10/20/01
Dear All,
I'm a great patriot of the American Ideal. I believe in what the country
stands for as written in the language of the Constitution. I don't see
America as the "all-out villain." Hardly. So much gets said from the two
sides of liberal/conservative views trying to get a handle on the right
course of action. As I see the current state of affairs, there are three
distinct aspects that need to be addressed. One, which most of the current
media and political pundits are addressing, is the immediate retaliation by
the American military for the attack. Two is the continuing assault by the
terrorists who are striking us from within our borders. Three is the deeper
problems arising from these events extending far beyond the present goal of
ridding the world of terrorism.
As for the first aspect, our military response, we are striking out at an
enemy we do not see. We may even rid one small section of the planet of the
cells of this network, but as we see all too well in the past few days, the
attacks are coming from Hometown, America. The Afghani arm of Al Qaeda is
inactive. We've seen to that. Yet we are continuously being attacked, the
second aspect. This is a different war. We cannot fight it on the
battlefield with great weapons of mass destruction alone. Our military might
is not providing us the comfort we used to get from it. We are afraid now of
the mail delivery. "Don't go out. Don't go in. Don't go underground. Don't
stay above ground. Don't go into buildings. Don't stay outside. Don't open
the mail. Don't travel. Don't stay at home. Don't conduct business. Don't go
out to dinner. Don't continue to govern. Don't. Don't don't don't don't
don't. All our military might can't protect us. What are we to do?
I very much agree with the leaders who direct us to continue our lives as
before. We must not allow the forces against us to destroy or decay us. We
must carry on. This is what we're about.
I see that this is the beginning of a much bigger fight. Right now
terrorists are the angry voices being heard. But our current military
actions incite further passions against us. There is a war of perceptions
that is being waged. Right now, we have to orient our endeavors to seeking
justice--not retribution. I believe the dominant American view, is
short-sighted to a frightening degree. We can have a great destabilizing
effect on the region by bombing and an all-out military offensive. The more
we continue in this way, the more we risk the backlash slapping us in
unanticipated ways.
Certainly we are not solely responsible for the ills of the world, and
certainly we are not responsible for the powerful people who mistreat their
own. Our government and media are representing us to the world by speaking
in absolute terms of evil and terrorism. This means we are painting with the
same colors as our enemies. In the excellent editorial by Stanley Fish in
Monday's NY Times "Condemnation Without Absolutes," he speaks very much to
the heart of the error of our current war tactics. He eloquently argues that
we diminish our cause by the use of absolute terminology that does not
accurately describe the threat or our response to it. If we are to wage a
war that is ultimately winnable, we must fight with greater honesty and
greater humility. Our arrogance may well prove our undoing, because
ultimately, we are not just fighting the armed enemy; we are fighting to
bring greater unification to the world through mutual respect. We must find
the way to honor those whose opinions differ from our own, while ridding the
world of those who are bent on our destruction. Those who disagree with us
and those who want our destruction are not necessarily the same people.
We do financially bear a greater responsibility in the world, since we are
the benefactors of the greatest amount of the world's resources. Even if our
current riches are not the mitigating factor in the situation with the
extremists, our presence in many parts of the world is unwelcome. Perhaps in
those places we feel local support is not important; perhaps people's
opinions in these regions don't mean much to us; perhaps if regional rulers
are willing to sell out their own people, we have no obligation not to
exploit. But because local warlords, and despots take criminal advantage of
their own people, does not give us, as a people, the right to remain blind
to their plight, and there are legions of people in America who remain
ignorant of the suffering being funded by our dollars.
We have to turn the lights on. Part of how we are able to continue the
destruction of the planet is by not looking at what we do, by not taking in
the impact of our actions. I'm speaking of humanity, here, not just
Americans. We live on this earth, and as I see it, what we're are
confronting at this moment in history has more to do with the movement from
a world of nations to a global nation. I see this moment as an instigating
event of a revolution similar to the American Revolution that led to the
freedoms and rights that have made this nation great. I see the current
struggle against rogue terrorists as potentially the beginning of
restructuring global power.
I also don't condone the weak efforts of Muslim leaders who have failed to
stand up against the slaughter. The crimes of Taliban against their own
people are despicable. I wish I had a voice that could be heard there, I
have much to say to them. In my current missives, I'm addressing Americans.
Some people who experience life as fact based, as the practical, corporeal
existence, see the struggle very much in black and white, as issues of good
versus evil, as us versus them, as a matter of our lives being placed in
jeopardy. But it's not just our lives that are being threatened. It is our
way of life. It is the way we understand the world should be. It is our
identity that is being threatened. Our freedom is being threatened. Even
from Washington, daily words emerge expressing the need to curtail our
freedom, to increase security and surveillance. We have always identified
America as the safest place to be. That is gone. We're now part of a world
where terrorism is experienced within our borders. This changes our
identity. People are living in fear of attack. This is a new way of living.
We're having to adapt to these new times and what they mean to us.
