Horror takes our breath away, not in the healing sense of nirvana, but in the violent sense of being slugged hard in the gut. We are left gasping, and in that state we are vulnerable to all kinds of fear-based propaganda that leads not to repair but revenge, not to freedom but to fascism.

Spend time this anniversary of 9/11 to just breathe, deeply, freely, calmly. As you breathe in say to yourself "sha"; as you breathe out say "lom." Shalom is the Hebrew word for peace and wholeness. It is this that terrorism steals from us, and it is this that we need if we are to respond to horror with hope rather than even greater horror.

So this 9/11 breathe for all those who can't, for all those who won't, and for all those who are too afraid to even try.

Rami Shapiro