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Will the September 11 attacks provoke an enlightened response?
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By Mike Cuenca | September 11, 2001
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On September 11, the United States suddenly joined the many other
nations of this world whose citizens live with the daily fear of
sudden, terrific, and lethal violence motivated by a blind hatred of
what our nation stands for. The "sleeping giant" metaphor is
appropriate and loaded with opportunities for collectively maturing—and
also loaded with opportunities for collective regression. How we
collectively respond to this event will shape our world's future
perhaps for several generations.
If you've traveled abroad much at all, or have interacted here with
citizens of other countries, you've no doubt discovered that U.S.
citizens, for the most part, are among the most politically ignorant
citizens of the planet; they comprise the sleeping giant. For whatever
reasons, the average U.S. citizen seems to know and care little about
how the world's intertwined systems of laws and policies affect them
personally.
Maybe that all changed on September 11. Maybe now the
sleeping giant will awaken and, as a nation, the average U. S. citizen
will become more politically savvy—or at least more realistic about our
nation's reputation among the other peoples of the world. Perhaps now
those many citizens who have believed that the world's perception of
the U.S. is of no concern to them will wake up and slowly help us move
our nation toward more humane, just, and benevolent collective behavior.
As a nation, we must accept that for many different reasons, many
people around the world resent the United States. We must acknowledge
that the extremists of the world are not the only people of the world
who harbor disgust and resentment for our national conduct. The
fanatics and extremists of the world may be the ones who act, but there
are many millions of others who curse us every day.
The
world's poor resent us for our avarice. According to UNICEF, 12.5
million children under the age of five die of malnutrition each year.
That's an average of 35,000 children dying needlessly each and every
day. The starving people of the world know that a number of our
citizens each personally possesses enough wealth to feed everyone on
the planet. If you were watching your child die for lack of food, you
might also hate the people who could, but don't, help.
The
world's oppressed resent us for our blind reliance on the political
positions of "left" and "right" as a primary determinant of "just
cause" for humanitarian aid, human rights protection, and/or military
support and intrusion. We must all remember, for example, that a decade
ago our government enthusiastically gave Osama Bin-Laden and his
movement millions of dollars of military aid—merely because he was the
enemy of our idealogical/political enemy in Afghanistan. The oppressed
people of the world know that if their oppressors oppose socialism and
communism—no matter how malevolently they rule their own people—that
the struggle for political reform will not be supported by the United
States.
We must collectively accept that damping the hatred
and resentment around the world is the only response that will stop the
violence. Only if the giant awakens and calls for a mature, reasoned
response to this tragedy will we begin what will naturally be an
inexorably slow change in the world's people's perceptions of the
United States.
Such a positive response is the only realistic
hope we have of preventing future loss of life. No amount of violence
will stop terrorism. No amount of money spent on "security" will stop
terrorism. As was hammered home to us on our televisions on September
11, the world's terrorists are determined, resourceful—and highly
creative. We will not be able to force them to stop. If we assassinate
their leaders—if we can even find them, that is—others will take their
places.
Unfortunately, there remains the additional
possibility that the giant might awaken and decide that the correct
response is massive military retribution followed by overt limitations
of even our own citizen's civil and human rights. If that happens, we
can undoubtedly count on living each day with the realistic fear than
many among us—and many among our children and grandchildren—will die
needlessly in terrorist acts.
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