Lest we forget

Jenny Marder

Just days after the Sept. 11, 2001 tragedy, a small group of Orange

County residents sat down over lunch to tackle a question that, while

simple, overwhelmed them: What could they do in their own lives to

make the world a better place?

Lunch turned into dinner and conversation spilled over past

midnight.

“It was tough to return to work the next day, tough to return to

our regular lives,” said Sukh Chugh, director of the resulting group,

Be the Cause. “We felt like we were involved in the bursting of this

grassroots’ movement.”

They were. Be the Cause, a small, nonprofit group, was born

shortly thereafter and has been gaining momentum ever since.

Tonight, at 6:45 p.m., the group will hold a small candlelight

vigil at Huntington State Beach to commemorate the anniversary of

Sept. 11, 2001, when planes hijacked by terrorists crashed into the

World Trade Center, the Pentagon and a field in Pennsylvania,

annihilating buildings and taking the lives of about 3,000 people.

On Sept. 20, the group will host the Walk of Hope, a large scale

remembrance that Chugh is hoping will draw hundreds. The walk will be

at Bolsa Chica State Beach, from 10 a.m. to 2 p.m. People will take

off from Warner Avenue and Pacific Coast Highway, head south to

Seapoint Avenue along the bike path and back.

Along the route, people will be encouraged to stop and take part

in various activities on the sand, such as meditation, yoga classes,

artwork and group discussions. A collection of artwork will be on

display along the route and vendors from different human rights

organizations will man booths in the parking lot.

The event will also feature speeches from Tom Frost, who lost his

22-year-old daughter to the attacks and Lisa Garr, host of the “Aware

Show” on KPFK. Warm-up exercises will be led by the Laker Girls.

This will be the Walk of Hope’s second year in Huntington Beach.

Last year, the organization drew 350 people and raised $12,000 for

various humanitarian projects. Chugh is expecting to draw more than

600 people this year and to raise $30,000 for various humanitarian

aid programs in Iraq, Afghanistan, Africa and India.

In coming years, Chugh hopes to see the Walk of Hope expand

outward to be held in different cities.

“This year, I am saddened by it as well, but I continue to want to

move forward,” Chugh said. “Maybe we can continue to use suffering of

9/11 as an opportunity to create change across the planet.”

“I think it will be an opportunity to step outside of one’s life

for a brief moment and try to connect with something greater,” he

said. “It’s the opportunity to experience joy or experience

happiness, a brief moment to experience joy in life.”

It may seem like a paradox, to experience joy while commemorating

such a devastating tragedy. But Chugh believes that the two can go

hand in hand.

“It’s not happiness in the sense that we typically understand it,”

Chugh said. “It’s more of a deeper happiness, this contentment that

we’re doing something with our lives, something great. It’s a time

where we get to connect, be a part of something greater.”

Chugh’s hope now is to use the tragedy as a catalyst for change.

“Sometimes we’re going through life and something like 9/11

happens and we begin to realize, things are different, everything

isn’t the same as it always was,” he said. “I’m living life

differently now.”

Be the Cause in not the only group in Surf City commemorating the

attacks.

The Huntington Beach Interfaith Council is putting together a

“Tribute to First Responders” from 11:45 a.m. to 1 p.m. at the

bandstand area of Huntington Beach Central Park. The tribute will

include prayers by the Rev. Peggy Price, minister of the Huntington

Beach Church of Religious Science and president of the Interfaith

Council and Rabbi Steve Einstein of Congregation B’nai Tzedek, as

well as music by bagpipers, buglers and vocalists.

The city’s veterans groups will also hold a tribute at 7 p.m. at

Huntington Beach Pier Plaza. Clad in full military dress, veterans

holding American flags will march down the pier to the tune of the

Star Spangled banner.

“We’ll be distributing poppies to people in remembrance of this

sad occasion,” said Staff Sgt. Cecil Birnbaum, chaplain of the

Huntington Beach chapter of the veterans of foreign wars in the

United States.

Birnbaum, 80, an artist, was painting, when he heard that

airplanes had crashed into the World Trade Center.

“It was incomprehensible to me that this could possibly happen,”

Birnbaum said. “I had the greatest grief for people who were on those

airplanes that they had no way to save themselves. I sure hope we’ve

done something about preventing it for the future, though it’s a

difficult thing to prevent.”