[T]he events of September 11 were a horrendous atrocity, probably the most devastating instant human toll of any crime in history, outside of war. . . . It was a historic event . . . because there was a change. The change was the direction in which the guns were pointed. That's new. Radically new.

From the viewpoint of a tenth-floor apartment in Brooklyn Heights, where I happened to be visiting some kin, the destruction of the World Trade Center twin towers had the false intimacy of television, on a day of perfect reception. . . .As we watched the second tower burst into ballooning flame (an intervening building had hidden the approach of the second airplane), there persisted the notion that, as on television, this was not quite real; it could be fixed; the technocracy the towers symbolized would find a way to put out the fire and reverse the damage.

"He told her that it was really dark. He couldn't see in front of him; it was just a lot of smoke, and just didn’t look good. A couple of minutes later she called him back and at that point he couldn’t really hear. He was out of breath and he was saying 'bye, bye I love you, goodbye.'" 

More than a month later, Mike still calls his [father's] cell phone. "We have his cell phone still connected so when we call we can just hear his voice and then leave a message at the end of the night. I like to call him before I go to bed. It's my way of kind of having a conversation with him for that day." His sister calls, too. 

One man told me about his son, Osama. The 12-year-old came back from school, pleading, begging to have his name changed. Changed to a "Canadian" name.

In leading the meditation, I asked the gathering not only to include the victims and their loved ones in their thoughts, but to also remember that the hijackers also died in the jet crashes and they all had parents, brothers, sisters and friends who are now in mourning. . . .We have no right to talk about them as non-human creatures, lower than insects. In flesh and blood, heart and mind, they were no different from any of us.

I have often spoken of how technology and the internet gave us the world mind taking a walk with itself. But in the light of the events of September 11th, we now must speak of the world heart, the world stomach, the world spirit. America is no longer insulated from the pathos of other nations. 

Why US?

There are a hundred ways to be a good citizen, and one of them is to look finally at the things we don't want to see. In a week of terrifying events, here is one awful, true thing that hasn't much been mentioned: Some people believe our country needed to learn how to hurt in this new way. 

Let's by all means grieve together. But let's not be stupid together. A few shreds of historical awareness might help us understand what has just happened, and what may continue to happen. "Our country is strong," we are told again and again. I for one don't find this entirely consoling. Who doubts that America is strong? But that's not all America has to be.

I live in a country where everyone is trained from birth never to ask why. "That man is evil – that's why he did it. That's the answer. He's evil." Only with the fundamentally, totally uneducated could you get away with this sort of rationalising.

How does this "good guy" at home become the "ugly American" overseas? Because the goodness of the U.S. remains mostly within its borders. American liberty, rule of law, democracy and justice are alien to U.S. foreign policy.

What did a diverse group of Third World leaders – Mao Tse-tung of China, Ho Chi Minh of Vietnam, Gamal Abdel Nasser of Egypt, Fidel Castro of Cuba and Sukarno of Indonesia – have in common? As admirers of the American Revolution, they also believed in the ideals articulated by President Wilson, supporting the right of self-determination of subjugated peoples and colonies. So inspired was Ho that when he declared Vietnam's independence from France in 1945, he borrowed words from the Declaration of Independence about the rights to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness.

But what happened? Coming to power, these leaders became implacable American foes after finding that the U.S. they idolized was different in real life.

What I am worried about is the fact that our policies are just continuing the suffering of innocent people and actually bringing the Middle East to the brink of yet another war. . . .[I]t's going to cost American lives. And that's something I think the American people have no clue about. They are sitting here thinking Saddam and anti-Saddam thoughts, the evil of the Iraqi tyranny, etc. They don't understand that our policies are killing six-thousand kids a month. Every time I speak and bring that fact up people are like: "What?" They are just totally divorced from the reality of what is happening in Iraq. . . .[T]he current policies of this administration are pushing us to the point where there will be a war – another war in the Persian Gulf and that is something that can be headed off now. 

