9/11

Monday was the Anniversary of the September 11, 2001 terrorist attacks that killed close to 3,000 Americans. Its a day none of us can forget. Its a day we hate to remember. Since then the U.S. has engaged in a retaliatory war in Iraq and Afghanistan. Are we safer? Is the world more peaceable?
I believe that the post 9/11 world required of the U.S. a response unlike any other in history. I believe the global response ought not to have been a military one. It ought to have been a response of empathy and humanitarianism. 9/11 de-isolated the U.S. from the global experience of preventable, innocent death. What I mean to say is that the U.S. is not the recipient, not the importer of injustice and devastating disease. The U.S. is the perpetrator and exporter of these things in ways of which most of us are unaware. Understand me,I'm not saying that "we"or anyone deserved the terror of 9/11. I'm saying that it happened as a result of global disparities that cannot be easily resolved. The ensuing struggle to achieve balance of power results in terror and retaliation. but it didn't have to.
What if the president had actually resolved to care for the world by sending an unprecedented amount of aid and relief to developing nations? What if he said that the U.S. is weeping with those who weep and mourning with those who mourn? What of our nations' grief was not viewed by us as some personal experience unshared by other nationsand rather realized thatwe were sharing in the collective experience of billions of people around the world?

I am devastated by the report that over 6,000 Africans dies daily from AIDS. Everyday the continent experiences two 9/11 tragedies. Since 9/11 the war on terror has claimed the lives of as many Americans and five times as many Iraqis.
What if we were determined to beat our swords into ploughshares? What if we were resolved to improve the lives of poor children? Maybe that would bring peace. If the U.S. were to turn the other cheek and give until it hurt, what would that do on a global scale?I'm not against defending ourselves. I'm merely for serving others first.