I bear Witness on the catastrophe at the Tree of Life Synagogue

Dear and respected neighbor, 

Good Morning,

We are all struggling to find a way forward to restore what peace and goodwill we can muster. Our family wish to convey our personal condolences and deep gratitude for the grace and courage, resolve and commitment your congregation is manifesting to the world.

I have some additional information from my colleagues in AACP. The Dental Surgeon [Dr. Richard Gottfried] who died was the partner of the spouse of my colleague- a psychiatrist and had put in his two caps. The clinic also helped Refugees. Dr Jerry Rabinowitz, MD was a pioneer leader in treatment of HIV affected person and worked on removing Stigma. They were wonderful people. God has taken back for whatever reason the gifts he had bestowed on humanity. Now we must cherish and treasure their memories and once again commit ourselves to abolish such hateful monstrous acts. 

  I would like to share this with your good self and welcome your response. Please share as you see fit. Thank you. VM

Pittsburg Synagogue Catastrophe

Velandy Manohar, MD

Distinguished Life Fellow

American Psychiatric Association

         This is a devastating blow which will have deep and enduring impact on all our lives here and all over the world. We are all affected by this ghastly horror. This is not only the center of the Jewish Community but also Fred Rogers Neighborhood. He was such powerful mediator of citizenship, collaboration, compassion and beneficence. - I think this is what he thought being neighborly was essentially about. I have seen video clips of the statement I am sharing and others that I am attaching. The most Important message he shared with us is helpful for us to remember and reflect on: [I believe Mr. Jack tapper- CNN quoted this reflection]. 

         I stand with people Congregants of the Tree of Life Synagogue and people of all faiths who are feeling violated and deeply bereaved. I believe our freedoms are at risk. I recommend viewing the 1943 movie made by the US Govt to inoculate Americans from the spread of vicious racism, religious bigotry, spurious nationalism purveyed by Demagogues. It was entitled, “Don’t be a Sucker.” [Reported by Chris Cuomo CNN 102918] I am getting a very uncomfortable and scary feeling we are being played for a sucker and being picked off in a systematic calculating manner.

       My friends and I had similar feelings after Sandy Hook Catastrophe [12 14 2012]. I was off that Friday morning and was focused on the TV reports and to my increasing horror I realized there were no ambulances leaving the school. There are no lights and sirens of Ambulances speeding to hospitals. That is when it hit me perhaps most people are no more. Gone forever. It was very upsetting, indeed. We were able to organize support services. This helped us deal with some of the emotions.

I

Fred M. Rogers

“On Looking for the Helpers”

      “When I was a boy and I would see scary things in the news, my mother would say to me, 'Look for the helpers. You will always find people who are helping.' To this day, especially in times of 'disaster,' I remember my mother's words, and I am always comforted by realizing that there are still so many helpers--so many caring people in this world." Mr. Fred Rogers.

II

      I am also sharing this Metta Prayer that we share in our treatment program with our staff and our patients and their families.

         This is a short deeply satisfying Prayer of Loving Kindness from the Buddhist spiritual tradition that I humbly recommend. Please feel free to select your favorite Mantras. There may be more than one mantra that provides comfort, solace and restores equilibrium that you may want to archive and have it handy.

“May all beings be peaceful.

May all beings be happy.

May all beings be safe.

May all beings awaken to 

the light of their true nature.

May all beings be free”

 - Metta Prayer

        Metta is one of the four pre-eminent Brahma Viharas describing Meditation practices and Virtues: I would like to translate Brahma Viharas as Divine abodes. It is our choice to be committed to take residence in these dwellings which embody these divine, supremely sublime mental propensities.

1. Loving Kindness or Benevolence- Metta

2. Compassion or Karuna

3. Empathetic Joy- for the good fortune whether experienced by our adversaries or our family or friends- Muditha

4. Equanimity- Upekkha.

       I share extreme distress with all of you and praying for divine intervention in this very tumultuous time and share with you this prayer.

Sanskrit Prayer - this is from the Hindu Tradition- accurately is referred to as Sanatana Dharma

“Durjana sajjana bhuyat, sajjanah shantim apnuyat, Shantimuchyeth bandebhyo, Muktaschanyaan vimochyate.” 

         May evil minded individuals become gentler. May the gentler individuals among us achieve peace and serenity, May those who attain to peace achieve freedom from bondage. May those who are blessed with liberation work to set others free. 

III

        Everyone has role in improving our world from the first steps of working on ourselves and then lending a hand to see and get to the light at the end of the tunnel and end our pursuit of the eye for an eye and tooth for a tooth credo and embrace social interaction where goodwill and understanding prevails which was the message of the Angel delivered 20 centuries ago in the Yule tide season. 