"You are either with us – or you are with the terrorists"

Trucker flying five American flags to trucker flying four:

"Go home to Afghanistan!"

Why of course the people don't want war. . . .But, after all, it is the leaders of the country who determine the policy and it is always a simple matter to drag the people along, whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the peacemakers for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in any country.

It has been fascinating to observe how my comments regarding American foreign policy, a record well documented by numerous sources whose accuracy or credentials cannot be faulted, have been dubbed "hate-speech." To speak about the indisputable record of U.S. backed coups, death squads, bombings and killings ironically makes me a "hate-monger." 

[N]o column I've written for The Chronicle has garnered the volume or tenor of response that the Oct. 17 column did on why I think bombing Afghanistan is "shortsighted, counterproductive and immoral." 

. . . .Much as I'd like to think that column was courageous, it was more like losing my ability to stifle a scream. As I've told many people, I pay attention to what I hear about Jesus and what I read in history books; that combination renders me incapable of silence about the death and suffering we are causing the Afghans, or the truly rotten karma we are sowing all over the Middle East.

Collateral Damage

Avenging thousands of innocents in America cannot take precedence over saving millions of innocents in Afghanistan. . . .The spectacle of US special forces roving through a land of the dead and the dying in search of Osama bin Laden is as absurd a prescription for policy as it is offensive to decency. 

A U.S. bomb flattened a flimsy mud-brick home in Kabul Sunday blowing apart seven children as they ate breakfast with their father. . . . 

"What shall I do now? Look at their savagery," wailed the wife of Gul Ahmad as the bodies of her children were pulled from the smoldering wreckage of her home and wrapped in shrouds. 

"They killed all of my children and husband," she said. 

"The whole world is responsible for this tragedy. Why are they not taking any decision to stop this?"

When U.S. civilians are killed, it's a travesty. When the dead are from someplace else – especially a backward, poverty-stricken country such as Afghanistan – it's regrettable. 

So it appears the Taliban have fallen, or are close to a total collapse. And given what we know about their brutal rule in Afghanistan, this is, so far as it goes a good thing. 

. . . .Yet we should also give pause and consider the magnitude of the present unknown. As the Revolutionary Association of Women of Afghanistan has made clear, the prospects of a marauding band of Northern Alliance fanatics in power is hardly a massive improvement. Their record for rape, murder, and summary execution should give anyone pause, especially those who believe that we have "liberated" the Afghan people. Liberation remains to be seen. A few days of celebrations in the street – punctuated by growing atrocities carried out by Alliance members – hardly indicates what the long-term outcome of Operation Enduring Freedom is likely to be.

Bombed Numb

The BBC was yesterday broadcasting an American officer talking about the dangers of "collateral damage'' – without the slightest hint of the immorality of this phrase. . . .Is there some kind of rhetorical fog that envelops us every time we bomb someone?

The worst aspect of the post-September 11 world is the self-censorship of so many people who hold positions of greater or lesser power. The international "coalition against terrorism" is destroying people's ability to think and speak.

After the first week of bombing, the New York Times reported on a back page inside a column on something else that by the arithmetic of the United Nations there will soon be 7.5 million Afghans in acute need of even a loaf of bread, and there are only a few weeks left before the harsh winter will make deliveries to many areas totally impossible. . . .

On the same day the Special Rapporteur of the UN in charge of food pleaded with the United States to stop the bombing to try to save millions of victims. As far as I’m aware that was unreported. That was Monday. Yesterday the major aid agencies OXFAM and Christian Aid and others joined in that plea. You can’t find a report in the New York Times. There was a line in the Boston Globe, hidden in a story about another topic, Kashmir. 

I am concerned that we are not yet having the right national conversation. I believe that the justice we should seek is restoration, not retribution.

