[Editor’s Note: This column is excerpted from a speech delivered during Life University’s Homecoming, October 5, 2001.]

In the opening of the novel A Tale Of Two Cities, novelist Charles Dickens wrote, "It was the best of times. It was the worst of times. It was the Age of Wisdom. It was the Age of Foolishness. It was the Season of Light. It was the Season of Darkness. It was the Spring of Hope. It was the Winter of Despair."

How appropriate this is for us in this giant, very influential profession! This homecoming certainly is a time of rejoicing, but it is tempered by nations still in mourning and still anxious about the future. As I said in a letter that many of you received, the recent events in New York and our nation’s capital have precipitated an emotional fallout that has covered our country from coast to coast like a nuclear winter.

Indeed, people throughout the whole world, whether friends or foes, have been affected tremendously and dramatically. Even now, weeks after tragic events shook the very foundations of our nation – stirring our enthusiasm and, in some, even hatred – people throughout the world continue to mourn with us.

At the same time, the enemies of all who love freedom nervously anticipate the inevitable retaliation that they now realize that they have earned for themselves. Nothing like this has happened to the United States since the bombing of Pearl Harbor nearly 60 years ago.

I was in grammar school, but I can remember that event like it was yesterday. We had gathered on Sunday afternoon in Oakland City’s football park. T.O. Humber came up to us and said, "Have you heard that the Japanese have just bombed Pearl Harbor?"

All of us, in unison, asked, "Where is Pearl Harbor? What is Pearl Harbor? Why did they bomb Pearl Harbor?" Nothing like this had happened to the United States, but now all of you who have bright eyes and a spring in your step, will, 50 years from now, remember these attacks too, perhaps even better than our generation can remember Japan’s malicious attack on Pearl Harbor.

Three of our friends at that ballpark were killed within a year during military action. In those days, Hawaii was so far away, and without the magic of television it took months, if not years, for the true depth of the tragedy to reach the average American.

On September 11, 2001, however, most of us, among the millions of other Americans, watched our television screens in horror, as in real time an airliner, filled with innocent men, women and children, was deliberately crashed into a building full of unsuspecting human beings. And then, even more unbelievable, two giant landmarks, full of human beings, crumbled to the ground after a second airplane, perfectly timed and perfectly aimed, crashed into an adjacent building.

It was like a nightmare! It reminded me of what happens when you step on a fire ant nest. The ants run everywhere, trying to find the enemy, ready to attack anything that gets in its way. Sometimes I think we need to worry as much about our government’s reaction to attacks, as we do about the attacks themselves.

As novelist Joseph Heller observed in Catch 22, "The enemy is anybody who is going to get you killed, no matter which side he is on." It’s hard for us to think that any good can come from such a horrific event, but the indomitable spirit of the American people, once again, has come through.

Dr. Nell and I watched through the tears of pride as firemen, policemen and other emergency workers and volunteers from every walk of life came together as a single entity to love, serve and give unselfishly out of their own abundance.

Many died in this heroic effort. Many probably will die in the future as a result of their public, altruistic services. Others, no doubt, will suffer long-term disabilities because of their exertion, their injuries and their prolonged exposure to toxic substances.

Heeding The Call

Doesn’t all that just tug at your heart, at your very being? Doesn’t it make you happy that you’re a chiropractor, knowing you have the ability to help ease human suffering? Wasn’t your first impulse to call New York, then jump in your car, drive up there and start doing what you could to help the injured and the disabled?

As the news networks continued to pour out reports of one human tragedy after another, I couldn’t just comfortably sit down on the couch, sipping coffee, and watch what was happening without attempting to do something about it. For me, those cries for help and the plane victims’ heart-rending final phone calls to loved ones sounded a trumpet!

I heard the call! I believe you have heard the call! I believe people of our nation, with the display of flags and the radio and television tributes, believed we had to do something to help.

Many decades ago, William Penn shared a philosophy that resonates in harmony with my own. He said, "I expect to pass through this life but once. If, therefore, there can be any kindness I can show, or any good thing I can do to any fellow human being, let me do it now, and not defer it or neglect it, as I shall not pass this way again."

