’Our Lady of Paris’: Watching beauty on fire

Monday night, 6 p.m. Eastern / Midnight in Paris

Notre-Dame de Paris, meaning “Our Lady of Paris,” is a medieval Catholic cathedral, a sacred space of splendid beauty symbolic of French Gothic architecture. Built during the 12th century and completed in 1345, the cathedral’s stone walls and oak spires have stood tall and majestic over the city of Paris, a familiar presence on its own separate island along the banks of the Seine river. This cathedral represents the hopes and dreams of everyone. It’s also been the inspiration of great literature, too.

“Great edifices, like great mountains, are the work of ages,” the author Victor Hugo wrote in “The Hunchback of Notre-Dame.”

Regardless of one’s own faith, Notre-Dame has always opened its doors to people of all faiths and denominations. It is a vast and peaceful space filled with humility and pageantry, as well as relics, rites and rituals. Replete with its gigantic twin towers, 295-foot tall main spire, and flying buttresses, Notre-Dame has been a highly-identifiable symbol of Christianity – not only in the capital city of Paris and throughout France, but also worldwide, where it’s been a positive symbol for so many Catholic worshipers. This cathedral has been an essential place for spiritual renewal as well as a gathering place, too. Notre-Dame welcomes 30,000 visitors each day through its doors, about 13 million annually.

I’ve been privileged to visit Notre-Dame several times since 2000, to climb its bell towers and stand among its stone gargoyles – which provide a gorgeous and breathtaking view of Paris – to listen to organ concerts, and to worship in both French and English while sitting among the faithful in its sprawling pews.

Inside historic Notre-Dame, an abundance of beautiful art and artifacts that record so much of our religious history – and has been so magnificently restored and displayed – is likely gone from tonight’s horrific fire. Think of the architectural achievement of this cathedral; it’s something bigger than ourselves. Notre-Dame is one of the most recognizable places in the entire world. Now, much of its insides resemble a charred mess. I’m hopeful that the twin towers with their majestic bells can be saved. Late word from French fire officials seem to suggest they will.

I close my eyes, and inside Notre-Dame, I visualize the Nave, the many ornate side chapels, the majestic pipe organ with its 8,000 pipes unleashing joyful sounds. So much work by so many, so much history within its stone walls. Tonight, it is on the verge of being gone – during Holy Week of all times. Thank God, there doesn’t appear to be any injuries or loss of human life as far as we know. However, we must ask: How will the Catholic Church react? How will the world respond? Where will the cathedral’s parishioners celebrate Easter Mass on Sunday? Where will people go to congregate now?

Seeing Notre-Dame on fire Monday evening – even from across the Atlantic Ocean while watching via CNN International and on MSNBC – witnessing the middle spire topple over from the fire – brought sadness and tears to my eyes. I never thought I would see something this horrifying in my lifetime.

I watched in horror and felt helpless, then couldn’t turn the TV set off. I’m sure I was not alone. This has been a day of emotional sadness – to see an architectural icon go up in flames.

The television images and the up-to-the-minute internet graphics being transmitted by the BBC, The New York Times and NPR, among many, were haunting and horrible – heartbreaking to say the least  – but very real. There wasn’t anything remotely “fake news” about this spectacular and staggering tragedy.

The Notre-Dame cathedral and its common history reminds us there is still an appreciable beauty in a world that lately has been rearing its ugly and intolerant head. Sadly, tonight, the Parisian sky is filled with smoldering fire and smoke. Life in Paris has come to a halt while the first responders try courageously in the coming hours to put out the colossal fire. We hope they are successful in containing the damage. The whole world will be watching, hoping, praying.

“We will rebuild Notre-Dame,” said French President Emmanuel Macron tonight from Paris, “because the French want it.”

Former U.S. President Barack Obama took to social media to share his thoughts with the people of France. He tweeted: “Notre Dame is one of the world’s great treasures, and we’re thinking of the people of France in your time of grief. It’s in our nature to mourn when we see history lost – but it’s also in our nature to rebuild for tomorrow, as strong as we can.”

My thoughts and prayers – and solace – go out to the people of Paris, to France, and to anyone in the world affected by this unfortunate Holy Week tragedy.

God bless us all and please help us understand this unprecedented catastrophe we are witnessing in real time.

An understanding of racial justice in the shadow of statues

In the Shadow of Statues, which
was published March 20, is
on the New York Times
Bestseller List.

"These statues are not just stone and metal. They were erected purposefully to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge." 

– Mitch Landrieu, from In the Shadow of Statues

New Orleans is one of the great multicultural cities in the world. It is also a racially divided city that has dealt with its fair share of poverty and urban violence. In spite of all of its troubles, the Big Easy remains a beloved cultural treasure to everyone who visits thanks to its rich tradition of funky jazz music and the beauty and grace of its amazing food.

