world. And, we can discern what our proper role should be in eradicating misery, preventing violence and promoting peace with justice.

So, we must do emotional and intellectual and spiritual and political work on this day. This must be a day of soul searching. A day for inter-religious dialogue and learning. And, a day for concrete action that serves our global common good.

Although people around the world share in our memory and awareness of this day, for Americans, there is a particular agenda that should occupy us. It involves the work of learning to be good stewards of our power and our resources as the world's only superpower. And, if we do this and do it well, the outcomes will be good for us. And, those outcomes will bless the entire global community.

Indeed, I would submit that this day should become a moral checkpoint in which we demonstrate a new awareness of our inescapable interdependence and connection to the rest of humanity.

Recently, I had a conversation with my 12 year old daughter. It was the kind of conversation that baby boomer parents commonly have with their Gen-X and hip-hop children. She was attempting to persuade me that she now required contact lenses rather than the glasses we recently procured. Being the mature parent and sensitive male that I am, I gently asked, 'do you really need them or are they one of those things you'd really like to have.' With greater urgency and impatience she replied, 'Dad, I need them. And, I also need another pair of glasses, you know, the designer frames, so that I can put them on and take them off while I'm still wearing contacts.

I, then, summarized, 'so you want contacts and glasses that you can wear or not wear as a fashion statement. Why don't we just skip the contacts altogether, get the designer frames with corrective lenses and you can wear them.' I sat and waited for her to apprehend and affirm my pristine logic. And, waited, and waited. Finally, she glared, 'Dad, you just don't get it!'

Her comment prompted me to think about all the other things that, from her perspective, I just don't get. But that list grew to be so long and depressing that I had to put it aside. So I decided it would be much easier to think about all the things that other people, especially us adults apparently don't get. Considering our purpose today, let me illustrate it this way.

There is an Internet thought exercise titled, "Something to think about." It asks the reader to shrink the earth's entire population to 100 people, with all the existing human ratios remaining the same. This is not what we might look like or could look like but what there actually would be:
57 Asians
21 Europeans
14 from North and South America
8 Africans
52 would be female
48 would be male
70 would be darker skinned people, 30 white people
70 would be from a religious tradition other than Christianity
30 would be Christian
89 would be heterosexual
11 would be homosexual
59% of the entire world's wealth would belong to only 6 people and all 6 would be citizens of the United States
80 would live in substandard housing
70 would be unable to read
50 would suffer from malnutrition
1 would be near death
1 would be near birth
Only 1 would have a college education
99 of them would not see this message,
Because only 1 would have a computer.
and then it ends:
When one considers our world from such a compressed perspective, the need for both acceptance and understanding becomes glaringly apparent

When I thought about this parable in relation to the 9/11 anniversary, it jumped out at me. What a wonderful message it would be to the global community for us to demonstrate that we are aware of the fact that the rest of the world does not exist solely to serve our needs and desires. That although we are the biggest kid on the playground, we are committed to sharing that space and enabling others to enjoy it as we have. What a redemptive message it would be for us to offer a positive response to the question 'how did your life change after 9/11?' Already we have a long list of the negative manifestations of our 'post-9/11 way of life'. But, on this day, we can begin or intensify the work already begun that could give positive content to what I'd like to call a "post-9/11 global ethic."

This is not a new assignment. We have heard it before from one who stood in this place. In his 1968 book, titled, "Where Do We Go From Here?: Chaos or Community?", Dr. King was trying to point us into the future. And, here, the teacher in me comes out, because I'd like to assign some required reading.

Every one of us should read the final chapter of that book. Teachers should assign this short chapter and require students to write essays on its meaning to them. This should apply not only to elementary and high school students, but to those in college and university; in law, medical, business, theology, and schools of international relations. The chapter is titled, "The World House."