As I began making phone calls to various people to put together an action plan, I could not help but recall the speech many years ago that had a permanent effect on the course of my life.

It was a hot, humid night. There was no air conditioning, and we had no luxurious quarters. We, chiropractors and students, had listened to many long speeches on seats that were too hard. Our bellies were too empty, and we were tired and hungry. We were ready to get a good meal and relax, and to forget about all our troubles and everybody else’s troubles.

But our speaker, Dr. Bill Werner, reached out into the very soul of that overindulged audience, and he pulled every one of us out of our selfish fantasies and took us on a spiritual trip to another planet in his own way, New York style.

He took us into the land of total empathy. He took us to the land of "I care." He took us to the land of unconditional loving, sacrificial serving and unstinted giving. He took us to what chiropractic is all about.

He began his speech, in a voice of absolute authority, by saying, "I know that this is not the most comfortable position in the world, but I want to be bold enough to say to you that I’m not speaking in your behalf. I’m speaking in behalf of those, who unfortunately are at a far more uncomfortable position than you are. They are lying on cots of disease and death, and in the main, it is you and I who are responsible for the position they find themselves in."

It has been many decades now since I first heard these words. I was just a young man when I heard them. I was optimistic about the future and excited, as very few young men have been, about chiropractic and its potential for mankind, for world unity, for health, for peace and for happiness.

Even though we had sweated, squirmed, wiped our brows and felt sorry for ourselves because of our uncomfortable conditions, when Dr. Werner began his dynamic address with those unforgettable words, in just a little while I had forgotten about my own discomfort and minor troubles.

I had forgotten that it was 90-something degrees. I had forgotten that sweat was stinging my eyes, making it hard to see. I forgot that my belly was growling and that my lips were dry. All I could see in my mind’s eye were those pathetic creatures, "lying on cots of disease and death," which I was responsible for!

I could see their eyes, rolled back, and I got to hear their moaning. I could smell the stench of death and disease. I could feel their pain. I could sense that they were reaching out to me, and begging me to do something to comfort them and ease their pain.

And before Dr. Werner got through with his talk, I was convinced that it was going to be my personal responsibility, as a chiropractor, to bring these suffering billions throughout the world hope. No matter what anybody else did or failed to do, I would fulfill my duty to suffering humanity.

This dream, this obsession, this vision of the far – that had been churning disjointedly in my innate subconscious mind since my first miraculous encounter with chiropractic – began to take definite form then and there.

I could see the suffering masses in Asia, in South America, in Africa, in neighborhoods in my own native state of Georgia, in adjoining states and in towns and villages throughout the world, calling out to me, a personal human being, Sid Williams, to help them.

"Over here!" they called. "We need you this way. Now come and help us over here."

When Bill Werner pointed out that my minor discomfort was nothing compared to what others were suffering, that it was my fault that they were not getting the help they needed, I believed him. And I committed then and there to the mission of spending the rest of my life doing everything I possibly could to help those who needed help.

That inspiration was rekindled a thousand-fold on September 11. Like so many other Americans, I felt the call to do something, whatever I could, to help the suffering masses in New York and in Washington, D.C.

Working with the ICA’s Ron Hendrickson and Dr. Coralee Van Egmond, we communicated with the local ICA Council to get as many as 25 chiropractors to Ground Zero, including Drs. Donald Hirsh, Susan Hirsh, Brad Robinson, Mimi McLaughlin, Jan Teitelbaum, Paul Roses, Mitchell Adolpho, Deborah Bobbin, Jeff Barrows, Tom Chaney, Kristin Colangelo, Christina Collins, David Collins, Michael Dulski, Michael Fedorczyk and Lisa Hepfer.

We now have nearly two dozen doctors still in New York working tirelessly around the clock, serving people who need chiropractic care to the highest echelon.

Generals queried us, "What we need is chiropractors on our battleships. Can you <I>find us<I> these chiropractors? Can they go overseas with us?" Perhaps we will find them, so they can fly there, or go over in boats, to stay a week or two and then fly back with the military. I see no reason why that it can’t be, and I hope they ask us.