Enter Mitch Landrieu, the mayor of New Orleans since 2010, who has been an important catalyst in helping his city rebuild from the devastation of Hurricane Katrina. As the son of a former state legislator and mayor of New Orleans – who was a huge force in the integration of that city in the 1960s and 1970s – and the brother of a former U.S. senator from Louisiana, Landrieu grew up with a progressive education in the racially divided Crescent City among America's lingering Confederate monuments.

At a time when the issue of racism has become resurgent "with seemingly tacit approval from the highest levels of government and when too many Americans have a misplaced nostalgia for a time and place that never existed," Landrieu has written In the Shadow of Statues – a book that's a must read.

In the Shadow of Statues is equal parts memoir, history, and a "prescription for finally confronting America's most painful legacy." As a white southerner confronting his city's past history, Landrieu contributes a very strong voice to our national conversation about race in America today by taking on many difficult issues related to it, including slavery and inequality.

In praising In the Shadow of Statues, Walter Isaacson, author of Leonardo da Vinci and Steve Jobs, writes: "With a balance of humility and conviction, he recounts his path to a more profound understanding of racial justice and explains how this journey led him to remove the Confederate monuments in New Orleans. It's an important book for everyone in America to read, because it shows how intellectual honesty can lead to moral clarity."

Mitch Landrieu at Politics & Prose Bookstore
in Washington, D.C. last week.

Last week, my wife and I attended a standing room-only book event at Politics & Prose Bookstore in northwest Washington, D.C., featuring a conversation between Landrieu and Jeffrey Goldberg, editor in chief of The Atlantic, before a thoughtful and engaging audience, that was followed by a 30-minute Q & A period and a book signing.

"There's a difference between remembering and revering history," said Landrieu, who addressed the people of New Orleans in May 2017 about his decision to take down and remove four Confederate monuments, including the statue of the famous southern Confederate general Robert E. Lee. The affected statues represent a mere four-year period of U.S. history, from 1861-65, but a searing one, too. While Landrieu said that the decision to remove the monuments was a difficult one, it was a right one, too. It was about eradicating history.

"We were on the wrong side of history," Landrieu told the Politics & Prose audience very matter-of-factly. "These statues were erected to send a strong message to all who walked in their shadows about who was still in charge. For decades, these statues have cast a long shadow on society, particularly African-Americans."

Lee Circle before the Confederate monument
of Robert E. Lee was removed in 2017.

Landrieu says In the Shadow of Statues is an invitation to stand and sit in other people's shoes. He recalled for his Politics & Prose audience a conversation he once shared with his dear friend, the famous jazz musician and educator – and New Orleans native son – Wynton Marsalis, who helped him see the truth about the city's exclusionary attitudes. "'Hey, man,'" Landrieu recalled the trumpeter saying to him. "'You should take the statue of Robert E. Lee down. Do you know how it got there and who put it up?'"

In the book, Landrieu expands on his conversation with Marsalis.

"I don't like the fact that Lee Circle is named Lee Circle."

"Why is that?"

"Let me help you see it through my eyes. Who is he? What does he represent? And in that most prominent space in the city of New Orleans, does that space reflect who we are, who we want to be, or who we are?"

Suddenly, Landrieu was listening.

Later in their conversation, according to the mayor, Marsalis added, "'Did you know Louis Armstrong left the city and never came back because of that statue? He did not even want to be buried in his hometown. You ever think about what Robert E. Lee means to someone black?'"

Landrieu emphasized that there's a difference between remembrance of history and reverence of it. "I think there are a lot of people who are struggling with the notion that the South fought for a cause that was reviled," he said. When you make sense of it, monuments are usually reserved for winners not losers. The Confederate monuments celebrated the losing side of the Civil War.

New Orleans Mayor Mitch Landrieu

As Landrieu remarked back during his May 2017 speech, "For America and New Orleans, it has been a long, winding road, marked by great tragedy and great triumph. But we cannot be afraid of our truth."

And, as Landrieu writes, "Here is the essential truth: We are better together than we are apart.

"Indivisibility is our essence."

Near the end of his conversation at Politics & Prose, Landrieu said, "If we are going to move forward as a country, we must confront the issue of race head on. Our diversity is what makes this country great.

"We need to understand our history. We need to tell the whole story."

Photo credits: Book cover courtesy of Amazon.com. Politics & Prose audience courtesy of @PoliticsProse Twitter. Robert E. Lee statue courtesy of New Orleans Advocate. Mitch Landrieu courtesy of Cheryl Gerber.

Forever 21: Remembering Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha and her voice full of hope

Ibtihaj Muhammad /
Muslim American
Olympic fencer. 

American Muslims make extraordinary contributions to our country every day. One needs only to look at Wednesday's New York Times to learn the story of Ibtihaj Muhammad, a 30-year-old female fencer, who will represent the U.S. at the Summer Olympics in Rio de Janeiro and is believed to be the first American Olympian in any sport to compete while wearing a hijab. She was among a select group of prominent American Muslims invited to a round-table discussion with President Obama last week before his speech at an American mosque in Baltimore. It was the Mr. Obama's first visit as president to an American mosque. 

