i pretty much agree with matt on this one. note to readers: i certainly dont feel that the innocents in the wtc deserved to die. ive done a lot of crying and praying. america can never be the same. i do feel, however, that these attacks in some way represent our chickens coming home to roost.
america has condoned, supported, and perpetrated acts of terrorism across the world, for years. vietnam, central america, and iraq come to mind, just to name a few. i cant remember the name of the town in vietnam, the place where thousands died, the place that some military man said of, ‘we had to destroy it to save it.’ how many innocents have died and are dying every day in iraq because of what we’ve done? how many terrorists has the cia trained besides bin laden himself?
i know that this is a very unpopular view, but three billion dollars in aid, both dollars and weapons, go to israel every year. israel, over the years, has done some devious things, has sold some of those arms to countries america considers our enemies. to say that the usa and israel havent played a role in this is dangerously naive, to my mind.
there has been an attitude that mainland america is invincible and impenetrable. we’re just like the rest of the world, now. cuautemhoc says that he or she wants to understand how the people in egypt and nablus could feel the way they do. i want to know, as well. what have we done to make these people hate us so? its not just their leaders, its not just what they read in the koran. we have to examine our part of this unspeakable horror.
i saw thich naht hanh speak today. his words of peace, compassion, and reconciliation moved me deeply. in closing, this email message had a lot of resonance for me today. im sure many of you have seen it; for those who haven’t, i’ll post it now. love and may god bless us.
The Courage to Be Human: A Path to Transformation
by Angel Kyodo Williams
New York City – September 11-12, 2001
The devastation of this day is staggering beyond measure.
We have all heard the radio, watched the television with
our mouths gaping in disbelief, our hearts wrenching in
despair. We have heard talk of resolve and determination. Plans
for justice and retaliation. Unanswerable questions being
asked and unimaginable events being lived.
The fact is that as a culture and as a people, we are not
equipped emotionally, psychically and spiritually to manage
the magnitude of this tragedy in our minds. We have,
mercifully, lived for so long under the dark shroud of ignorance to
the scope of our vulnerability.
I want to encourage you all, first and foremost, to be
still. To listen to your heartbeat. To be silent. To breathe. If
you listen deeply, it is the voice of sanity and compassion
that you will find there. It is the voice that will remind
you of your connection with all beings.
Yes, you are connected with the untold hundreds, possible
thousands of unknowing people that lost their lives instantly
in the World Trade Center and Pentagon crashes.
You are connected with the undoubtedly horrified passengers
and crew of the airplanes turned into weapons of mass
destruction.
You are connected with the brave rescue workers, firemen,
police officers that willingly ran into flaming buildings as
others poured out, only to have two of the world’s largest
structures of steel, glass and concrete fall in on them along
with the countless victims trying desperately to escape.
You are connected to the mothers, the fathers, the sisters,
nephews and cousins of all those people. To their teachers,
their coworkers, their friends and their lovers that must
carry an unthinkable burden forth.
And you are also connected with the men or women that, with
frightening calculation, walked onto the planes of four
major airlines, knowing that they would pilot their own deaths
and take the lives of innocent people on their journey.
We cannot close our eyes or our hearts to not one of those
people. We cannot close our minds to the unbearable truth of
the consequences of our actions. Of creating, perpetuating
and sitting on the sidelines of a culture that passes off
violence as a reasonable tool to achieve peace. Of doling out
so-called justice only to those who are not in our favor.
Those who do not say the right things, have the right color,
were not born into the right caste, worship the right gods
and live the right lives. Our unbalanced sense of justice is
increasingly available on behalf of only those who can afford
it or offer enough benefit in exchange. Most of us sat idly
by, comfortable that our distance made us safe.
Now how many additional lives do we need to see taken to
make us feel truly secure? What punishment will feel like it
is enough?
It is tempting to find oneself taking aim at a nameable
group and pulling the trigger of anger. Which is why now, more
than any other moment in our history, we must make the most
courageous effort, take the hardest step towards living in
an altogether different way.
If we are lulled into seeing the people that have committed
this desperate act and the people that will surely pay with
their lives in any act of retaliation as separate,
different, Others that are not a reflection of the darkest parts of
our own selves, we will lose this crucial opportunity. We
will lose the window to a realization of ourselves as more
compassionate, more thoughtful, more fully connected with the
events of our world, and thus more responsible. This bears
repeating: if we continue to refuse to take personal
responsibility for the cause and conditions: for the oppression, the
inequity, the sheer unnatural imbalance of our existence, we
will never witness an end to this.
So I implore you to not allow your inexpressible confusion,
sorrow, helplessness and fear to numb you into turning over
your agency. Do not let your desire for a new illusion of
personal safety, of “freedom” to give license to further
violence.
Our military may be “powerful and prepared” but are we? Are
we prepared to, with fierce determination, with the
strength bestowed by personal realization, insist that we will no
longer let violence be perpetuated in our names, in the name
of justice, and most cruelly, in the name of peace?
We must band ourselves and our hearts together to put an
end to the cycle of violence that we now know we are not
immune from. We must put an end to the wars being waged against
our humanity and become warriors for the common cause of
peace.
We are desperate to have the answers to every question, to
always know what to do and how to respond. It is obvious
that there is so much that we don’t, but what we do know is
that the way it has been done is not working. You have
permission to turn off your TVs and radios and simply feel your
pain.
You have permission to not know.
It is easy to see ourselves as good and well-wishing when
the fabric of our very being is not called into question. But
can we be open and honest about who we really are, about
the evil acts we are capable of conceiving while staring in
the face of our own remarkable frailty? And can we use that to
change?
We need to find peace in our own hearts first.
Many people find their ways to spiritual paths, to personal
paths of transformation when the ground they always knew to
be there falls out from underneath them. The ground has
fallen out beneath us America. Let us all find the wisdom to
see this unspeakable tragedy as a doorway to meaningful
change, as a precursor to collective transformation. If we do not
accept this challenge, if we are not brave and unrelenting
in our demand, but instead cower behind the “quiet,
unyielding” and clearly insatiable, emotion of anger, the loss of
thousands of lives will not be merely unspeakable, they
will be in vain.