Many people across the country reached out to us in New York after news of the tragic events at the World Trade Center began to spread – my heartfelt thanks for doing so. Our offices are a block from the site. Our staff and volunteers were unhurt, though each day we get word from friends and acquaintances who have loved ones who have been lost. It is still too soon to grasp the total extent of the tragedy.
As I’m sure you can tell from the news accounts, the people of the city are bearing up under the enormous strain. Still, there is a deep sense of shock and confusion over how vulnerable we were to an attack on this scale. It is hard to sort out all the emotions and reactions – the fear and anger, the caring and disgust.
As Americans, we have a responsibility to face the circumstances and begin to rebuild. That includes rebuilding our way of seeing these tragic events and their implication for the country’s future.
What happened last Tuesday morning was a human tragedy of epic proportions. It was also, sadly, all too much the result of how America has positioned itself in the world, the result of a foreign policy that has us hurtling towards escalating violence and terrorism. Unless this tragedy can evolve into a process of reconsidering those policies, it is destined to be repeated.
The outcry for and promise of revenge have been swift. Many Americans feel that way and it is understandable. But in the rush to revenge, it is easy to forget that the attack on the World Trade Center was itself an act of revenge. Yes, it was an insane act by fanatical people who are at war with America’s cultural, religious and economic system. But that fanaticism does not exist in a vacuum. It has been allowed to fester. Indeed, in the case of more than a few of the Islamic terrorists – from Saddam Hussein to Osama Bin Laden – that fanaticism was nurtured by the U.S. government which trained and funded Muslim fundamentalists when the Soviet Union was the prime target. Now that fanaticism – together with our own airplanes – have been turned against us in what appears will be a prolonged terrorist war.
In the hundreds of hours of television commentary on these events, it was startling that virtually no one raised a single question about whether any of our policies led to this calamity. You would think that the circumstances would give us pause – even for a second.
You would think that the U.S.-inspired embargo against Iraq, which has led to the death of countless numbers of children, the U.S. bombing of a pharmaceuticals factory in Sudan, U.S. support for intensified Israeli aggression against Palestinians and the U.S. walkout from the international conference on racism and intolerance would be considered as factors contributing to the attack. It goes without saying that those events do not justify the attack. Nothing could. But a very large portion of the world’s population believes the U.S. to be a military and economic aggressor and our bipartisan government has done pitifully little to dispel that image. The fact that it is impermissible to even discuss this in public is a measure of how aggressive U.S. international policy is and how much Americans are expected to quietly submit to it, in spite of the fact that we are a democratic nation with strong traditions of dissent and dialogue.
Many of our leaders and public commentators have responded to the World Trade Center tragedy by saying that freedom itself has come under attack. The explanation offered is that much of the world is angry and jealous of us because we are a democracy. I find this notion difficult to respond to because it is so ludicrous. People are jealous of us – not because we are a democracy – but because we are so rich, because America has so much wealth and the privilege that goes along with it. People are angry at us because all too often that wealth and privilege are used in a belligerent and obnoxious way. America is made vulnerable by the combination of our government’s aggression and arrogance.
We must not dig ourselves into a deeper hole by being too aggressive and too arrogant to acknowledge those truths about America. If anything, we must take greater responsibility for the actions of our leaders and for making our democratic processes as vital as possible so that the voices of everyday Americans can be heard more directly.
Many people have reached out to me and to my close colleague, Dr. Fred Newman, from across the country and around the world, asking in different ways what to do. I have no special answer to that question other than that we must do what we have been doing – working to build a far-flung community which can, from distinct vantage points and areas of expertise, reconstruct our overall political culture.
The evening of the day after the attack, I met with a group of about 15 business professionals who volunteer their time, creativity and money for the All Stars youth leadership training program that I direct. Each person was stunned and strained by the events of the prior 36 hours, but the activity of getting back to work on making a better life for the city’s young people was simultaneously consoling and sobering. There is much to do. Perhaps the events of last week dramatize the enormity of the task.
I found myself drawn to reading some early writings and speeches of Dr. Martin Luther King, Jr. the other night and came across an article from 1957 about the struggle for racial equality and justice in America. His words ring so terribly true today, and perhaps can serve as a guide. Dr. King wrote:
“To retaliate with hate and bitterness would do nothing but intensify the hate in the world. Along the way of life, someone must have sense enough and morality enough to cut off the chain of hate.”
Temporarily, Dr. Fulani can be reached by e-mail at [email protected].
