Of course you CAN'T make sense of a senseless act. People are trying, though. It's odd to be starting a class in the Old Testament at a time when it seems we are as uncivilized as those ancestors were 5000 years ago. Have we moved away from barbarism at all? I heard an interview today from a British journalist who lives in Lebanon. He said that everyone he meets, Muslim or not, deplores the tragedy. One man said, however, after genuinely expressing his condolences, "Where was the US when 17,500 Lebanese lost their lives when Israel invaded Lebanon? And they were using American rifles." It's a good question, isn't it? (The journalist said the US urged "caution to both sides".)
Everyone says we'll never be the same. On one level, maybe it is time for us to realize that we can't be a world power and isolated from the world woes at the same time. I'm just as devastated as everyone else. I deplore the carnage and especially the use of innocent people to wreak such unimaginable horror on other innocent people. And I, too, love my country.
However, revenge is not the answer. Justice is. Someone on NPR quoted Dr. MLK yesterday as saying, "An eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind." And I think we need to look hard and long at the root causes of such hate. We are not innocent. We have let the Palestinians go without a country for 53 years. We have supported with guns and armor and money the very nation that was carved out of their homeland. Why are we surprised that they hate us?
This isn't about God, whether he is called Yahwah, God, or Allah. This is about mankind who has, over the course of human history, wreaked havoc on the innocent. Our only hope is that we begin to turn to God, acknowledging our weaknesses and forgiving our enemies. I know this is a very unpopular stand right now. One of our national weaknesses is to feel that America has the RIGHT to be immune from the world problems, at the same time that we take and take and take, abuse the environment, use up the world's resources. No, I'm not a Communist ( I will admit to a lot of Quaker, however), just a person who is in mourning for the lives lost and destroyed by this act.
For our American "innocence" I refuse to shed tears. We have hidden behind an unwillingness to grow up for too long. Our leaders can be arrogant and greedy, and so can we. Yes, even those of us who go about ordinary lives. And this arrogance and greed has begun to bite us. Every time it's too much trouble to wash out a can or jar so that it can be recycled; everytime I throw out food we didn't eat; everytime I leave lights on unnecessarily, or the water running while I brush my teeth, I am arrogantly ignoring the world's problems of unequal resources. Every time I say, "Well, one person can't make a difference," or ignore a racist remark because I don't want to make a scene, I am guilty of arrogance and greed.
Will we wake up? Or will we get used to the extra security and the minor inconveniences and go on our merry way taking from the planet, driving our SUV's, building elaborate vacation houses that sit empty 11 months of the year. I don't know. We have the chance, right NOW, to rethink our national and personal priorities and to become a REAL force for good in the world. I'm afraid we won't change, and pretty soon we'll be grousing about the inconveniences.
Life can be so good, but right now it is bleak.
3:17 PM
It's so hard to believe it has happened again, only this time so much worse. When I saw the pictures of the WTC, I was stunned with disbelief. I listened to the National Cathedral's prayer service today, and one thing that sticks in my mind is Billy Graham saying we need to get back to prayer.
Trying to Make Sense
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