Building Bridges One Photo at a Time
A couple of months ago, we went to New York to learn about immigration with our eight- and ten-year-old kids. Just before the ferry left the dock for the Statue of Liberty, I dislocated my artificial hip for the fourth time in two years. I spent the next 12 hours with first responders and medical personnel on the scene on 9/11. All of them wanted to talk...lots. Toward the end of the day, as I waited to be taken to the operating room for the two-minute anesthesized yank that would fix my leg, I thought to start surveying these people who'd been on the front lines of the horror. I asked, "If you could point to one thing you learned that day, what would it be?" I got two answers: (1) "Be grateful for what you have today, because you don't know what might happen tomorrow" and (2) "We need to do a better job of understanding other cultures."

Here's a contribution to the second cause: photos by gifted photographer & cultural ambassador Frank Ward.