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By ANDREW DONOHUE, Special to the Daily Transcript
Tuesday, September 10, 2002
Rev. George Walker Smith watched as the nation's places of worship filled to the brim in the days following Sept. 11, 2001.
"Unity of all people was at the highest it had ever been," said Smith, pastor emeritus of Christ United Presbyterian Church of San Diego.
But two weeks later, things were back to normal.
"Now we're going back to all of our old prejudices," he said. "That saddens me."
Today, one year after, crime continues to rise, and crookedness in the corporate world -- the backbone of the nation -- abounds, Smith said.
"I'm saddened in that we did not carry on with all that goodwill, all that love for America and love for each other. In a month it was gone."
Smith said the country must recapture that unity on Sept. 11, 2002.
"Let's treat each other like we did the first Sept. 11," he said.
Smith founded Christ United in 1956 and served as its pastor for 44-and-a-half years until retiring on the last day of 2000. He became the first African American elected to public office in San Diego in 1963 and founded the Catfish Club, a weekly forum for political discussion, in 1970.
After 9/11, Smith worried what it was about America that made some people hate it so much. He still wrestles with that question today.
"America needs to examine why it is so much of the world hates us. We need to look at our arrogance towards other people," Smith said. "We need to stop thinking we're better than everyone."
He sees this Sept. 11, as chance to make amends.
"I think that all of us are deeply regretful about what happened in New York and Washington, but I think it's still business as usual for most of us," Smith said. "We have too much of our own personal pronounces: me, myself and I. We can get together and celebrate the lives of men and women who died for nothing. We've got to make this real or it will be to no avail."
Donohue is a free-lance writer based in San Diego.
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