We Understand All Too Well
I was scanning some sites today and saw this linked on plasticbag.org. I don’t usually respond to this sort of thing, but… I feel a little differently today.
Here is my response, unedited:
Humanity is an imperfect condition.
America is no different, nor are its people: we too are imperfect. Perhaps we place too much trust in our leaders. Perhaps we believe too readily our news media and the myths of our own supremacy. Perhaps there is golden wool over our eyes, and the world is tinted red, white and blue.
Perhaps.
Our nation has committed atrocities in the name of freedom. We have pursued our own ambition, sometimes intentionally, and often to the detriment and damage of other peoples. We have thrown our weight, and demanded that we get our way.
America is imperfect. So be it.
And how dare you rub our noses in it in this, our most tragic hour. How dare you seek to point out the villainy of the west in the face of thousands of dead innocents. “I told you so” is most certainly not a compassionate response, and neither is finding justification for this atrocity in our history.
No matter who you are, where you live or what you believe - you cannot look at the remains of the World Trade Center and not be moved to tears simply at the loss of innocent life. Therein lies our indignation, our frustration and our anger.
You are correct; America is not without blame or guilt in the world. I accept that. But to place full blame for the plight of millions across our torn and fractured world upon our shoulders, and in this moment, is beyond reproach.
You neglect to mention in your piece the countless humanitarian programs, initiatives and organizations founded in, supported by or manned by America. The millions of dollars in aid given every year, the doctors and workers sent to other nations to work and help.
You also seem to neglect that America is not a single corporate being. We are a nation of millions of people, many of whom have no interest in foreign affairs, who have never heard of bin Laden or our involvement in Kabul. We are brothers and sisters and fathers and mothers and engineers and farmers and students and every other kind of person. We, as a people, are innocents. At least we were.
This, I think may be the greatest tragedy, the lost chance. Not that America “make the connection between what has been visited upon them and what their government has visited upon large parts of the world,” but rather that you, and others like you, fail to see the human tragedy here, and insist upon coloring this as a political lesson in force, no, by accepting this as a lesson. This should never be tolerated.
I am not angry about the facts you present. Many of them are true, perhaps all are - I simply do not know. I do take offense at your posture and your attitude and your insistence that we learn a lesson, lest this act be repeated, or worse. This is not a schoolyard brawl with cuts and scrapes - this is international terrorism, and thousands have died.
As to our “Israeli-style war against terrorism,” I cannot imagine that a war against terrorism, especially one with an international sanction and force, could be a bad thing. Let us eradicate this methodology once and for all.
And then, let us address the social issues, the national disputes, the religious questions that abound in the world. And let us do it by sitting down at a table, breaking bread, and discussing like civilized adults how this world ought to be.
God bless those who lost their lives, those who are missing, and the families and friends of the victims. And God Bless America.