May peace prevail in body mind and soul in all seasons.

         This letter – a form of eulogy is one of the ways I thought would allow me to embrace, to offer comfort and receive the same. We must stand in solidarity and help us all to attain peace and move forward to work for strengthening the capacity of our communities to nourish and protect the well-being of every one of us where ever we live. 

        We need to strive to create Mr. Fred Rogers Neighborhood and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr’s “Beloved Community”:

IV

        Dr. King’s Beloved Community was not devoid of interpersonal, group or international conflict. Instead he recognized that conflict was an inevitable part of human experience. But he believed that conflicts could be resolved peacefully, and adversaries could be reconciled through a mutual, determined commitment to nonviolence.

“No conflict, he believed, need erupt in violence. And all conflicts in The Beloved Community should end with reconciliation of adversaries cooperating in a spirit of friendship and goodwill.”

        The Episcopal Church has posted their concepts about creating a Beloved Community. 

Becoming A Beloved Community

      The “becoming a Beloved Community Vision Document” and accompanying resources help us to understand and take up the long-term commitments necessary to form loving, liberating and life-giving relationships with each other. There are four interacting self -reinforcing principles: Telling the Truth, Proclaiming the Dream, Practicing the way and Repairing the breach. 

        We are amid addressing our responses to the murder most foul of person of faith telling the truth, proclaiming their dream and practicing their way. They have been robbed moist violently from our midst. I am attaching the illustration that describes these concepts.

        This ongoing perpetual cyclical process of forgiveness, repentance and reconciliation, growth and recovery, to achieve robust health and wellbeing requires the continuous long-term collaboration of our patients, their families, Medical and Mental Health Professionals, and integration of Theological beliefs, Religious rituals and Spiritual practices. 

        This Illustration symbolizes the trajectory of identification, admission, acceptance and acknowledgement that is subsumed in the process of building resilience that can be strengthened and enhanced by an empathic sharing of responsibilities between those who seek assistance and care-givers which enables them to start with telling the truth.

V

         Finally, I want to share these insightful thoughts of our beloved revered martyred brother Martin to address the yearning for peace, good will and justice that is surging in an unprecedented wave in the hearts of all affected by the murder most foul perpetrated by an evil hate filled individual:

How long? not long…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.”

From our beloved revered martyred Brother Martin’s “Our God is marching on” speech at the end of the March from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, March 26, 1965

        These eloquent and heartbreaking, compelling and evocative expressions of outrage and pain preceded the answer to the question “How Long? 

        “I know you are asking today: "How long will it take?" 

        Somebody's asking: "How long will prejudice blind the visions of men, darken their understanding, and drive bright-eyed Wisdom from her sacred throne?" 

        Somebody's asking: "When will wounded Justice, lying prostrate on the streets of Selma and Birmingham and communities all over the South, be lifted from this dust of shame to reign supreme among the children of men?" 

        Somebody's asking: "When will the radiant star of hope be plunged against the nocturnal bosom of this lonely night, plucked from weary souls with chains of fear and the manacles of death? 

How long will Justice be crucified, and Truth bear it?"

      King then answered this question many times, beginning with the basic "it will not be long," and building to the most famous quotation from this speech:

How long? not long…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice.” Brother Martin’s “Our God is marching on” speech at the end of the March from Selma to Montgomery in Alabama, March 26, 1965

Martin Luther King, Jr. History will have to record that the greatest tragedy of this period of social transition was not the strident clamor of the bad people, but the appalling silence of the good people.

VI

        I am convinced that these dastardly murderous will not deter any one from living according to the words of our scripture. Especially telling for me is the lessons to be learned from Genesis 8:2-10. Abraham himself had been a migrant in Egypt and he was sensitive to the needs to travelers passing the tent where Sarah and he was living. Bowing before the individuals, washing their feet and offering them delicious victuals and comfort are traditions known to ancient people. Every time we do a formal prayer these are rituals we use and at our homes where I was born and visit every few years there is bucket of water and smaller vessels to pour water to wash the feet and hands and the face and mouth. Elders and guests are accorded special privileges. In a Sanskrit text of a Commencement address by the Master of the Forest Academy thousand or more years ago [Siksha Valli- Yajur Veda] includes these precepts Speak the Truth, Uphold Righteousness, be thou the one who regards your father, your mother, your teacher and yes, your guest as thou would God. {“…Attithi Devo Bhava}. I emphasize this message because this evil assassin was vehemently, virulently opposed to life enriching and sustaining work of Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society [HIAS]

VII

We must never remain silent in the face of these assaults on our freedoms.

 Martin Niem?ller-

“When the Nazis came for the Communists,

I remained silent;

I was not a Communist.

