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September 11, 2001

Author:		Stephen Waters
Posted:		4/9/04; 10:35:53 AM
Topic:		September 11, 2001
Msg #:		57 (top msg in thread)
Prev/Next:		56/58
Reads:		3356

We shall endure

As today's events show, some people choose to live outside the umbrella that requires peaceful problem resolution. Two crashes into the World Trade Center, one into the Pentagon, and perhaps other acts make it likely we are victims of a major coordinated act of terrorism.

Living outside the umbrella of peaceful problem resolution there are no rules. Outside the umbrella is a dangerous place for anyone to choose to live. Wise people have been in a race to convince all the peoples of the world to choose to live under that umbrella, for their own safety's sake.

If so, those who carried out this attack should recall that the last day of infamy, the last surprise attack at Pearl Harbor, and the ultimate unconditional defeat of those who hoped to destroy the principles of this country and the resolve of the people who stand for them.

We have time to collect evidence. We have time to measure responses. We have time to make clear to the world that these terrorists, having chosen to live outside the umbrella of peaceful problem resolution, shall have no safe haven. Not now. Not ever.

Take time to reflect on the individuals whose lives have been horribly, needlessly wrenched. Take time to pray. Take time to love your friends and family. Take time to marvel that the principles of civilization for which this country stands shall endure.

All so fresh and alive

Shoe leather rubs gravel on the path to work on a gentle September morning. Green leaves rustle. Morning sunlight warms the air. All so fresh and alive.

All the more vivid because senses clash with frequently repeating mental reverberations of recent events.

Maybe people will realize how fleeting their time is on earth and actually do something useful with their short span.

Maybe state legislators will overrule their leaders to insist that the current budget process needs to be changed now. Maybe the State Education Department will recognize its own dogmatic rigidity stifles education that nurtures thought and the spark of learning .

Maybe Democrats will stop talking in class warfare cliches. Maybe Republicans will learn that it is possible to be socially tolerant and fiscally conservative. Maybe both parties will stop the mindless, mind-numbing posturing that gags all voters.

Maybe the United Nations will recognize its own Orwellian double speak cripples the organization. Maybe the world will recognize that some nation?states forfeit their sovereignty when they abuse populations and cannot live together.

Maybe we?ll use recent events to best advantage. Maybe we?ll all wake up in the morning to hear gravel beneath our feet on a gentle September morning, hear green leaves rustle, and feel the morning sun warm our back. All so fresh and alive.

Teachable Moments

Current events are ripe with "teachable moments".

The first such moment should remind those children, who are old enough to understand, the meaning of the word "jingoism". Jingoism is an attitude of belligerent nationalism. According to the Encyclopaedia Britannica, the word apparently originating in England during the Russo-Turkish was of 1877-78 when the British Mediterranean fleet was sent to Gallipoli to restrain Russia and war fever was aroused. The phrase "yellow journalism" was coined to describe the jingoist comments about the Spanish?American War published in William Randolph Hearst's newspapers of 1898.

This teachable moment is successful if we prepare readers and viewers to distinguish between sensible news or comment and inflammatory rhetoric. Today, there is no place for jingoism, for yellow journalism, or for thoughtless racism.

The second teachable moment is to remind students that terrorism seems to spawn in cultures that are not enemies of the America, but enemies of freedom.

The third teachable moment calls us to help students understand that war is a nasty place to be and not to be undertaken lightly. In war, good people on both sides and innocents on neither side get hurt.

The fourth teachable moment recalls Socrates, the philosopher from Athens who lived from around 470 to 399 B.C. Socrates was a man of high principle whose thinking skills were keenly trained. He did not let the passions of the day guide him. Yet once his principles committed him to fight, Socrates was powerful and relentless. When called upon by his country, he was the fiercest of soldiers. His decisions were well?reasoned, and so must ours be. However prepared citizens may be to strike against terrorism, all that we propose to do must past the test of reason. Then our commitment against terrorism shall be strongest, our resolve for freedom greatest.

Positive Lessons learned from September 11th

As we approach one month from the date of the World Trade Center collapse, the numbing, negative first impressions are being supplanted by more positive, long?term lessons:

• We have learned to appreciate real heroes. While police and firemen lost more than 300 of their own, in their passing they helped save some 25,000 people.
• We didn't need legislation to protect the flag, we recovered an appreciation of the principles for which the flag stands.
• Americans step up to the plate. Hundreds of millions of dollars have been collected since September 11th. Additional money has been collected for hunger relief in Afghanistan in spite of the Taliban that rule there. We are as kind and giving as any people on earth.
• Americans can adjust their priorities when they need to do so. Columnist Liz Smith concluded Hollywood gossip -- which she described as the tawdry jewel in the American crown -- is only a luxury.
• Most of us didn't jump to false judgment about all Muslims or Middle Easterners. And we didn?t tolerate those who did.
• Rather than immediate retaliation fostered out of blind rage, we resolved to patiently prepare the best responses and build world-wide support for them. We distinguish between the villains and the innocents who surround them.
• Our government has begun to recognize that the terrorists have a clear sense of purpose based on ignorance fed by extremist clerics. We have begun to frame issues in a manner that presents our understanding, appreciation and support of mainline Muslim teachings and that isolate the terrorists.
• Terrorism is a threat to civilization and there can be no safe haven for it.
• Rather than immediately pass highly invasive and restrictive legislation that suffocated our freedoms, Congress has deliberated how best to strike a balance between those freedoms and our responsibilities.
• People have been affected in a positive way by the tragedy. Family, friends and community mean more. Priorities seem easier to set. It's easier to discern and focus on important issues.