tp34.xml
Title
tp34.xml
Source
born-digital
Media Type
story
Date Entered
2003-02-24
TomPaine Story: Story
The lesson that was explosively forced upon us on September 11 was one that was philosophically and theoretically known but not truly understood : that we are indeed One World, inescapably bound to one another, where inter-dependence has become more than just a theoretical concept. The condition of peoples on one side of the globe has profound influence on the other side. The prejudices, superstitions, and belief systems of distant peoples reverberate world-wide. The consequences of hatreds reach beyond state and regional borders. Three thousand Americans died because of the twisted misconceptions of a distant, uninformed ,and manipulated enemy.
Through a ghastly, cruel and tragic event, we learn that millions of people on the other side, see us as an evil enemy , to be destroyed even at the expense of their own martyrdom and death. They have been taught to hate us with an intensity we could not understand.....by deliberate increments, from a brainwashed childhood to the all-encompassing religio-fascism that spawned todays monstrous terrorism. The explosion of hatred and suicide and destruction was almost beyond our comprehension.
The lesson? Beyond the immediate remedies to prevent a continuance of terror, only a new vision of mankind liberated from the shackles of inherited dogmas of hate, will provide the answers in the long run. Twenty-first century technology , which has made the world a global village, needs to be matched by a new twenty-first century ethic that infuses us all, to the marrow of our beings , with the sense that we are all responsible for each other, wherever we live. National, regional, religious boundaries have become anachronistic and must be overcome as we recognize and respect our common humanity. That is not only the challenge of the new century, but the ultimate challenge of man on earth!
Through a ghastly, cruel and tragic event, we learn that millions of people on the other side, see us as an evil enemy , to be destroyed even at the expense of their own martyrdom and death. They have been taught to hate us with an intensity we could not understand.....by deliberate increments, from a brainwashed childhood to the all-encompassing religio-fascism that spawned todays monstrous terrorism. The explosion of hatred and suicide and destruction was almost beyond our comprehension.
The lesson? Beyond the immediate remedies to prevent a continuance of terror, only a new vision of mankind liberated from the shackles of inherited dogmas of hate, will provide the answers in the long run. Twenty-first century technology , which has made the world a global village, needs to be matched by a new twenty-first century ethic that infuses us all, to the marrow of our beings , with the sense that we are all responsible for each other, wherever we live. National, regional, religious boundaries have become anachronistic and must be overcome as we recognize and respect our common humanity. That is not only the challenge of the new century, but the ultimate challenge of man on earth!
Collection
Citation
“tp34.xml,” September 11 Digital Archive, accessed November 15, 2024, https://911digitalarchive.org/items/show/801.