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Observing September 11th as a National Day of Service

Observing September 11th as a National Day of Service

This morning, I’ll be following President Obama’s call to take part in public service in observation of September 11th, helping to prepare and serve lunch for homeless men and women at CHIPS.

Of course 9/11 will always be seared in our minds as a day of unbearable pain and tragedy, of grief and incomprehension and anger. 

But for me it will always, also, bring to mind those remarkable days afterward, when New Yorkers came together in ways I have not seen before or since – to mourn, to comfort, to try to understand, and to serve.  So many people risked their lives and their health, and gave their time and their homes and their blood and their resources and their deepest wells of strength.  So many reached out across lines of race and religion to make sure that our city would not be torn apart by strife, but would work together to heal.  It was a moment when our city showed its best self, when we had a glimpse of what it could look like if we lived upto our ideals of diversity and tolerance and compassion.

Throughout this campaign for City Council, we have engaged in public service – inspired by that moment after September 11^th, and by a deep commitment to shared work to strengthen our city, to help people in need, and to pursue a more just and compassionate world. Our campaign is based on the belief that when New Yorkers come together, when we take collective action, we can make a profound difference on the issues we care about.

Here are a few of the service activities we’ve taken part in, under the leadership of two remarkable campaign volunteers (and leaders on issues of civic action and service), Caron Atlas and Jackie Sherman:

• We helped seniors make the conversion to Digital TV, visiting senior centers to provide information, and helping several people stay connected.
• We took part Food Stamps outreach at a grocery store in Starrett City with the NewYork City Coalition Against Hunger on a freezing Martin Luther King Day (a smart one-day service activity they organized, since it helps provide a long-term solution).
• We helped prepare and serve the Thanksgiving meal at CHIPS.
• I’ve been deeply impressed with all of the “chesed” (acts of loving kindness) in so many organizations in Borough Park. I’ve packed meals several times at Yad Ephraim (for families who have to spend the weekend with relatives in the hospital), served food at the Masbia kosher soup kitchen, and attended wonderful holiday parties at Metropolitan Jewish Health Service and Ohel Children’s Home and Family Services that brought together young and old, people with and without disabilities, to celebrate.
• I slept out in Foley Square in May, as part of the Interfaith Assembly on Homelessness and Housing’s annual vigil to show solidarity with homeless families.
• I helped organize the PTA 5k run/walk for public schools, in which hundreds ofrunners, parents, students, and school track teams from many schools throughout the area came together to raise funds jointly.
• This past Monday (Labor Day), a few of us took the dogs at Sean Casey Animal Rescue (in Kensington) for a walk.  With the participation of hundreds of Kensington residents, Sean has created a place where taking care of abused animals has become a central feature of the community.
• A group of concerned parents, led by Barbara Kancelbaum and Dominique Bravo, came together many months ago to address the problem of child care. Just this week, they have released a very interesting survey of 377 parents who report on high costs and high stress.  I’ve been working with them from the start on public policy solutions.  This week, we proposed the creation of a “child care opportunity zone” to address some of these challenges. 

I’ve also been consistently impressed, as I’ve met thousands ofpeople in every neighborhood in the district, by the small acts of service that people do everyday on behalf of one another – through block and neighborhood associations, community gardens, formal and informal ways of neighbors helping neighbors.

Sometimes -- as in those small acts of kindness -- service is a one-on-one act that helps someone in need.  Sometimes -- as in the partnerships that combine volunteer action with public and private resources -- it is part of a broader effort to solve problems and address issues of hunger, health, or housing. And sometimes – as in the work of the child care committee -- service brings people together to work for broader change.  All are critical.

As we remember the horror of what happened on September 11^th, and recommit to the hard work to prevent it from ever happening again, I hope we will also remember those days that followed, when we came together as a city united in service, and recommit ourselves to work together in pursuit of the more just and compassionate city that we caught a glimpse of at that time.