Dr. King opens with the story of how a novelist died and among his papers were suggestions for future stories. One of the most prominently highlighted suggestion was the following, 'a widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live together...' King says,

This is the great new problem of humankind. We have inherited a large house, a great world house in which we have to live together--black and white, Easterner and Westerner, Gentile and Jew, Catholic and Protestant, Muslim and Hindu--a family unduly separated in ideas, culture and interest, who, because we can never again live apart, must learn somehow to live with each other in peace." (195)

Then in my favorite quote he says, "All people are interdependent...(W)hether we realize it or not, each of us lives eternally "in the red". We are everlasting debtors to known and unknown men and women. When we arise in the morning, we go into the bathroom where we reach for a sponge which is provided for us by a Pacific Islander. We reach for soap that is created for us by a European. Then at the table we drink coffee which is provided for us by a South American, or tea by a Chinese or cocoa by a West African. Before we leave for our jobs we are already beholden to more than half of the world... All life is interrelated. Whatever affects one directly affects all indirectly." (211)

The famous political philosopher and a father of utilitarianism, John Stuart Mill understood the challenges and responsibilities of living in a diverse community when he wrote, "Everyone who receives the protection of society owes a return for the benefit, and the fact of living in society renders it indispensable that each should be bound to observe a certain line of conduct toward the rest. This conduct consists, first in not injuring the interests of one another...and, secondly, in each person's bearing his share...of the labors and sacrifices incurred for defending the society or its members from injury and molestation." (Philosophy and Public Policy Quarterly, vol. 3, #3,(Summer 2003), p. 8.)

On this day of remembrance and healing, of reckoning and looking forward, I humbly submit that we need to get this.

We need to get the fact that the misery faced by children of Africa, Asia, the Middle East and South America is a misery that will affect our children also.

We need to get that democracy is incompatible with huge disparities in wealth and power.

We need to get President Eisenhower's wisdom when he declared, "every gun that is made, every warship launched, every rocket fired, signifies a theft from those who hunger and are not fed, those who are cold, and not clothed."

We need to get Maya Angelou's counsel that 'history, despite its wrenching pain, cannot be unlived, but if faced with courage, need not be lived again.'

Not getting it is not an intellectual problem. We are smart enough to comprehend what needs to be done. It is a moral problem. It is a crisis of the moral will to do what is right because it may be painful and difficult in the short term. Not getting it, demonstrates our disregard for the common good.

Not getting it means that we could but we refuse to comprehend or to accept that which is in the best interest of the city, the state, the nation, and the global community. It is a refusal to comprehend that we are connected and we need each other.

I hope you will not consider it out of place to cite an example or two of intelligent, mature people who just don't get it.

• There are thoughtful, well-intentioned people who believe that America should give less foreign aid and should not support the United Nations. But, in the long run, we will invest more dollars in military action to suppress terror, than we would have by providing medicine, education, and good will.
• Folks who demand an unlimited supply of ever cheaper gasoline for ever larger automobiles, don't get it. We understand intellectually that this is not sustainable. But, we don't want to hear the truth or to make the sacrifices that it may require. Just don't get it.

But, closer to home, I know

• Friends who oppose extending public transportation into their counties. The, they complain about the time they spend in traffic. I love them, I respect them, but, you have to conclude that they just don't get it.
• Young men who are hyper-sensitive to the slightest gesture of disrespect, but who refuse to show respect to other people by not using profanity, or turning down the volume of their music. They just don't ...
• Fellow citizens who flee from the city to escape its crime and diversity, only to discover that a few of the children of their own affluent neighbors are the local drug dealers who bring firearms to school.
• Some of my fellow Southerners, whom I respect, insist that yesterday's Confederate flag can still function as an inclusive and appropriate symbol for the 21st century.
• And there are some well intentioned citizens who think it is appropriate to honor our two recently departed and distinguished mayors by using polarizing rhetoric and Machiavellian politics. But, I hear Dr. King saying, 'no honorable end can come from dishonorable means.'

Our great religious traditions all teach that serving the common good, especially the least advantaged members of the community, is the highest expression of true religion.

