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October 2001
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October 2001
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Please don’t add to our suffering I have heard angry rhetoric by some Americans, including many of our nation’s leaders, who advise a heavy dose of revenge and punishment. To those leaders, I would like to make clear that my family and I take no comfort in your words of rage. If you choose to respond to this incomprehensible brutality by perpetuating violence against other innocent human beings, you may not do so in the name of justice for my husband. Your words and imminent acts of revenge only amplify our family’s suffering, deny us the dignity of remembering our loved one in a way that would have made him proud, and mock his vision of America as a peacemaker in the world community’. Amber Amundson (Her husband, Craig Amundson, a military staffer, was killed in the attack on the Pentagon. (Chicago Tribune, September 25, 2001). Beware of creating more widows and fatherless children My husband, Tom Theurkauf, lost his life in the World Trade Centre. I offer these thoughts both as a new widow and mother of three fatherless boys, and as a scholar of international law. As we assemble a military platform in the Arabian Sea, there is substantial consensus on one relevant point. While this attack was intended to provoke, responding in kind will only escalate the violence. Further, if we succumb to the understandable impulse to injure as we have been injured, and in the process create even newer widows and fatherless children, perhaps we will deserve what we get. If not “war”, what words should we use? A better name is “international crime”. In the short term, the priority should be to hunt down and arrest the criminals with the goal of achieving justice, not revenge. This is a task left not to the military, but to investigative police forces. Ordinary Americans can also fight back against this evil. We can combat fear and hate by reaching out to Muslims in our communities and by patronising Arab businesses. This show of solidarity will help thwart these criminals’ purpose of creating division in American communities. Terrorist impulses ferment in cultures of poverty, oppression and ignorance. The elimination of those conditions and the active promotion of a universal respect for human rights must become a national security priority. The Bush Administration’s unilateralism has been revealed to be hollow. Rather than infringe our sovereignty, international institutions enhance our ability to perform the functions of national government, including the ability to fight international crime. Bombing Afghanistan today will not prevent tomorrow’s tragedy. We must look beyond military options for long–term solutions. Robin Theurkauf New Haven, Connecticut September 28, 2001 (The Daily Telegraph, UK) Revenge builds upon revenge A Christian perspective, spoken from a very personal stand point, was offered on this theme last Sunday by the Rev. Daniel W. Murphy, the pastor of Blessed Kateri Roman Catholic Church in Sparta, N.J. He told the congregation that he had lost his youngest brother, Edward, a commodities trader at Cantor Fitzgerald, a firm in the World Trade Centre that lost more than half of its work force in the attack. He felt tremendous sadness and tremendous pain for his mother, he said. But, he said, he has told people that he is not angry. “Yes, we need to act to end terrorism,” Father Murphy said. “But we cannot allow our hearts to be filled with hatred, anger and revenge. History teaches us that revenge builds upon revenge, and more revenge. It never ends. Yes, we need to seek justice. But we need to seek a justice based not on hatred or anger over what has happened, but rather out of concern for the future of all the human community.” (A report in The New York Times) I was hoping that your childhood would have lasted a little longer Dear Son,I was hoping that your childhood would have lasted a little longer. But here you are, at age 11, asking about global terrorism — and we haven’t even finished that talk about the birds and the bees. Of course, I’d like to say things that would make you feel safe in the aftermath of last week’s terrorist attacks on New York and Washington. But, as America prepares to retaliate, there is no point in pretending. With the advent of weapons of mass destruction — chemical, biological and nuclear — what is being billed as a long war ahead could be over in a day. And there would be no winners. Back in July, you boarded a flight from Dulles International Airport to attend the Children’s International Summer Village in Mexico City. You lived for a month with kids your age from 12 countries, and returned with an appreciation for efforts to achieve peaceful solutions to worldwide problems. “At first we were people from different countries,” you said. “Then it was more like we were from different states. As we got to know each other, we became members of a family, trying to get along in the same house.” May you live to help set our global house in order. You ask why America was attacked. I don’t want to say anything that might sound like an excuse for terrorism; God knows if your plane had been hijacked and crashed by terrorists, I’d want to bring all of those responsible to justice myself. But much of what we have heard and read about bad people out to destroy our good American way of life is too simplistic. I believe there are psychopaths throughout the world who are exploiting the suffering of the poor — suffering that Americans too often ignore. Terrorists such as Osama bin Laden and Saddam Hussein seek to mitigate this suffering by sponsoring opportunities for “bliss in the hereafter.” Meanwhile, they get the perverse pleasure of watching the powerful squirm. Of course, America is not squirming, and somebody is going to pay. But don’t lose sight of the suffering, which is systemic and deeply rooted — in colonialism, racism, religious bigotry and greed. It is a problem that cruise missiles can’t solve. You ask why those Palestinian children were cheering when they heard about the attack on America. You were too young to remember the aftermath of the Persian Gulf War, and how America displayed its weaponry on the Mall. Our happy children posed for pictures with the kinds of missiles that had inadvertently