In today’s world, O Lord, our ears are constantly assailed with reports of corruption, greed, self-serving, and our eyes with the sight of violence, moral degradation, self-destruction, and we despair for the fate of humankind.

Yet, in this room, is a group of women who after years of homemaking, child rearing, and labors in the marketplace, are now devoting their selves, their time, and their effort to working for the common good.

And here too, is a roomful of faithful supporters.

Give us, O Lord, groups of dedicated workers, and rooms full of willing helpers to place all over your land, and you will not despair for your humankind.

It will survive. With honor.

My grandmother wrote this invocation 17 years before September 11, 2001. Humankind has survived, and continues to thrive, but not without the violence, moral degradation, self-destruction, and despair.

Planes were high jacked. Buildings toppled. Lives lost, and wars begun in retaliation.

Groups of dedicated workers and rooms full of willing helpers, from around the world, rushed to help. But not because of honor, but because humans, for the most part, are altruistic. They recognize their obligation to each other.

The problem is humans inherently split into groups, becoming more loyal to its members than the entirety of mankind. Terrorists are loyal to their factions’ dogmas, and resolve to preserve their ways-of-life, and safety and sanctity of their communities and families.

In this vein, they are no different than other groups of people who align themselves based on their ethnicity, religion, socio-economic standing, neighborhood, country, political bend, job role, and myriad of other defining characteristics and demographics.

Unless people look beyond themselves and the groups in which they’re aligned, there will continue to be despair for humankind.