Thanks for all the heartfelt responses. Sara, {{c’mere}}. On reading them, I’m leaning heavily towards the conclusion that my problem is internal - “my world has changed drastically. How can this part of it still be generally the same?”
BTW, some posts seemed to have the impression that I was disappointed that people hadn’t changed to a particular POV. That wasn’t my intent at all, and sorry if I came across that way.
Pax,
Sua
YES!!! I have been saying since 9/11 that the terrorists have given us a gift, despite their best efforts to the contrary. If used properly this horror can be the trigger that gives us a new world of universal peace and prosperity. It has already caused people and nations to rethink their relationship with the rest of the world. That New Jerusalem, used in the symbolic, not religious, sense, would be the memorial for those who died.
(quietly waiting for someone to flame me for my pollyannaish, positively star trekian, optimism.)
It is certainly both pollyannaish and star trekian, but that ain’t no bad thing in my book. 
“New world of universal peace and prosperity” - doubt it, but we have to aim high (as high as we can, in fact). Maybe we’ll fall short, but that’s gotta be better than staying put.
Guess it’s up to all of us to make sure it doesn’t go the other direction. Here’s hopin’…
– Quirm
Your reach should always exceed your grasp. Otherwise, no progress is made.
Didn’t Shatner star in the Canadian production of Pollyana ??? 
Cranky? I love ya.
I’ve dropped out of most, if not all, of the 9/11 threads partly because of what you observed, Sua - I was using the events to push the agenda that I’ve always had - “People need to learn about the world they are in and other cultures, because only ignorance and misunderstanding can lead to this kind of violence.” It’s a noble agenda, but it’s not everybody’s, and after reading the amazing posts of Jodi and others I grew ashamed that I was looking at this momentous event from my same old world view that understanding will lead to peace. I guess I’m saying that I hear you. And, like Toons, I’m having to reconcile my pacifist nature with the need for security and finding that the two do not mix in this complicated world.
5 years ago, Richard Holbrooke spoke at my college graduation. He had just finished negotiating a horrid, uneasy, broken peace accord in Bosnia. His message was that the U.S. could work for peace in the world, but that the key ingredient was force and the willingness to use force to achieve peaceful ends. At the time the speech made me very sad - my classmates and I had spent years having our heads filled with game theory, acceptable losses, the idea that we need to never show any weakness the world lest we be attacked, the idea that Huntington’s Clash of Civilizations was somehow inevitable. We were being taught to be diplomats, but mostly we were being taught to “win”, to be used to winning, to know how to win on the world stage. Something in me rejected this mindset - the mindset that violence is the way to solve problems between nations. I was a Humanities major. I stayed away from the scary “Guns and Bombs” majors with their classes on tactical weapons negotiations. I went into the development field - delivering training, technical assistance, and foreign aid to other countries in the belief that prosperous countries are peaceful countries. I left when I saw how much of the aid is wasted on know-nothing consultants and how much energy is spent on making aid recipients dance to our tune - instead of supporting indigenous institutions we created competing institutions and forced them to do things Our Way and sing their gratitude with every lockstep, bureaucrats playing little power games even with orphanages and microcredit unions in tiny villages.
The events of 9/11 have made me remember Holbrooke’s speech, and the very sad lessons that he learned in Bosnia about the irrational hatred and violence that is NOT borne of poverty, that is not fixable by the right aid package and by sending the right well-meaning Americans to make it all better, that is seemingly not stamped out by understanding. The kind of violence that is only eradicated by brave men with guns and bombs. I am sad and scared for the world. I am sad that it had to come to this. I am hopeful that the U.S. will be successful. And I am grateful that this community has given me an outlet to debate, to commiserate, to comfort, to be distracted and entertained over the past few weeks by such brilliant, caring, wonderful people and a few total nimrods.
But Sua, I feel your pain, and I am done arguing about how many angels can dance on the head of a particular pin - it sucks the energy that is better spent on loving the people around me.