One of those sacred scriptures puts it this way, "Those who are strong must bear the infirmities of the weak." (Galatians 5)

But, I like the way a gentleman who had unconventional religious ideas put it. W.E.B.Du Bois said, 'In order to increase the satisfaction for the mass of our people and all people, someone must sacrifice something of his own happiness. This is a duty only to those who recognize it as a duty. It is silly to tell intelligent human beings, be good and you will be happy. The truth is today, be good, be decent, be honorable and self-sacrificing and you will not always be happy. You may even be crucified, dead, and buried. And the third day, you will be just as dead as the first. But, with the death of your happiness, may easily come increased happiness, and satisfaction, and fulfillment for other people...strangers, unborn babes, uncreated worlds. If this is not sufficient incentive, never try it and remain among the hogs.' (The Seventh Son: The Writings of W.E. B. DuBois, "Howard University Commencement Address," 1936).

Recently, I've begun to pay more attention to a marketing campaign to encourage milk consumption. You've seen them. Attractive celebrities are featured with a milk mustache and two simple words, an ungrammatical interrogative that asks, Got Milk?

Today, we need to look not for a mustache but for a less obvious sign of the "post-9/11 global ethic" and ask? Got compassion? Got cooperation? Got understanding of your neighbor's beliefs? Got an open mind?

And, in the eloquent words of Yogi Berra, 'if you don't got it, you need to get it.'
A "post-9/11 global ethic" asks each of us...

• 'Have you got the wherewithal to forgive your political enemies?'
• 'Have you got what it takes to stay on the high moral ground when all others have sacrificed dignity for success?'
• 'Have we got the intellectual discipline not to lump all Muslims or all Arabs into the 'militant, terrorist' category?'
• 'Have we got what it takes to judge each person not by the color of her skin but by the content of her character?'
• 'Got sacrifice? Got love? Got nonviolence? Got patience? Got hope?'

Or, we could summarize this by asking in the words of the African American slaves, 'Have you got good religion?'

In a small country far from here, over a hundred years ago, a young woman participated in an experiment. The country's leaders decided to open the ranks of its ambassador's corps usually reserved for the powerful, rich and famous. She prepared for two years, studied world history, and world religions, public health and economics. Then, the day of her examination arrived. She lived in a rural part of the country and would have to travel many miles to reach the village where the exam would happen. Unbeknownst to her or anyone, a great snow storm came and smothered the region in feet of snow. Her exam was scheduled for 7:00 a.m. She awakened early and traveled over hills and through valleys slowly trudging through the drifts of snow. Finally, she arrived at the examiner's office at 5:30 a.m.

She walked in but no one greeted her. She heard papers shuffling in the rear and knew someone was there so she sat quietly and began to read. 6:30 came and she grew excited. 7:00 a.m. came and passed and no one acknowledged her. She cleared her throat just to remind whomever might be back there that she was still there. 8:00, then 9:00 a.m. came and passed. Finally, at 9:30 a.m. the foreign service examiner came out and welcomed her back.

Without any small talk he went right to the first question. What is the sum of 4+3? She replied, '7'. Next question, 'What is the sum of 10+1? "11."

Then, he closed the book and said, you just passed the ambassador corp exam. She looked quizzically? 'I did?'.

Yes, you see, we first tested you for perserverance. You had to travel a great distance and had a good excuse to give up the journey, but you pressed through the adversity. So, you passed the test for perserverance.

Then, we tested you on Promptness.

Next, we tested you on patience. We made you sit for over four hours and you didn't get upset.

Finally, we tested you on humility. We know you've prepared for two years in the hardest subjects, but we asked you questions a little child could answer and you were not proud or indignant.

So, because you passed the test on PERSEVERANCE, PROMPTNESS, PATIENCE, HUMILITY.

You are exactly the kind of person our country needs to represent it in the world.

On this sacred day, let's get what we need to become a beloved community.

Let's get what it takes to become one nation, under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.

Let's get what it takes to move from pain to hope; from war to peace; from hate to love; from fear to friendship; from darkness to light.

Brothers and sisters, we can get it!