. . . .The right conversation, for me, does include punishment for the criminals who slaughtered innocent people, but it does not stop there. It also asks what conditions allowed people to see the United States as an evil empire. We must remember that, to those who perpetrated the attacks of September 11, their actions were not lunatic; they made sense. It asks what role we had in creating that perception. And it calls on our national leaders to remain at the table, attempting to move toward restoration of the multiple issues of justice so that a lasting peace can be found.

Hearts and Minds

The trick we have not yet learned is how to fight terrorism without creating new terrorists.

"I am very happy and proud of what my son did and, frankly, am a bit jealous," says Hassan Hotari, 54, father of the young man who carried out the attack June 1 outside a disco in Tel Aviv. It was Israel's worst suicide bombing in nearly four years. "I wish I had done (the bombing). My son has fulfilled the Prophet's (Mohammed's) wishes. He has become a hero! Tell me, what more could a father ask? . . .There is no better way to show God you love him."

Millions of ordinary Muslims are disenchanted and frightened. They are suffering terrible fatigue having to battle at once against Islamaphobia and against the fanatics who have hijacked their religion. We have nothing in common with bearded men who beat up shrouded women and we despair of the army of apologists who never hold Muslims to account.

. . . .We must fight to end the discredited sanctions against Iraq and to attack the fearsome policies of Sharon's government. . . .But to jump from this to the side of a "pure Islamic" cult which is truly fascistic is morally indefensible.

The Western world is scarcely aware of this overwhelming feeling of humiliation that is experienced by most of the world's population; it is a feeling that people have to try to overcome without losing their common sense, and without being seduced by terrorists, extreme nationalists, or fundamentalists.

. . . .Nothing can fuel support for "Islamists" who throw nitric acid at women's faces so much as the West's failure to understand the damned of the world.

After the smoke has cleared, the dust has settled down and the initial fury blown over, humankind will wake up and realize a new fact: there is no safe place on earth. . . .The Twin Towers are everywhere.

This is the reality of the 21st century that started this week in earnest. It must lead to the globalization of all problems and the globalization of their solutions.

. . . .Terrorism, the weapon of the weak, can easily reach every spot on earth. Every society can easily be targeted, and the more developed a society is, the more it is in danger. Fewer and fewer people are needed to inflict pain on more and more people. Soon one single person will be enough to carry a suitcase with a tiny atomic bomb and destroy a megalopolis of tens of millions. . . .Not only multi-national corporations embrace the globe, but terror organizations do so, too. In the same way, the instruments for the solution of conflicts must be global.

Instead of the destroyed New York edifices, the twin towers of Peace and Justice must be built. 

Mr. Speaker, as we seek to comprehend the enormity of what has happened in recent days and what the Canadian response should be, I urge all of us with political responsibilities to pray for the gift of discernment, for the power to discern the difference between righteousness and self-righteousness, between humility and hubris, between vengeance and justice, between fundamental values and ideological preferences, between long term effective solutions and short term feel good solutions, between actions that make the world a safer place and actions that pour fuel on an already blazing fire and finally, between the faith of the false prophets who criticize only others and the truly prophetic who call on us to reflect on our own sins as well as those of others. 

May God grant us all the power to make these distinctions.

[In his speech to the UN] Mr Bush lectured the nations of the world as though they were a bunch of disobedient schoolkids. 

. . . .It doubtless went down well with the US television audience. But Mr Bush said almost nothing about any of the other issues that actively matter to the rest of the world. Nothing about poverty and debt. Nothing about the nuclear weapons or the arms trade. Nothing about global warming. There was a brief reference in favour of combating AIDS and not much more than a passing reference to the Middle East.

. . . .[I]t was not the speech of a leader who appears willing to engage with the world, except when it suits his own interests. Perhaps that was why Mr Bush's speech was heard, until the end, in silence.

