Two and a half years
ago, when the editor of Senior Women Web titled this column "The
Resident Observer," she freed me to make a wide variety of observations
that have engendered a lot of mail from people who identified
(or disagreed) with many of the musings. They have responded to
all sorts of subject matter, from humor to gentle schmooze to
nostalgia to outrage. It has become obvious that whatever one
observes in this world, there is someone who also feels strongly
on the subject.
In the few days since
Tuesday, September 11, 2001, however, all of America has witnessed
the same series of heartbreaking events, and all of our observations
pertain to the same subject. Time and the world's forward motion
will eventually allow us to focus on other matters, but the terrorist
attack will never entirely disappear from our individual radar
screens, not ever.
It has been impossible
to escape the horrific images on television, because they have
been replayed endlessly, and they replay themselves in our heads
even if we turn off the television in despair. We flinch to see
yet again airplanes flying into skyscrapers, towers collapsing,
and devastation on the ground in both New York and Washington,
but we must also acknowledge that this is television at its finest
hour. If the job of the news media is to inform the public by
relaying truly what happens, television's immediacy takes that
job to an amazing level. The reportage has been measured, with
rumors reported but carefully identified as rumors, and timely,
with frequent cutaways to news conferences and interviews as new
developments occur. Our hats must be off to the weary reporters
who are managing to control their own emotions as they give us
the news.
One of the things that
has struck me is the youth of so many of the victims of the attack,
and of their friends. The streets near the area of the disaster
seem to be filled with the young, holding up photos of their missing
friends and family members, most of whom are in the 20-40 age
range of our children. New Yorkers are notoriously Can-Do people;
it takes grit and creativity and determination just to survive
in the city in normal times, and the friends and relatives of
the victims have showed all of those qualities in abundance. I
think I will be very careful before I use the dismissive term
"Yuppie" again. Those people know how to care for each other.
It hurts to know that eventually most of them will have to give
up their searches, and reconcile themselves to their losses.
The President has declared
that we are at war, but it's a new kind of war. It is not enough
that we have the capacity to blow any country on earth to smithereens;
it is not enough that we have a huge and well-trained military;
it is not enough that we can put a name to the lead terrorist.
This war, as one reporter said, must be a war of all nation states
against all the organizations of terror that have crept into our
world. We may lead the way, but we must not be alone in this.
Terrorists don't belong
to any one country or ethnic group. They are outlaws who operate
right under our noses. We can't send the Marines off to the shores
of Tripoli to get rid of them as we got rid of the pirates two
hundred years ago. We can't bomb their capital city or invade
their country, because they have no country. Winning this war
will take the concentrated effort of every single nation state,
and it's not something that can be done quickly, although we will
surely be quick to find and punish the planners of the September
11th atrocity.
It is hard to imagine
the kind of fanaticism that would enable young men to fly an airplane
into a building, killing so many people as well as themselves.
We are more accustomed to mass murderers who kill out of despair
and depression.
It is also hard to
imagine that a wealthy Saudi like Osama bin Laden, whose wealth
derives from the fact that America depends on Saudi oil, can hate
us so much that he has turned his whole fortune over to creating
and sustaining his terrorist network. It is ironic that his lust
for power is supported by our oil-consuming creature comforts.
We must be very careful
not to equate fanaticism with Islam itself. We must be very careful
not to tar the great Arab peoples with one brush. We must look
at the terrorists and see them as they are: individuals; extremists;
people who can kill others without conscience.
What kinds of things
can America do to combat the cunning and stealth of such people?
For one, we can convince
other nations that harboring them will eventually bring down destruction
on their own heads, either from us or from the terrorists themselves,
for if they are allowed to grow in power within a country, it
is quite likely that eventually they will want to take over.
For another, we can
cut terrorism off at the roots by addressing the problems of the
displaced peoples. If we can find a way to bring light into the
lives of the hopeless, we will go a long way to depriving the
Osam bin Ladens of this world of their foot soldiers. We need
to convince other countries that they must do something to resolve
the question of refugee camps. It is the displaced and disenfranchised
who bear enough resentment and hatred to partake in terrorism.
They provide an endlessly renewable source of young men and women
who have nothing to lose.
This pertains to all
camps, not just the camps in which the displaced Palestinians
have suffered for the past 55 years, but let's look at them for
an example.
The governments of
the nations immediately surrounding Israel have believed that
it's to their benefit not to disband the camps or find living
places for the poor people in them. Those people provide a ready
source of military recruits; they prey upon the conscience of
the Western world; they allow those countries to assume a righteous
pose ("We took them in"). Would it have been too hard to find
homes for the displaced, to distribute land among them, back when
the camps were first formed?
Instead, the governments
have kept the camps at a bare subsistence level. They have given
guns to the children, and trained them in their use. They have
indoctrinated them with hate for Israel and America. Imagine how
hopeless life must seem to a young man who has grown up in rags,
seeing his mother and sisters standing in line for hours in order
to draw a bucket of water from the one rusty faucet in their compound.
Imagine the hopelessness of living in a barracks or dirty tent,
inside the barbed wire, with the most rudimentary (and propagandistic)
education. The only way out for such a young man would be the
military. Imagine that, after such a childhood, you are indoctrinated
with the idea that your martyrdom will mean not only fame and
respect for your family, but will ensure that you go straight
to heaven, where unimaginable joys await you.
(The idea of martyrdom
and instant paradise is not peculiar to the Islamic faith. You
may recall that martyred Christian saints were promised the same,
as were those who marched off and committed horrible crimes in
the name of Christ. Think of the Crusades. Think of the Inquisition.)
The world, just in
our lifetimes, has grown too small to allow us the luxury of sitting
smug beside our two protective oceans. We Americans must address
seriously the growing gap between the haves and have-nots of this
world, both at home and abroad. Our freedom and prosperity come
with huge responsibilities. We met those responsibilities during
World Wars I and II; we have met them every time we have responded
to catastrophes in other countries; we have met them wherever
we have combated tyranny and oppression. We are a generous people.
To those who say "Why
should I be concerned about conditions on the other side of the
world?" we must point to the events of September 11th and reply:
"That's why."
The third verse of
"My Country 'Tis of Thee" contains the lines:
"...Long may this
land be bright
With freedom's holy
light..."
In this War against
terrorism, no one will be safe unless we can sing:
"...Long may ALL
lands be bright
With freedom's holy
light..."
Julia Sneden is a
writer, friend, teacher, wife, mother, Grandmother, care-giver
and Senior Women Web's Resident Observer. She lives in North
Carolina and can be reached by email.