We identify strictly with our point of view. We bandy about words like evil
as if we were the chosen judges. Seeing evil has very much to do with how we
identify ourselves. We see ourselves as good, our actions as good, our goals
as good, our morality as good, our beliefs as good. But as I said in an
earlier email, from the point of view of the terrorists, we are the evil
ones. In their identity, that which they deem as against them is evil.
As Americans, we differ from those attacking us in some vitally important
ways. Foremost, we hold to the principle that people have the right to
their beliefs, even when we disagree. The line that they cross is their lack
of tolerance. The thing that must be eliminated is the call to annihilation.
If in eliminating that call, we must rid the world of the voices and
perpetrators of heinous acts, so be it. But we must do so with humility, and
global support. We're powerful enough to unilaterally decide what we want to
do, and to do it. The problem is, that our ability to do so does not make it
right. We need participate in a greater healing even as we fight the
disease. America is not universally supported in this war. Many countries
would rather this were a police action, left to the criminal justice system,
and not a war.
We can not stand in judgment of others with absolute authority. We, too,
have done deplorable things to people and countries. We have sponsored
murders and terrorism. We have destabilized elected governments. We have
waged war for our selfish interests. We gave the Taliban most of their
weapons. We supported them when it suited us and left them and Afghanistan
to fend for itself when we tired of their needs. We must fight the
terrorists, but we also have to hold ourselves accountable for our actions.
This is the only way we will be able to change. If we are able to bully our
way through the middle east, we will once again prove to the world our
imperialistic drive. Today our goals today are right, but we must still
proceed with care. We cannot ignore history or public opinion. After all we
are a nation where the people's voice is sacrosanct.
Voices are being raised, calling for peace. People are talking about how to
solve the problems we face. In history leaders have arisen with voices
calling for greater inclusion. Gandhi led his colonized country to its
independence. Martin Luther King paved the way for American civil rights to
be enacted. They were ministers of peace. Dorothy Stearn pointed out to me
that they were all assassinated. True. They were assassinated for their
causes. They believed enough to risk their lives. But it wasn't their
nonviolence that got them killed. They were eliminated because of their
beliefs.
Jesus brought forth a new compassion, revolutionizing his day. He was
killed. Good people die believing in the cause of goodness. They are not
diminished by their deaths. Death is not even the end of their work. Much
lives on beyond them. They created legacies. The course they set upon is not
easy to navigate. Does that mean we should not try as well? We need to
become more inclusive. If we could do that, we would isolate those bent on
our destruction, for they would have nowhere to hide. This is a human
endeavor, not just an American one.
Getting killed is no reason to abandon the cause of peace, just as being a
peace warrior is not necessarily a suicidal mission. People who lead battles
get killed, too. Abraham Lincoln was assassinated after he led the country
in a gruesome Civil War. He led the country in order to secure the abolition
of slavery, the root for much of the American economy. The cause of justice
and freedom was supreme in his mind. He was willing to die for it. John F.
Kennedy was assassinated. He was not a pacifist, but he was moving this
country into some new and important directions.
It is change that frightens people. We want our lives to be the way they
were, as if that was the best that was possible. We have to look to better
times, to greater joys, to more peaceful days. We have to change. It's part
of the universal law that we do. Resistance is futile. If we fight the
current of change we will exhaust ourselves trying to remain where we have
been. We should rather steer a course to safety through these turbulent
times by going in the direction that takes us to friendly shores.
Many are the leaders who take their followers from the outdated past into
the new present. All these changes take time. Nothing happens overnight.
When the laws are passed, there is still a long period of adjustment, while
the culture catches up with the changes on the books. The untimely deaths
of these leaders do not diminish the importance of their accomplishments.
For each of them, their message was one that they were willing to die for.
This, too, is a worthy cause. We must end the extreme unfairness that
exists. That said, I know that ending unfairness alone will not assure an
end to hatred. We must engage this cause on many levels.
At the heart of the fundamentalist's power is the ignorance of their flock.
Education is replaced with indoctrination. We cannot reeducate with bombs.
Poverty and illiteracy, the restriction of information, and the control of
propaganda are the whips and chains of a dominated people. In the terror and
agony sanctioned by us lies our hypocrisy. We must look into our mistakes
and correct them. Only thus we can expect other leaders to join us. I
realize that we cannot reeducate those committed to extremist views, but I
also know that they rely on an influx of new young people to fill their
ranks. We need leaders who will guide them away from hatred. We need our
political leaders to work with spiritual leaders to find more ways to end
the reign of terror.
I'm not changing my opinion that something must be done to stop terrorism. I
don't have faith that the political leadership has the savvy either
militarily or politically to navigate the situation without missing the
greater sense of the spiritual and ethical issues that arise as a result of
our actions. I don't believe this is a battle that can be fought with
weapons alone. We have to pursue justice, not revenge. This is our higher
moral ground.
Nothing is written about what is to come. We're in virgin territory in many
ways. The sophistication and strategic ingeniousness of our enemies is
formidable. I realize that the people in the administration believe in their
policies. While they may be right that we have to use force to regain
control over the governance of the world, we still need to gain the support
of people of the world. As we approach this new global world we've heard so
much talk about these recent decades, we need to bring the true values that
America's founders presented to the whole world.
Marc