The war on terrorism starts within each of our respective sovereign borders. It will be fought with increased support for democracy programs, judicial reform, conflict resolution, poverty alleviation, economic reform, and health and education programs. All these together deny the reason for terrorists to exist or find safe havens within those borders.

My husband, Craig Scott Amundson, of the U.S. Army lost his life in the line of duty at the Pentagon on Sept. 11. . . .For the last two years Craig drove to his job at the Pentagon with a "visualize world peace" bumper sticker on his car. This was not empty rhetoric or contradictory to him, but part of his dream. He believed his role in the Army could further the cause of peace throughout the world. 

Craig would not have wanted a violent response to avenge his death. And I cannot see how good can come out of it. . . .I ask our nation's leaders not to take the path that leads to more widespread hatreds – that makes my husband's death just one more in an unending spiral of killing. . . .I call on them to marshal this great nation's skills and resources to lead a worldwide dialogue on freedom from terror and hate.

[T]he poor two-thirds of the globe has little reason to feel grateful to America, and much to reproach it for. While that profound polarity continues, terrorism – the warfare of the powerless – will not go away. 

Whatever military action the US resorts to, what is required of it in the longer term is an exhaustive political engagement with, and sensitivity to, the concerns of the deeply aggrieved who are its bitterest foes – starting with those in Palestine and elsewhere in the Middle East. Engagement, not military action, will ultimately deliver sustainable peace.

We cannot leave the fight against terrorism to our politicians or to our armies. In Europe and America, we ordinary citizens must find out more about the rest of the world. 

. . . .We must learn about the working conditions of those who make our nice shirts and jeans, in such countries as Indonesia 

. . . . We must find out about foreign ideologies and other religions, such as Islam. 

And we must also acquire a full knowledge of our own governments' foreign policy, using our democratic rights to oppose them, should we deem this to be necessary. 

The root of terrorism is misunderstanding, hatred and violence. This root cannot be located by the military. Bombs and missiles cannot reach it, let alone destroy it. Only with the practice of calming and looking deeply can our insight reveal and identify this root. Only with the practice of deep listening and compassion can it be transformed and removed. . . .

Everyone has the seed of awakening and insight within his or her heart. Let us help each other touch these seeds in ourselves so that everyone could have the courage to speak out. We must ensure that the way we live our daily lives . . . does not create more terrorism in the world. 

In spite of some shameful lapses in international judgement and compassion, we [Canadians] have the comparative respect of the rest of the world.

With that we could . . . lead, with likeminded nations, of whom there are plenty, an international coalition to secure the safety of civilians everywhere.

We could create an environment in which terrorisim cannot survive. To put the security and well being of all the world's nations, and all of their children, ahead of those of a single superpower is not anti-American. It's pro-humanity, and it puts into action the ethical teachings of every spiritual faith on earth. Why do we hesitate?

What would happen if the West took seriously the forces in the Muslim world who call for education, social justice, women's rights, democracy, civil liberties and secularism? Why does our foreign policy underwrite the clerical fascist government of Saudi Arabia – and a host of nondemocratic regimes besides? What is the point of the continuing sanctions on Iraq, which have brought untold misery to ordinary people and awakened the most backward tendencies of Iraqi society while doing nothing to undermine Saddam Hussein? And why on earth are fundamentalist Jews from Brooklyn and Philadelphia allowed to turn Palestinians out of their homes on the West Bank? Because God gave them the land? Does any sane person really believe that? 

It is now the responsibility of the world community to transform the coalition against terror into a coalition for a new, peaceful and just world order.

. . . .I believe the United Nations Security Council should take the lead in fighting terrorism and in dealing with other global problems. All the main issues considered by the United Nations affect mankind's security. It is time to stop reviling the United Nations and get on with the work of adapting it to new tasks.

Concrete steps should include accelerated nuclear and chemical disarmament and control over the remaining stocks of dangerous substances, including chemical and biological agents. No amount of money is too much for that.

