<\/p>\n
I will always remember my shocked amazement as I stood in the office of the Politics Department at As I watched the impact I could It takes disasters and crimes of Unfortunately the United States As a culture we now wallow in self-righteousness and antagonism towards others whether they were “old Those old enough to remember and who do not or who make light of it failed in their opportunity to grasp a deeper I am afraid it will take far <\/span>We are all I believe it is appropriate that <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" I will always remember my shocked amazement as I stood in the office of the Politics Department at Whitman College, watching as television news repeated over and over the image of the first World Trade Center tower in flames after being struck by an airliner. And then, the images of a second airliner hitting the…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":9,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[111],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-674","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-current-events"],"yoast_head":"\n
\nWhitman College, watching as television news repeated over and over the image of the
\nfirst World Trade Center tower in flames after being struck by an
\nairliner. <\/span>And then, the images of
\na second airliner hitting the second tower, indicating this was no accident or
\nact by a single crazed person.
\n<\/span>Later the image of the buildings collapse was unforgettably seared into my mind. <\/span>At that time we
\nwere all Americans first, and the political, cultural, and religious
\ndistinctions with which we usually identified sank into the background.<\/p>\n
\nalmost feel the curtains of flame and destruction that enveloped both
\npassengers and those who were in their offices that fateful day.<\/p>\n
\nenormous destructiveness to remind us of the larger contexts within which we
\nlive. <\/span>When we are reminded,
\nusually forcibly so, we have an opportunity to grow in wisdom, insight, and
\nspiritual discernment. <\/span>Some people
\nand cultures do so, and others do not.
\n<\/span>Germany is an example of the first.<\/p>\n
\nis not. <\/span>We learned nothing as a
\nculture, although many Americans did.
\n<\/span>For a few brief days there was a chance we could learn from this event
\nto withdraw some from interfering in others’ lands, reduce our reliance on oil
\nand the huge military apparatus needed to bring it here reliably, as well as
\ndeal with those who attacked us.
\n<\/span>But for most Americans it seems any chance to learn was erased by a presidential directive
\nto “go shopping” and attend to purely private concerns leaving any larger
\ncontext in the hands of incompetents and worse. Larger contexts were obscured by the most narrowly private.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nEurope” and especially the French under the Bush administration, or today’s vicious Islamophobia. <\/span>Everyone is to blame
\nfor our difficulties and suffering but us. We are the innocent, surrounded by innumerable enemies. How many today remember the
\nthousands of Muslims who stood in the streets of Iran, candles lit, in a living
\nmemorial honoring the victims of those crimes? <\/span>The literally world-wide outpouring of support and
\nsympathy? <\/span><\/p>\n
\nhumanity. Instead they settled for the old stale stuff of sectarianism and chauvinism
\ndressed up as virtue and morality, like a chimpanzee wearing a tuxedo.<\/p>\n
\nworse to cure many Americans of their national egotism, and the universe will eventually provide
\nthat opportunity. In our cultural conceit we are living a lie, and deep down many of us know it. A culture living a lie and blinding itself to reality is a culture headed for disaster. <\/span><\/p>\n
\nnodes in a web of life and awareness that extends through out this planet, and
\nfor all I know, throughout everything that is. Suffering is a means by which many of us are reminded of this truth. Those who refuse to learn set the stage for more suffering to come, both those whom they mistreat and oppress, and eventually their own.<\/span><\/p>\n
\nwe remember the victims of that day, but as a country we have lost all right to
\nfeel any national pride or patriotism in how we responded to that terrible
\nevent. Too many Americans followed the wishes and lies of small and vicious men,
\ncommitting bigger crimes than the one to which we were subjected. The shades of
\n100,000 dead Iraqis, men women and children who did nothing to us and whose
\ngovernment was innocent of involvement, should be memorialized with as much
\nseriousness as those who died in New York, Washington, and in the Pennsylvania
\ncountryside. <\/span>And instead they will
\nbe forgotten or belittled as “collateral damage” in all or nearly all the
\nspeeches and memorials that will occur today. <\/span>A day that could have been one of unity in remembrance should now be one of unity in remembrance and shame.<\/p>\n