When they locked up the Social Democrats,

I remained silent;

I was not a Social Democrat.

When they came for the Trade Unionists,

I did not speak out;

I was not a Trade Unionist.

When they came for the Jews,

I remained silent;

I wasn't a Jew.

When they came for me,

there was no one left to speak out.

VIII

      Dietrich Bonhoeffer was known for his staunch resistance to Nazi dictatorship, including vocal opposition to Hitler's euthanasia program and genocidal persecution of the Jews. He was executed in April 1945 as the dying embers of Third Reich were being stamped out finally. Dietrich Bonhoeffer and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr were murdered at age 39.

        Bonhoeffer affirms in his Testament to Freedom 279, “When the mouths of the world’s rulers remain silent about injustice, their hands invariably commit acts of violence. This language of human hands where no justice exists is terrible. It is there that distress and pain of the Body originates. It is there that the persecuted, captive, beaten church longs for deliverance from this body. Let me fall into God’s hands, but not into the hands of others! Do we still hear it? Christ is speaking here! He experienced the un-righteous judgement, he fell into the hands of men. Innocence is accusing the unrighteous World.” As it was in the beginning in Calvary and in 1945 in a Concentration camp and in the Tree of Life Synagogue- Innocence is accusing the Unrighteous.  

     Dr. King asked, “How long will Justice be crucified, and Truth bear it?" He bravely answered, “How long? not long…the arc of the moral universe is long, but it bends towards justice”

        As we reflect and meditate on our challenges it is important to remain true to our faith and heed Bonhoeffer’s axiom and respond accordingly. “When God speaks to me personally, I become responsible for my response.”

IX

I would like to close with these prayers:

Numbers 6:22-27

"Then the Lord spoke to Moses saying, 'Speak to Aaron and his sons, saying, "Thus you shall bless the sons of Israel. You shall say to them: 

Numbers 6:22-27 

The Lord bless you, and keep you; The Lord make His face shine on you,

And be gracious to you;

The Lord lift His countenance upon you and give you peace."'

So, they shall invoke My name on the sons of Israel, and I 

shall bless them."

Jesus Christ, a more recent of God’s precious messengers [Sadly they are a precious few and are often martyred- Mahatma Gandhiji, Rev. Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.] also has expressed such benedictions.

Psalm 127 KJV

Except the Lord build the house, they labour in vain that build it: except the LORD keep the city, the watchman waketh but in vain.

The Lord’s prayer seeks grace, “Thy will be done in earth, as it is in heaven as we address our challenges. But this requires us to make stark and steep, hazardous choices. Prof C.S. Lewis, Theologian and Scholar described quite precisely and exquisitely our predicament and the choice we must affirmatively make and hold on to every day of our life. “

“There are only two kinds of people in the end: those who say to God, "Thy will be done," and those to whom God says, in the end, "Thy will be done." All that are in Hell, choose it. 

Without that self-choice there could be no Hell. No soul that seriously and constantly desires joy will ever miss it. Those who seek find. Those who knock it is opened. From "The Great Divorce" C.S. Lewis, English novelist and Christian Apologist (1898-1963) 

It is up to each of us to make our peace and make our choice to seek God’s grace.

X

I close this letter with these inspired words of Alfred Lord Tennyson in his poem honoring Odysseus. In this last Stanza Odysseus makes his choice.

“...that which we are, we are; 

One equal temper of heroic hearts, 

Made weak by time and fate, but strong in will 

To strive, to seek, to find, and not to yield.”

I trust this will be our choice through thick and thin. 

Never, Never, Never to yield, “NEVER AGAIN.”

Mahatma Gandhiji declared, “Even if you are a minority of one, the Truth is the Truth.”

Bayard Rustin in August 1942 at a meeting of Society of friends in Manhattan which was considering the possibility of providing hospitality to servicemen – USO style. Mr. Rustin wrote the following: “The primary social function of a religious society is to “speak the truth to power” Mr. Rustin, a Quaker was thinking of doing what Abraham did or what Hebrew Immigrant Aid Society is doing and what Hindu scriptures enjoin on humanity- “ Be Thou the one who regards your guest as you would God as you understand the divine.”

XI

This discussion provides witness to the devastating impact of the diabolic acts of a decidedly hate filled individual who decided he will be the prosecutor, Judge, Jury and Executioner in paroxysms of vengeful rage in the Tree of Life Synagogue. I wish to share four musical compositions that conveys my internal experiences as i go about my work and write about these experiences which are also affected by feedback for my readers.