. . . .We should also heed those who have pointed out the negative consequences of globalization for hundreds of millions of people. Globalization cannot be stopped, but it can be made more humane and more balanced for those it affects. 

In the long run, one of the most effective steps we can take to preserve freedom here at home and to extend its benefits to others around the world is to loosen oil's slimy grip on our domestic and foreign policies. . . .[E]liminating all terrorism is sure to remain an unobtainable goal in a world where America's need for oil overwhelms our concerns for human rights.

Think of Iran, and the delicate path toward democratization pursued by reformer Mohammad Khatami. Bomb enough Islamic civilians, and his already-beleaguered regime will surely fall, replaced by the Ayatollahs. Think of Pakistan, with its nuclear capabilities. If we don’t proceed with caution, acknowledging past misdeeds, we’ll only incite more terrorists. 

Bush has turned his back on our interconnected world by rejecting, or proposing backing out of, so many international treaties: on banning chemical, biological, and toxic weapons; prosecuting war crimes; banning land mines; limiting the international small arms trade (where weapons we sell as the world’s largest arms dealer have already been turned against us); and beginning to address global warming. His missile defense system would shatter 25 years of arms control treaties. 

Congress just authorized $40 billion to rebuild New York and beef up anti-terrorist security. Much of this investment is appropriate. But why have we chosen not to make other investments addressing crises equally real? According to Bread for the World, six million children die every year of hunger-related causes in developing countries – the equivalent of three World Trade Center attacks every day. For an annual appropriation of $13 billion – that’s a third of what our Congress just authorized, or five percent of our existing $260 billion dollar defense budget – we could meet the basic health and nutrition needs of the world’s poorest people every year. Yet we’ve chosen not to. Nearly 50 million Americans lack health insurance, but we’ve chosen to be the only advanced industrialized country not to provide it to our citizens. Guns kill 30,000 of us a year, yet we choose to do little to control them or address the poverty and rage among our own desperate and marginalized. I cite these examples not to diminish the horror of these unjustifiable attacks, but to stress that all shattered lives are just as real, and to ask why some cataclysms disturb us so little. 

Imagine if these terrible events inspired us all to take on the difficult work of creating a more just world, and making the necessary common investments so indiscriminate violence and needless suffering do not prevail. These events just might be able to break us away from our gated communities of the heart. 

NEW YORK – Responding to recent events on Earth, God, the omniscient creator-deity worshipped by billions of followers of various faiths for more than 6,000 years, angrily clarified His longtime stance against humans killing each other Monday.

"Look, I don't know, maybe I haven't made myself completely clear, so for the record, here it is again," said the Lord, His divine face betraying visible emotion during a press conference near the site of the fallen Twin Towers. "Somehow, people keep coming up with the idea that I want them to kill their neighbor. Well, I don't. And to be honest, I'm really getting sick and tired of it. Get it straight. Not only do I not want anybody to kill anyone, but I specifically commanded you not to, in really simple terms that anybody ought to be able to understand."

. . . ."How many times do I have to say it? Don't kill each other anymore – ever! I'm fucking serious!"

Upon completing His outburst. . . .God's shoulders began to shake, and He wept.

Shakyamuni [Buddha] clearly states that hostility (verena) is ended only by non-hostility (a-verena). He is not glibly preaching, "Love thy neighbor," but is confessing his struggle to confront the hate in himself.

. . . .In the minds of each of us is the same hostility that drove the hijackers to their desperate actions. Just as the Rev. Billy Graham and other Christian ministers say this is the time to turn to God, for Buddhists, this is the time to listen earnestly to the Dharma – to become aware of the working of karma in all events and to cultivate a sense of fellowship with all living beings. This is the time to learn the real meanings of the words "insight" and "compassion."

[T]hink the "unthinkable" that even now peace is the answer and action based on bringing peace and well-being to all of our neighbors, even if they harbor hatred against us, may be the only weapon we really have. . . .