Meanwhile, it's been a year since three young students, who were American Muslims, were shot to death in Chapel Hill, N.C., in a brutal crime. Despite the barriers broken by Mr. Obama and Ms. Muhammad, by and large, American Muslims across my country remain worried and afraid. Their concerns include Islamophobia, mass incarceration and anti-Muslim rhetoric.

Last year, one of the slain students, Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha, participated in an NPR StoryCorps oral history project with her third-grade elementary school teacher. The interview resurfaced in the days following Yusor's tragic death and showed a kind and caring individual with a beautiful voice so full of hope. I'm not ashamed to say that listening to the interview brought me to tears then as it does now.

http://storycorps.org/listen/yusor-abu-salha-and-mussarut-jabeen/ 

Read on as I share a repost of my Feb. 24, 2015 "A Tuesday Night Memo" blog post.

Deah Shaddy Barakat (23), Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha (21), and
Razan Mohammed Abu-Salha (19) /
They were Americans just like you and me.

American Muslims make extraordinary contributions to our country every day and, yet, we are left asking ourselves why three young university students, who were American Muslims, were shot to death in Chapel Hill, N.C., earlier this month.

It has left many American Muslims across my country worried and afraid.

This brutal crime that took the lives of these kind, young and exemplary citizens -- a husband, his newlywed wife and her sister -- came just weeks after other recent anti-Muslim attacks in Europe that were carried out in an apparent response to the January murders (committed by Muslim extremists) of Charlie Hebdo journalists in Paris.

Teacher and student /
Mussarut Jabeen (L) and Yusor Mohammed
Abu-Salha together in happier times.

"Growing up in America has been such a blessing," said one of the slain students, Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha, during a 2014 NPR StoryCorps oral history project interview that resurfaced days after her death. Accompanied to the StoryCorps booth in Raleigh, N.C. along with her third-grade elementary school teacher, Mussarut Jabeen, Abu-Salha explained: "Although in some ways, I stand out because of the hijab, there's still so many ways that I feel so embedded in the fabric that is our culture. Here, we're all one ... Open, compassionate ... That's the beautiful thing here ... It doesn't matter where you come from. There're so many different people from so many different places of different backgrounds and religions. But here we're all one -- one culture."

Among my many Muslim friends from the North Africa countries of Tunisia, Morocco and Algeria, whom I've become acquainted with over the past several years via Facebook, they are united by their faith and share in mourning the lives of their American Muslim sisters and brother half a world and many time zones away, too. They insist -- and I agree -- that no one should ever be targeted because of who they are, what they look like, or how they worship. 

Yet, I'm left wondering and I'm sure others are thinking: How do you convey a message of tolerance throughout a large country like mine that's comprised of so many different religious faiths and political attitudes, especially when certain cross-sections of the American public -- including certain American media organizations -- are not showing tolerance themselves and, worse, come across as Islamophobic? 

My Muslim friends are human and compassionate -- and they share many of the same hopes and feelings just like you and me. None of them are religious fanatics. However, they are very worried about the escalation of deadly violence shown by Muslim extremists, who seem to have taken their Islamic faith hostage through acts of terrorism across the world.

Through dozens of conversations covering countless hours, thanks to my open-mindedness and being a good listener, many of my Muslim friends have shared in confidence with me things they might not ordinarily be comfortable in sharing with their friends or family. So, I can attest to their honesty, their compassion, their sense of wanting to have a better life than their parents and to pass along a better life to their children. Sound familiar? First and foremost, together, we've worked hard to build a sense of trust and, also, to share the love of our friendship. 

Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha /
On the occasion of her 2014 graduation
 from her beloved North Carolina State
University in Raleigh, N.C.

I invite each of you to try reaching out to connect with a Muslim or somebody of a different religious faith than your own -- and truly get to know them and to learn about their faith. Take off your blinders and try to establish a dialogue and build trust. You'll feel better for making the effort.

During their StoryCorps interview, Jabeen recalled: "I remember Yusor as a little girl when she was in third grade. She had this sense of giving that really makes her different from other children."

In December 2014, Yusor graduated from North Carolina State University in Raleigh, N.C. 

In closing, Jabeen said: "I would like people to know and remember (Yusor) as a practicing Muslim, as a daughter and, above all, as a good human being. You know, when we write our comments on report cards, we say they exceeded our expectations. She exceeded our expectations."

Now, I hope you will take a few moments of your time to pause and listen to the voice of Yusor Mohammed Abu-Salha from her entire StoryCorps interview: 

http://storycorps.org/listen/yusor-abu-salha-and-mussarut-jabeen/ 

I'm not ashamed to say that listening to Yusor's beautiful and loving voice -- so full of life and hope less than a year ago -- brought me to tears.

Photos: Courtesy of Facebook, StoryCorps.org, Google Images.