tp65.xml
Title
tp65.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-02-28
TomPaine Story: Story
"Toward A More Perfect Union-Lessons Learned Or Not-Since 9-11 ",
"I was so very proud of how America responded to the 9-11 attack. We didn't respond as people of different religious, ethnic or political groups; we responded as human beings united in caring. Nothing else mattered, nothing else got in the way. It didn't take long for us to revert to the level of our attackers. Our thoughts turned to killing, military action, our usual, if not preferred response. . We've heard how the enemy was different this time, it didn't matter, our response was the same as theirs. They attacked in god's name, we did the same, each of us terrorists in each other's eyes completely justified by our religions. They danced in the streets, we applauded as the bombs fell. 9-11 hasn't changed a thing; we'd rather deal with symptoms than causes. We didn't really question what led to the attack, we aren't questioning the systems leading us to perpetual war, especially our systems of belief. Something is very wrong with what we all believe, with what religions teach us about ourselves and each other, with what we think this thing we call god is. We could have responded on a level as highe as our response to the victims of 9-11, we could have united the world as never before. That wasn't the role our leaders were interested in.
Common, ordinary, regular people responded to 9-11 on a higher level and it happened because we didn't let our differences or our beliefs get in the way. The leaders we are given and our political, religious and economic systems are failing us, not least of all our systems of belief. We're genuinely lost. If we are to find a way out of the madness, common, ordinary, regular people have to make a difference again. Our leaders aren't interested.
"I was so very proud of how America responded to the 9-11 attack. We didn't respond as people of different religious, ethnic or political groups; we responded as human beings united in caring. Nothing else mattered, nothing else got in the way. It didn't take long for us to revert to the level of our attackers. Our thoughts turned to killing, military action, our usual, if not preferred response. . We've heard how the enemy was different this time, it didn't matter, our response was the same as theirs. They attacked in god's name, we did the same, each of us terrorists in each other's eyes completely justified by our religions. They danced in the streets, we applauded as the bombs fell. 9-11 hasn't changed a thing; we'd rather deal with symptoms than causes. We didn't really question what led to the attack, we aren't questioning the systems leading us to perpetual war, especially our systems of belief. Something is very wrong with what we all believe, with what religions teach us about ourselves and each other, with what we think this thing we call god is. We could have responded on a level as highe as our response to the victims of 9-11, we could have united the world as never before. That wasn't the role our leaders were interested in.
Common, ordinary, regular people responded to 9-11 on a higher level and it happened because we didn't let our differences or our beliefs get in the way. The leaders we are given and our political, religious and economic systems are failing us, not least of all our systems of belief. We're genuinely lost. If we are to find a way out of the madness, common, ordinary, regular people have to make a difference again. Our leaders aren't interested.
Collection
Citation
“tp65.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed June 28, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/622.