No words can express the enormity of the loss we've experienced and the horror we've witnessed. We all feel a natural instinct of revulsion, anger, bewilderment, even the pursuit of revenge to somehow stamp out this monstrous evil. But I think our charge really is to reflect. To attempt to understand. Most of all to withhold judgment. Obviously, the top priority of everyone now is to ameliorate the suffering, to console those who have lost loved ones, who are in pain. The events are too recent, too overwhelming in their magnitude for us to try to comprehend, interpret, and least of all make judgment.

All I can do is to humbly suggest some questions, some perspectives that may help us think about these tragic events.

First, how is it that we are receiving this information, that we're learning about these events? That the media is communicating to us? What are the prejudices and the biases that are embedded in the information we're receiving now? Perhaps, like you, I was struck yesterday at how many times I heard the phrase, "the world's most powerful nation," or "the superpower." I was struck as well at so many images of Palestinians supposedly celebrating what had happened, yet we know, some of us from personal communications, that so many Palestinians in the U.S., the Middle East and elsewhere, expressed condolences and sorrow at what happened. These images of Arab terrorists were stoking up ethnic animosities.

I was struck as well at the flood of white men in suits pontificating about various security and military matters. The absence of women, people of color who could reflect about what we've experienced.

Another question for me is for us to try to understand how this possibly could have happened. What are the causes? What could have prompted human beings to act in this manner? To have such anger and hatred toward our nation that they could plot and carry out such gigantic crimes against humanity? That they would sacrifice their lives and the lives of so many innocents for such beliefs, motivations, whatever they might be?

Certainly nothing can justify or excuse what has happened or was done, but we do need to ask why this has happened. What is it that our country represents or has done that has stirred up such violent hatred toward us?

What about our unyielding, willful support for Israel over all these years, even as that country kills Palestinians, steals their land, destroys their homes, denies their rights? What of our continuous bombings of Iraq? This week, more bombings. Of the sanctions we have maintained, the comprehensive, draconian trade sanctions against that country for 11 years now that have resulted in hundreds of thousands of innocent children dying.

What about our military presence all over the Gulf and the Middle East. Our bombing of other nations ­ Afghanistan, Sudan in recent years? Is it that we have become too self-righteous? Too militaristic? Too arrogant?

Again, nothing can justify what has been done, but I think it is important that we try to understand and reflect upon what it is within ourselves that has prompted such hatred toward us.

Most importantly, how is it that we should respond? We've heard calls from the president that we must punish those responsible. There are discussions over the airwaves on the need of military attack. There was a poll overnight. Apparently 90 percent of those polled thought we ought to use military force. Already the members of Congress are talking about needing to strengthen the military, to increase our already bloated military budget, which is larger than almost the rest of the world. And it struck me as ironic that prior to this crisis, Washington was seized with discussion about defenses, strategic defenses against missiles and other threats.

We're spending, next year, $8 billion on a missile defense program that would not do a single thing to protect us against this very real threat and danger that we face.

And what of our so-called intelligence agencies in this country? The fact that we spend tens of billions of dollars every year on the CIA, the NSA, all of these thousands of people who are working, supposedly, to track down this kind of threat. How is it that with all of this commitment and all of this money, we had no inkling that this attack, obviously prepared and planned for a long time, was in the works.

As we think about how to respond, my hope, my prayer is that we as a nation will not respond unilaterally. That we will understand that we have sympathy and support all over the world. Read the world's press to day to see that support toward the goal of bringing these criminals to justice. And we have to understand that there are tools available to track down and bring to justice those criminals responsible for these acts.

Our country has opposed the idea of an international criminal court, now in the process of being established though not yet in place. But this is precisely what ought to be invoked here after such an act. We would use this court to mobilize through the UN and international community to track down and imprison those responsible for these heinous acts.

Such a multilateral, cooperative international response would be far superior to a unilateral military strike, as some already have suggested. Unilateral military action, I'm afraid, would only inflame anti-American hatred. Would only sow the seeds for new, horrendous attacks for the future.

We have to understand that this catastrophe is the outcome of those who believe in and practice such violence. They have given us a stark vision of the kind of world they believe in ­ a world of violence. We must deny them the victory that they seek. We must refuse to submit to a world created in such an image of violence against violence. We must resist the fears and the forces within us ­ the insecurities and vulnerabilities that we feel that would have us accede to a response of more violence.

We can do so by asserting a vision of community, a sense of tolerance, compassion, justice and respect for the sacredness of all life. We must seek to understand and seek to heal the wounds that have caused this terrible tragedy. Our best security, I believe, is not through more intelligence, more military forces, more missile defenses. Our best security is to turn those who view us as enemies into friends.

Our greatest protection is in cooperation and friendship with other peoples all over the world.

Most importantly we must seek to break this spiral of violence. To reject the action-reaction cycle that leads only to more and more destruction. To heed the words of Martin Luther King who said the policy of an eye for an eye leaves the whole world blind. Let us declare. Let us vow here and now, as individuals, as a community, as a nation and as a world, that we will renounce all violent solutions; that we will strive for understanding and reconciliation; that we will uphold international law, the UN in cooperation with other countries; that we will strive for a genuine solution of nonviolence and reconciliation.

[Cortright closed by reciting St. Francis of Assisi's "Make me an instrument" prayer.]

Published SFP: 10/02/01

Comments about this article may be e-mailed to: John Fisher, johnjf@goshen.edu

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