Chiropractors, including Life graduates, helped to provide professional care to the disaster victims as well as the exhausted rescue workers. My heart swelled with pride when our chiropractic brothers and sisters began, spontaneously, flocking to the disaster areas by whatever means was available, to offer their professional assistance to any who needed it. They were on street corners in New York, in buildings and at the disaster site. Within yards where the tragedy occurred were chiropractors bringing their own tables and equipment to serve lines of workers waiting to get chiropractic care.

My heart swelled with pride when our brothers and sisters began spontaneously flocking to help. As Winston Churchill said, "We make a living by what we get, but we make a life by what we give."

This is a time when we must put aside all thoughts of personal comfort and come together as "one nation, under God."

A Worldwide Mission

Dr. Rod Handly, a Life University staff member who has been involved for 30 years with Dynamic Essentials, is working to help develop our "Chiropractors Without Borders" program. We already have a tent city in Costa Rica. We have established a chiropractic center, a facility where people receive care, and we also placed a mobile chiropractic health unit there to serve an Indian village of 900 people.

If you would like to become involved in the "Chiropractors Without Borders" program, be sure to contact Dr. Handly. This is not a short-term project.

Every time there is a tragedy or some calamity that occurs anywhere in the world, we are going to have a team of "Chiropractors Without Borders" ready to go and serve people.

It will be just as effective anywhere there’s a need for the public or for workers to be served. All we have to do is listen to our hearts for the voices lying on cots from diseases and death, not only in New York, but throughout the world.

Can you hear them? Can you see them? Can you hear the fireman who slid off a steel beam and hurt his back? Or the crane operator who has been working 100 hours per week for nearly a month? Are you willing to accept your responsibility to help them, or people in a remote village thousands of miles from here, in Bangladesh? India? Thailand? All parts of Africa? Senegal? Kenya?

Are you ready to serve? Are you willing to go out? Are you willing to support these efforts, even though they are thousands of miles away? Do you still recognize these hopeless, helpless people, as your neighbors, as your fellow Americans, as your fellow human beings?

There’s an old German proverb that says, "Charity sees the need, not the cause." We will be spending many years discussing what brought about this mammoth calamity. But talk will not align a spine. Arguments will not soothe a brow, and criticism will not cheer a spirit.

U.S. President Theodore Roosevelt, who was a mover and a shaker, once wisely observed that, "It’s not the critic who counts; not the man who points out where the strong man stumbled, or where the doer of deeds could have done them better. The credit belongs to the man who is actually in the arena; whose face is marred by dust, sweat, blood, tears; and who strives valiantly; who errs and comes short again and again. And who does actually try to do the deed. Who, with great enthusiasm, spends himself in a worthy cause, who at the worst, if he fails, at least fails while daring greatly."

We have to do with what we have and withhold nothing. If you and I have water to spare and others around the world perish from thirst, is it not our fault for not recognizing this need and help them and provide them with education, means, operations, money, resources, time, love and compassion?

If you and I have bread to spare and others around the world are starving to death, must not we accept the blame? In the same way, if you and I have the knowledge and skills to bring relief to someone who is suffering a physical dysfunction, and we fail to make every effort to share that knowledge and those skills, is it not true, as Bill Werner pointed out, that "in the main it is you and I that are responsible" for those hopeless, helpless people?

We are responsible for the position they find themselves in, because we have the means, the knowledge, the education, the resources, the talent, the will, the desire, the love and the enthusiasm.

Author Jack London once wrote, "A bone to the dog is not charity. Charity is the bone shared with the dog when you’re just as hungry as the dog." That’s the kind of charity we’re seeing now, time and time again. Wouldn’t it be a wonderful thing if an almost totally universal "Lasting Purpose" mindset of love lasted for months, years or decades into the future?

When September 11 is just a footnote in history, human beings all over the world will continue to suffer, many of them needlessly, "and in the main, it is still you and I who are responsible" for the condition they find themselves in.

This is a time to love, serve and give out of your own abundance, unquestionably, unconditionally.

About the author: Sid E. Williams, B.S., D.C., is founder and president of Life University.