Think about this. There is one soul here living through each one of us and what happens to any of us affects all of us. Think about it, those others out there are all you. They are not just your brothers and sisters, mothers and fathers, cousins and strangers, but you. Think with compassion. Don’t make the mistake of believing that those who commit suicidal acts of violence are crazy, mad, or insane. Do not think of them as "terrorists." Think of them as people. Think of them as you in the lowest despair you can imagine. 

. . . .We are prepared to spend hundreds of billions of dollars to go to war. Can we find some way to spend half of that, to begin with, to "go to peace."

What we want

• An independent international commission to investigate the impact of economic globalisation 
• A World Social Organisation as a counterweight to the World Trade Organisation 
• Global indirect taxation on pollution and the use of resources to provide funds for redistribution 
• Legislation to make parent companies accountable for actions of overseas subsidiaries 
• A global legal aid fund to give all workers and communities access to justice

To prevent future terrorist acts. . . .six major principles to guide an effective, truly international campaign are: 

1. Bringing the perpetrators to justicebased on lawful procedure and respect for the rights and safety of innocent civilians. . . .

2. Unequivocal condemnation of all acts of terrorism. Unless there is condemnation of all acts, methods, and practices of terrorism, the so-called "coalition" against terrorism will be an opportunistic, tactical one rather than a longer-term, broadly supported, strategic one. 

. . . .As has often been raised at the United Nations, a viable, long-term strategy will need to distinguish between terrorism and legitimate acts of resistance. . . .

3. Preventing the strategic escalation of conflict and a new 'cold war'. Carte blanche endorsement of an open-ended war on an ill-defined enemy risks the destabilization of many regions, including those of central, south, and southwest Asia. . . . 

4. Refocusing government resources on prevention and solving social, economic, and environmental problems. 

. . . .Poverty, famine, mass movements of refugees, and brutal and repressive regimes (that have often been shored up by Western military aid) fuel frustration and desperation. . . . 

5. Vigilance against racial vilification, the violation of civil liberties, and the use of apocalyptic language. 

. . . .Loose talk of a war to "rid the world of evil" lends dangerous credence to those terrorists who do believe the world is caught in an eschatological confrontation between the forces of good and evil. 

6. A comprehensive strategy under the auspices of the United Nations and linked to non-governmental organizations. . . .The world needs a new international security strategy that redefines security as more than military power: as economic security, sustainable development, social justice, and human rights. 

States should also support international agreements to ban chemical, biological, and toxic weapons; ban land mines; and limit the international small arms trade. An urgent issue is a worldwide campaign under UN auspices for the resettlement of refugee populations. 

Finally, for an effective campaign against terrorism to proceed in the longer-term, a reformed UN needs new models for non-government and citizen involvement in domains of global governance historically dominated by states. 

We must understand that nonviolence is not a strategy that we can use in times of peace and discard in a moment of crisis. Nonviolence is about personal attitudes, about becoming the change we wish to see in the world. Because, a nation's collective attitude is based on the attitude of the individual. 

. . . .Focusing our efforts on the monsters, rather than what creates the monsters, will not solve the problems of violence. . . .We must acknowledge our role in helping to create monsters in the world, find ways to contain these monsters without hurting more innocent people, and then redefine our role in the world. I think we must move from seeking to be respected for our military strength to being respected for our moral strength. 

. . . .For too long our foreign policy has been based on "what is good for the United States." It smacks of selfishness. Our foreign policy should now be based on what is good for the world and how can we do the right thing to help the world become more peaceful. 

. . . .The memory of those victims who have died in this and other violent incidents around the world will be better preserved and more meaningfully commemorated if we all learn to forgive. Let us dedicate our lives to creating a peaceful, respectful and understanding world. 

It's important to get back to your life. Otherwise the terrorists win. 

Last night I went to a strip club.

More Aquarian coverage of 911
 
 
 
 
 

More Aquarian coverage of 911