1.The Last Four songs of Richard Strauss expressed quite eloquently the transitions set in motion with these paroxysms of rage perpetrated in the Tree of Life Synagogue in the minds and hearts of millions of people especially of those so cruelly bereaved. I have attached the text of the Last Four Songs. The three verses of Sleep and at Sunset are exquisitely expressive and of sublime beauty and quite apropos to what we are all trying to address coherently and compassionately. I am providing a link to an extraordinary performance by Ms. Jessye Norman. 4 last songs by Richard Strauss - French TV 1987 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2L2UGqMdLWs  

2. The second song that captivated me as I reflected on the awesome challenges that seem overwhelmingly daunting and makes us take stock “poor powers to add or detract” with feelings of futility and alarm that we may not succeed in our efforts to seek reconciliation and rapprochement is the most inspirational rendition of Climb every Mountain by Jessye Norman,” "Climb Ev'ry Mountain," (The Sound of Music- Jordan smith),Ms. Jessye Norman, Berlin 2009. I urge you to especially listen to the first three verses. It can motivate even most enervated advocate of equity and social justice to recommit to the cause and be ready to “speak the truth to power, even if you believe you are in the minority because the Truth is Truth even if you are minority of one.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Xkf1andBVoA 

3. The third song in my opnion is required listening during these turbulent times that severely tests our values and commitment to Idea of America is the rousing intensely patriotic rendering of Mr. Aaron Copeland’s Fanfare for the common man By the President’s Own US Marine Corps Band on Nov 6, 2015. I am providing a couple of comments one posted by an 85 yo Mexican American and the other posted

a. “I am 85 yo Mexican-American and first heard this concerto on the radio during WW2 when I was about 11 yo. Our family was lower working class with father a miner and carpenter. Being young I literally believed the music was written for people like my dad and our class. I was so emotionally taken and proud to have this music dedicated to people like "us" that I told my dad about what I heard. He smiled kindly but in fatherly disbelief I could tell. Whenever I hear this music I feel patriotic and think back to my youth. Thanks for posting this wonderful tribute to "we" the people.” {I feel the same and I bet I am only one in a million too that feels this way after listening to this special rendering of this fabulous composition.} 

b. The second is by Don. D. an US Ranger who provides an authentic perspective of dyed in the wool warrior who puts his life on line- In his case in Viet Nam. His statements about the US Marines are genuine and factual. I have a long and intense and abiding relationship with the US Marines. I heartily concur with these remarks. When those few of us, who have served, stand before our Father and Maker, and atone for our sins or our innocence, I fully suspect that not many will pass in review without having come to the Father first. As a US Army Veteran, I speak to each and all. Lest we forget, there is only ONE branch that will be returned the salute. To those who have served, are serving and will serve within the United States Marine Corps, and to the man and woman, from one grunt to the others, you are very much remembered. Semper Fi Mac.2nd/75th Rangers B Company, US Army 9th Infantry Division Viet Nam 1972-1973 18D30 Pass in Review.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0KxMc_tyQBo

  4.The fourth and final song I wish to share with all of you is Brother Ray pouring his heart out in patriotic rapture the anthem – “America the beautiful” I am excerpting this verse, because the world makes us feel we are engaged in a potentially liberating strife and there are people who love their country more than their life and willing to bestow mercy much like the congregants at the Tree of Life Synagogue and the Emmanuel A.M.E. Church, Charleston, SC when the purveyors of vile blinding hatred created new martyrs who died joyfully and peacefully while Telling their Truth, Proclaiming their Dream, Practicing their way and Repairing the breach among their neighbors. 

“Oh beautiful, for heroes proved,

In liberating strife,

Who more than self, their country loved,

And mercy more than life,”

This America, sweet America, may God thy gold refine,

Till all success be nobleness

And every gain devined.”

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TRUjr8EVgBg

I close this account of my experiences that were evoked by many events that is shattering and deeply disturbing that requires us to join Brother Ray and recommit ourselves to achieve the ideals for which America is justifiably renowned and longed for destination of choice for millions of global citizen who yearn to be free which I believe is the America, sweet America that Brother Ray sang about rapturously.

“You know, I wish I had somebody

to help me sing this

America, I love you America, you see,

My God he done shed his grace on thee,

And you oughta love him for it,

“He, he, he, he, crowned thy good,

He told me he would, with brotherhood,

From sea to shining sea” 

Oh,yea Jesus, I want to thank you Lord.!”

I have joined him many times while watching him proclaim his faith in American ideal on the Video and working in my own way to “repair the breach” among our neighbors on the way of achieving a more Perfect Union from “sea to shining sea.” And thus, be worthy of the grace of God and be granted this deeply felt yearning for brotherhood.

I welcome your comments.

Warm regards.

 Velandy Manohar, MD, DLFAPA