-- B Dylan, 1963

We don't want revenge or retaliation; they just fuel the cycle of destruction.

We don't want punishment; that's a moral judgement having no place here.

We just need to stop those guys cold and do whatever it takes to prevent this from happening again - either here or on other nations' soil.

While governments around the world are working this out, we can crawl out of our comfortable SUVs and heated swimming pools inside air-conditioned homes and realize that the posh playground we have made of this country is seen by many outside it as the ultimate in decadence, deserving of total destruction. Never mind that if they had developed the playground they (being just as human as we) would enjoy it while they could. Never mind that destroying us would also reduce the world to an economy devoid of the great benefits that originated in our nation. Never mind that it looks like they want to drag us down into the hole that they are in. Never mind that America, with all its flaws and many insensitivities to the conditions of other nations, has been more sensitive and compassionate more often than any other nation in history. Never minding all that, they want to destroy us because we are so much wealthier than they, and even if they ensure their own continued slavery to tyrannical forces, they will rejoice in having killed the giant.

Americans need a spiritual revival. (Not a religious one; that is what is at the heart of the present turmoil; each religious group thinks the others need re-thinking.) Americans have done many wonderful things, but inside our playground we have also become complacent to the suffering elsewhere - much of which is brought about by our own policies. A spiritual revival is needed, to right the many wrongs we are afflicting on this planet. But we are not the only ones. All world peoples are equally guilty of greed to the point of self-immolation and to the point of making other creatures of this world suffer needlessly. A spiritual revival is needed, to right the many wrongs they too are afflicting on this planet.

There was a covenant, thousands of years ago, between a god and his people, the Hebrews. Two thousand years ago, Jesus proclaimed a new covenant was needed, between humans ('us') and other humans ('them'). Today we need yet another covenant, between humans (all of us as one) and the rest of the planet. Who's willing to die for that one?

[2001-0915]

Subsequent Commentary:

September 20, 2001

August 6, 2002 American Government - What Must Be Done

September 6, 2002 Pre 9-11 Horrors