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September
13
San Francisco
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My
thoughts on September 11th and the aftermath.
Reconciliation
does not mean forgetting the suffering and injustices of the past; rather,
it means not letting the past stand in the way of opportunities for
the future.
-- Duane Elgin, author of Promise
Ahead: a vision of hope and action for humanity's future
I
am overwhelmed with messages of sympathy and wishes for peace from Italy
these past few days, difficult days in U.S. history. Thank you for your
sentiments. And to Moto
Guzzi, I cried when I went to your Web site on September
11th and found it blacked out in silence, in honor of those many souls
who left our earth that day. I have heard
from friends and they are okay,
in body but not in spirit.
Yet
today, here in America the mainstream media broadcasts messages about
revenge, violence, and war. Here in America a man in a truck tries to
run over a woman who looks Middle-Eastern, who is walking across a shopping
center parking lot. Here in America it is said the 90% of the population
wants nothing more than revenge. Our American government attempts to
find the responsible parties, and is ready to bomb in their whereabouts,
no matter that the majority of citizens in the "suspected"
areas are peaceful, loving people who are as horrified at the attacks
as we are.
It
is time to stop this. We do not need war. Driving on the freeway yesterday,
passing a closed San Francisco Airport, blocked off by police vehicles
and large orange trucks, listening to the talk talk talk on the radio,
seeing tears on the faces of people driving, people I don't even know,
I realized how closely together we are all connected. Everyone felt
this on September 11th, the great rent in the spiritual fabric that
is our collective humanity. Is it time to finally follow the teachings
of our spiritual leaders and pray, not only pray, but act for peace?
I, for one, want nothing else but to rid myself of fear, yet, while
there is fear and suffering for one, there is fear and suffering for
all. Collective action is necessary now to protest this violence. We
forget, because we are individually so minor in the scheme of the government
machine, that individually we can be heard. We are all, individually,
influences on others. So don't let our friends, or neighbors, our children,
hear us speaking for revenge, violence, retaliation. Act for change
at the deepest root level. Our western wealth can be used to lead in
a planetary effort to heal and empower the disenfranchised, instead
of to gather up ever more wealth than we need at the expense of other
souls, souls like us. It is time for change.
Are
you, like me, a traveler? Then do you remember how we've wandered the
earth and connected with other cultures, no matter how different, and
realized that we are the same? We are of one fabric, we are one organism
on this web that is the top of the earth, a fragile web hovering on
a crust of matter, pressed in upon by the vastness of the cosmos. Together
on this crust we feel the reverberations from all incidents, great and
small. It is time for healing. It is time to turn off the television
that broadcasts fear, hate and war. It is time to fill our minds and
bodies with solutions and with hope. Some starting points for action:
- Media:
Listen to public broadcasts such as Amy
Goodman on Democracy Now and
WebActive
who offer not only the news but also commentary about how the mainstream
media is covering the event, often irresponsibly.
- Activism:
Go to Working
for Change and write a letter to President Bush and other
members of the United States goverment. Urge a peaceful solution.
Speak out to your friends and neighbors, participate in a community
event.
- Educate:
We must educate ourselves on the cutures with which we clash, and
we must educate ourselves on the activities of our own government
in the world, examine the reasons we're there, examine the effects,
consider that our government may not be acting from the heart. There
are many reasons to change this. A fascinating book that addresses
the topic is Duane
Elgin's Promise Ahead: A vision of hope and action for humanity's
future.
- On The
Nationâs website:
JONATHAN SCHELL: A Hole In The World
DAVID
CORN: The Dark Smoke
ROBERT
FISK: Terror In America
PATRICIA
WILLIAMS: Pax Americana
NATION
EDITORS: A Great Wound
- On The
Atlantic Monthly's website:
COMING
TO GRIPS WITH JIHAD SEP 12 | "As investigators
attempt to trace yesterday's devastating terrorist acts to their source,
attention seems increasingly to be focusing on Osama bin Laden and
his militant followers--Islamic fundamentalists who consider themselves
engaged in a 'jihad' against the Western world." What are the roots
of Islamic fundamentalist rage against the U.S.? How did Afghanistan
become a hotbed of international terrorists? Atlantic articles by
Bernard Lewis, Robert Kaplan, and Mary Anne Weaver look at the origins
and consequences of jihad.
- THE
TRIUMPH OF TERRORISM SEP 11 | Who could have perpetrated
Tuesday's attacks--and why? Atlantic articles by Conor Cruise O'Brien,
Mary Anne Weaver, Reuel Marc Gerecht, and Mark Edington give insight
into the terrorist mind--and how the U.S. may have both inflamed and
encouraged terrorist groups.
- THE
VIEW FROM INSIDE Nov 2 | "The problem with a lot of journalistic
criticism of how the U.S. operated in the mid- and late eighties in
Afghanistan is that journalists operate in this perfect universe,
where every option is possible, while policy makers usually only have
bad choices." The foreign correspondent Robert D. Kaplan, the author
of *Soldiers of God*, on his time among the mujahideen, the killing
of Abdul Haq, and why the U.S. must not be afraid to be brutal.
- Alternative media: Don't be brainwashed by the mainstream media's
frothing, repetitive, simple-minded messages. It's all much more complex.
Take the time to discern, dare to be responsible for your own opinions:
Counterspin
with Janine Jackson and Steven Rendall: CounterSpin provides a critical
examination of the major stories every week, and exposes what the
mainstream media might have missed in their own coverage.
Democracy
Now! with Amy Goodman and
Juan Gonzalez (from NYC), featuring the voices of some of the best
minds of this generation (and previous ones), including activists,
muckrakers, visionaries, artists, risk-takers, academics and "just
folks" who share a commitment to truth, democracy, justice, diversity,
equality and peace.
WebActive
is a site designed to offer progressive activists an up-to-date
resource on the World Wide Web to find other organizations and individuals
with similar values and interests. In addition to its work on cutting-edge
multimedia technologies, RealNetworks aims to bring the networking
power of the World Wide Web and the Internet to bear on social and
political issues.
AlterNet.org
is a project of the Independent Media Institute, a nonprofit organization
dedicated to strengthening and supporting independent and alternative
journalism. First launched in 1998, AlterNet's online magazine provides
a mix of news, opinion and investigative journalism on subjects ranging
from the environment, the drug war, technology and cultural trends
to policy debate, sexual politics and health issues. The AlterNet
article database includes more than 7,000 stories from over 200 sources.
Our
heritage in the United States is activism and revolution. Let us remember
our heritage and take action now, to make a better world. I look forward
to exploring the world for years to come, for lifetimes to come. I look
forward to meeting you, fellow explorers, for years and lifetimes to
come. Please let us become global citizens, let no place be barred.
Let us be free.
Italy:
I look forward to flying to Italy on Sunday, and beginning my journey
into your culture. Thank you for being so welcoming.
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