killed innocent people. No doubt you would have asked why then, too. Remember what you learned from the children in Mexico City: “We are all more alike than different,” you said. “We all want the same things.” And yet there are billions of have-nots in our world. Most of them lack adequate housing, basic sanitation, access to health care, clean water and decent food — not to mention a lack of schools, cars, televisions or telephones. When one U.S. congressman said on the House floor that he wanted to make those responsible for the acts of terrorism “rue the day they were born,” he seemed unaware that for many people in the targeted areas, death would be a relief. All I can ask is that you question your own appetites and desires and think about their impact on the world. The next time we go shopping, note that those $100 sneakers that you like so much cost only $2 to make in some foreign sweatshop. And the diamonds that adorn so many fingers and ears may have cost some boy in Africa his fingers and ears. More than 2.5 million have died during three years of war in the Democratic Republic of Congo. But America is more concerned with that country’s natural resources, which we use to maintain our way of life. There has to be another way. The Rev. Billy Graham, speaking at Washington National Cathedral on Friday, said: “Yes, our nation has been attacked. But we now have the choice of whether to implode and disintegrate emotionally and spiritually as a people and a nation, or whether we choose to become stronger through all of the struggle.” To that end, Christians, Muslims and Jews worldwide are coming together to denounce terrorism and find ways to keep this conflict from escalating out of control. May God, Allah and Yahweh be with them. And with you, too, my son. Courtland Milloy Washington Post, Wednesday, September 19, 2001; [email protected]. To My Baby Girl I was not where I needed to be last night. Not physically, and not emotionally. My daughter is ten weeks old. And last night, and tonight as well, only her mother will be able to hold her, and kiss her goodnight, and hug her, and wipe up her spit. I am somewhere else… …And now what baby girl? Will we shed the blood of innocent babies so much like you, to demonstrate to the world how precious your life is? You had best hope not baby girl. Because if so you will never be safe. Not now, and not when you are old enough to understand, and fear, and tremble, like I am right now. We will be signing a death warrant. If not yours, perhaps that of some other baby girl or boy. Maybe one that was being born at 8:42 this morning, while others were dying in mass death. ‘Cause what goes around, most definitely goes around, and around, and around, and around. And all the tough talk and swagger and muscle flexing and chest thumping and pontifications that the folks who did this are cowards, cannot conceal the fact that so far there are no brave souls in the mix yet. There is nothing brave about committing mass murder to be sure. But neither is there bravery in adding to the body count. Neither is there bravery in Senator Hatch’s testosterone-soaked diatribe about “going after the bastards,” or officials saying no options are being ruled out, including nuclear weapons… …So welcome to the world, dear baby girl. And sleep well tonight. And remain young for as long as you can. For one day, not so far from this day, everything will change again. As it always has. And rivers of blood will be added to rivers of blood, all of it red and flowing downhill as blood tends to do as it seeks its own level. And mountains of bodies higher than the towers brought down on this day will be stacked: In the name of God. In the name of money. In the name of security. In the name of revenge. In the names of people with names like Osama and George and Ariel or Allah or Jesus... Tim Wise (Excerpts from his article pasted on znet.org) The fear and pain of Muslim friends HE HUNG back timidly, waiting for a chance to speak to me. His name is Hani Taki. He is a Muslim high school student and a member of The Star’s community editorial board. “Please,’’ he said with quiet urgency. “Don’t blame all Muslims.’’ I assured him that The Star would not stereotype any religious or ethnic group in the aftermath of Tuesday’s horrific terrorist attack. I told him such generalizations are repugnant and contrary to this newspaper’s values. But even as I spoke, I was sick at heart. I knew there would be a backlash and I feared it would be aimed at Muslims or Arabs or immigrants from the Middle East. Taki is all three. He was born in the United Arab Emirates, came to Canada 14 years ago and is proud of his Islamic traditions. I quailed at the thought of this open–hearted young man — and thousands like him — being targeted for a crime that shook his world as much as mine. Sadly, the backlash has begun. Mosques in this city have received phone threats. Muslim women have been harassed. A handful of students with Arab–sounding names in Oakville were assaulted by their schoolmates. A man in St. Catharines has been charged with uttering death threats. Canadians must speak out against this kind of ignorance and hatred. We are a nation known for its tolerance. We welcome newcomers from around the world. We value their contribution to the multi-cultural society we have built. Prime Minister Jean Christine set the right tone yesterday. “I want to emphasize that we are in a struggle against terrorism, not against any one community or faith,’’ he said. But it will take more than that to reassure the minorities in our midst. They need to hear from their neighbours, their co-workers, opinion leaders and the media that Tuesday’s events will not change our national character. They need to see us stand up to the racists and bigots who spread blanket condemnation, with no evidence. Taki wasn’t the only one who was feeling uneasy at Tuesday’s community editorial board meeting. Lily Fernandez, who was born in Singapore to Indian parents, talked about the way she is always detained at airports “because some people think I look Arab.’’ Rina Chandarana, who is East Indian, worried about her Muslim friends. “They’re good people,’’ she stressed. All of us are feeling a bit insecure right now. We need to reach out, not lash out. Carol Goar (Editorial page editor Toronto Star, September 13, 2001)
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