Article: The 9-11 Effect

For many Americans, 9-11 has come to represent a dividing line between what America was and what she will be. Gone is the innocent dream of invulnerability. In its place is a more vigilant and sober American landscape. We have been attacked - thousands of Americans have lost their lives, and, as I write today, despite our best preparations we have been struck again, this time in Saudi Arabia.

Most disturbing for us is the feeling that we can do little about this new, unwelcome angst. We can hope and pray for governmental and divine protection, yet we know we are profoundly vulnerable.

Rightly, the days since 9-11 have been a time of reflection and family. We have traveled less, spent less and invested less. Immediately after the bombings, we "circled the wagons" and made sure our families were safe. We have reconsidered our priorities, our values and our pursuits, and this has been the precious, sweet fruit from an otherwise heartbreaking field.

This "hunkering down" siege phenomenon, curiously, has been accompanied for many by another – a new resolve to serve others, to abandon the bunker and help at the hospital.

Long before 9-11, I had felt compelled to do something more significant with my life. I was in a helping profession, had donated money and gone overseas. I knew, however, that I needed to do something more radical – not just in spite of 9-11 but because of it.

It also was urgent to me that I did so as an adult, with more to lose but more to offer, not just as a college rite-of-passage experience before settling comfortably into a downy suburban life.

Suddenly, last winter, it dawned on me: There would never be a good time, given my schedule and the state of the war on terrorism. I would have to change my priorities and my perspective first, and not expect my career or the world to do so. I also knew it might cost me something.

In April, I took the plunge. Eight of us from Mariners Church in Irvine, CA, each sponsored by an incredible "ground team" of supportive friends and family, had the privilege of going to the Democratic Republic of Congo (formerly Zaire and the Belgian Congo). Our team left during the second week of the Iraq War, and not without some fear and trepidation. A number of our friends urged us not to go. It was a natural request and one that resonated with our unspoken anxieties. Some of us had spouses and children, yet each of felt it was something we had to do – especially with so many people behind us.

All of the reasons we had for not going – safety, bad timing, more local priorities – evaporated when we landed in Kinshasa, the capital of a country that has lost 2 million-3 million people to war, starvation and disease over the last five years. We had, as Pink Floyd once crooned, become "comfortably numb," but in the Congo, feeling in your heart invariably returns.

It felt as if the Congolese people had been waiting years for us to come, and for the West to care. We realized that neglect is rarely sinister, but rather that we simply care for what we know, and act on what we think we can change. We get busy, overwhelmed with need – a phenomenon called "compassion burnout" – and do little to help, even though we care abstractly.

What we saw as we provided aid, spoke to pastors and researched possible long-term help with the AIDS epidemic led us to a stunning conclusion – we had come just in time, for us as well as them.

I came back to the U.S. a stunned and changed person, all the while hoping I would never recover. The suffering and the need in Africa was infinitely worse than anything I had ever seen here, and as a psychologist working for seven years with the government among our society's poorest sector, I had seen plenty.

For me, the shift was simple but significant: I will help both here and abroad, guided by one principle – I will choose my personal involvement and financial support based on the level of need and proportion of helpers, not just on what is right in front of me. In other words, helping out where the need is greatest, and that is clearly in those countries ravaged by AIDS, war and starvation.

In a sense, it felt like growing up. Just as adults no longer choose friends by zip code but stay in touch with colleagues and loved ones miles and states away, keeping Congo alive in my heart and in my efforts seems like a natural extension of my care for those right here in the U.S.

The great news is that many can help overseas without ever setting foot on a plane. Raising awareness, hosting fundraisers and locating supplies is just as important, if not more, than actually going to Africa. There is much work to be done.

In South Africa, for example, a conservative estimate is that one out of nine people has AIDS. Most argue that it is more like one in five. In Congo, the rate is between one in 10 and one in 20 (see photo of two children found abandoned in March and with advanced AIDS), with millions more victims of a war which, this spring, may finally be ending.

Still, things are not hopeless in Africa. Uganda is an example of a country that has reduced its incidence of new AIDS cases by 50% by involving church, government and education intervention.

How about you? Has 9-11 given you pause about serving others, or has it spurred you to do even more? On the plane home from Africa, I spoke to a U.S. citizen who said bluntly, "What difference does it make to help? How do you know the help you send even gets there? Everyone is so corrupt."

I had to bite my tongue. I had just spent a week with 10-20 key Congolese leaders who I had little doubt were honest and upfront people. Our team also verified what was perhaps the most important point of all: that it was so easy to help and to make a difference. For example, all it took to help a person out of poverty was a $50 micro loan, which he or she paid back monthly, at a rate of one dollar per month.

As we spoke to my fellow passenger, I realized I had been that person – waiting for the perfect organization, the perfect time, decrying overhead costs of relief organizations and government corruption. Meanwhile, as I philosophized in coffee shops about the smartest way to "get the job done," scores of African children were dying. If I was looking for a purpose in life far bigger than my house, car or even family (sorry Dad and Mom), I had found it; but if I were holding out for the perfect opportunity, it would never come.

As I have challenged my friends in a friendly way, I wish to challenge you as an individual, a family or a corporation: "Tag, you're it!" You are "it" if you are a company looking to become involved in something life-changing and meaningful, you're "it" if you are a single person wishing you had children, and you're even "it" if you have a young or grown family.

There is no better education than to expose your young children to helping others. Some of the most touching examples were the "Boxes of Hope" filled with T-shirts, hygiene items, toys, crayons and paper that we had the privilege of delivering to Congolese orphans (see photo). These boxes sometimes included the photos of the American children who decorated and filled them. In fact, for most of the children in the orphanage we visited, this was the only gift they had ever received.

If you're waiting for the pitch – “Here’s where you can send your check” – surprise, there is no pitch. My only plea to you is to get involved now, here, abroad and both. Experience the "helper’s high"; there is no greater rush. We witnessed this firsthand when we saw the glow of the nuns’ faces (see photo) at Mother Teresa's Missionaries of Charity outreach in Congo as the sisters cared for those dying of AIDS. For those of you who are believers in God, you will also experience the deep spiritual impact of knowing that, in some small way, you have been God's hands and feet here on Earth. It's a feeling you were born for.

It would be my privilege to talk or write to any of you, corporation or individual, about where and how you can step up and do something incredibly fun and deeply significant with your abilities and organizational resources. It may not be Africa – it might be China or even Chicago – just don't wait. Having spoken to numerous audiences and friends since our return, I know there are thousands of you out there; you just need a little push.

Here at Dyment & Associates, we wish to change the way we do business to leverage our organization to further the cause of helping others. What about you?

God bless you,
Dr. Bill Dyment

A final word:
We hope we challenged you to take that step, whatever it is. We would like to feature what you are doing on our website, to further encourage others to get involved. Here are two quotes from men who decided that significantly helping others was worth their very lives. They say it all:

"We are prone to judge success by the index of our salaries or the size of our automobiles, rather than by the quality of our service relationship to humanity."
Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr.

"He is no fool, to give what he cannot keep, to gain what he cannot lose."
Jim Elliot, missionary,
martyred by the Auca tribe in Ecuador in 1956