October 4,2001
The Blue Banner
Page 3
Opinions
Take a brief moment to reflect
Justus D’Addario
' ■■ . ... , ,
> Columnist
Pause.
While watching the news cover
age of the airliners exploding into
the World Trade Center and the
Pentagon Sept. 11,1 realized how
out of touch I am with the world.
This catastrophe made me pause
(thanks be to forces greater than
myself, my life allows for it).
When this event came into my
consciousness, I felt a myriad of
emotions very difficult for me to
express.
Mv heart eoes out to all those
touched by this day of tragedy, and
all those who suffer without recog
nition.
Each time I am presented with a
human tragedy, such as the recent
World Trade Center event, the
genocide in Rwanda, the Okla
homa City bombing, and on and
on, I am reminded of the violent
state of the world.
It hurts more deeply than I can
put into words.
Someone screams as I write this,
just as we mourn while you read
this.
It is of utmost importance that we
recognize that suffering happens to
all people because of the separa
tion and inequality stemming from
fear. The root is self-cherishing,
where I value my happiness over
yours out of fear of not getting
enough.
Each time the mass media chooses
to present us with a human trag
edy, such as the recent “Attack on
America” event, we are reminded
of constant suffering of others. It is
important that we recognize that
violence and suffering happen all
over the world each day.
Many of these events occur be
cause of the unfair distribution of
property and material wealth due
to our self-cherishing.
Even those with material wealth
suffer, such as President George
W. Bush. President Bush made re
marks about the World Trade
Center event that morning from
an elementary school.
Reporters asked him if he was
aware of the event while he was
reading a book to children. He nod
ded solemnly and deferred com
ment to a later time, according to
the news.
This is the traditional “not in front
of the children” response prone to
adults in the United States and
probably other countries, too. We
are scared to tell children the truth
about what goes on in the world,
what we are making (or letting)
happen.
We are responsible for the violent
state of the world, and we are
scared to admit it.
It is imperative that we act as
medical professionals would: if we
are interested in healing, we must
diagnose the disease before we are
able to begin treatment. In this
case, the diagnosis means simply
observing ourSelves.
I do not claim to have knowledge
of an all-encompassing truth, but
there are some very obvious things
that people aren’t comfortable
expressing.
Among these are multi-various,
taboo, and hilarious things, such as
stench. We all stink, but we are
scared to admit it. Sound famiUar?
It’s always the stench of others that
we pay most attention to, trying to
mask our own funk in the mean
time. Crazy parallel, but this is
what Bush and many others (in
cluding myself) are doing today.
We all suffer, and we try to blame
our suffering on others. Bush’s com
ments to America were basically
we are going to get those terrorist
bad guys that did this to us. He is
saying, it’s us (good) Americans
against those (bad) terrorists.
Who’s to say the terrorists couldn’t
be Americans?
The killing of tons of people seems
like a bad decision to me, but the
underlying issue here is one of du-
alistic thinking. This fearful and
historical response perpetuates the
cycle of hatred, violence, and suf
fering.
This conditioned response is cling
ing fearfully to the mistakes of the
past again, who is responsible for
the state of the world? We are.
This is the mantra for the possibil
ity of present and future life. If
peace and equalization of all people
is going to happen, we must quit this
dualistic thinking of us versus them,
or me versus you.
The dispute ofworld trade is about
money and property, who gets what,
and how. This is basic historical
politics.
Humanity calls to us: why are we
fighting over such a limited thing as
material possessions, when there is
an infinite supply of wealth around
us?
For the past few millennia, we
have concentrated on getting things
we feel will make our lives more
comfortable.
As we all know, but apparantly
not well enough, the majority of
people existing in this world are not
comfortable.
At the same time, there are enough
resources of food, water, and shel
ter to go around to everybody if
distributed equitably. We all should
be aware by now of the current
inequality of wealth.
What is the statistic? Twelve per
cent of the world’s population has
80 percent of its wealth? That lim
ited amount of wealth is material
possessions.
Why do we feel the need to own
the world? We’ve been conditioned
to think that we need material
things to feel good and secure in
our position.
We get a sense of security when
we have things, so we want more
things, not realizing that this se
cure sense is an illusion.
We were probably feeling pretty
secure in going about our daily rou
tine the morning of Sept. 11, be
fore we heard news of plane crashes
and deaths of many people in New
York and Washington D.C.
This is what routine and history is
all about: doing the same things
gives us a sense of security.
No matter how many guns or
missile defense systems we have and
how many people we kill with them,
we are not safe. It is simple: when
we want more, others get less.
As given in horrible example on
this day, when anyone is suffering
in this human family, we will all
feel it.
I don’t have any snake oil or
techno-gadget you can buy to fix
everything, but I do see that these
terrorist attacks are examples of
negative expression. A group of
people felt rage and hate powerful
enough to kill and injure many
people in highly orchestrated at
tacks.
This action is that of a desperate
people who see no other outlet to
cause change or “send a message.”
We need more positive outlets.
Everyone’s voice must be heard
and respected before it comes down
to such violence. We must quit the
suppression of the state of life.
We must also find the truth for
ourselves. It seems that new ways of
thinking and being in this world,
such as those brought to us by chil
dren and child-like minds hold the
keys.
After thousands of years of his
tory, most of us still qualify wealth
in material terms.
What if we could define a wealthy
person as one who is healthy, hence
able to love, and who is loved by
others?
We need humane treatment of
one another. “You have to want it
bad enough” seems fitting. How
about.. .being kind to your neigh
bors, brothers and sisters. How
about sharing? As usual, the solu
tion remains paradoxically simple
and complex. Worldwide expres
sion of feelings of loving-kindness
will undoubtedly solve every ill.
We must all get together in the
positive expression of a new day. No
matter how you see love, be love.
These tragedies are catalysts. These
events spark communication
around the globe.
Let your communication be posi
tive. Equally, give others this op
portunity.
Look for answers instead of war
Brian Smith
Columnist
Three weeks and two days ago, a
hijacked plane slammed into the
World Trade Center, forever alter
ing the landscape of New York
City.
Taxi drivers, businessmen and
women, tourists, and shoppers on
the street suddenly had their lives
and their futures taken away from
them.
Looking through the collage of
blessings and bomb threats, coali
tions and terrorists, American flags
and stretchers, it is hard to assess
the damage.
In all, over 6,400 people are miss
ing and presumed dead at the World
Trade Center. Nearly 200 more
lost their lives in the Pentagon, and
at least that many more passengers
on the ill-fated hijacked planes.
Totaling almost 7,000 casualties,
this incident has become the single
largest loss of life on American soil
since the Civil War.
The anger and remorse I felt that
Tuesday morning, and still feel to
this second, confound and confuse
my intellect. I strive to find logic
where there is only chaos, reason
where there is only death.
I read through article after article,
listen to speech after speech, watch
hour after hour of CNN, and still I
am no closer to understanding the
situation much less than forming
my own opinion.
Thus, I must turn to my govern
ment, the leaders that I helped to
elect, foranswers. Osamabin Laden,
they claim, is the face behind the
act. War is on the horizon.
With such forceful language, I
can’t help but feel that my life,
America’s life, is about to change.
Gone are the days of the Goodyear
blimp over baseball games. Gone
are the days of the helicopter tours
of the Axch in St. Louis. Gone is the
freedom of safety and security that
we all once enjoyed.
How can I return to classes, work,
and friends without bringing with
me planes, stretchers, and bin
Laden? I don’t think I can. The
images that interrupted the morn
ing cartoons will replay forever in
my mind’s eye.
Today, America is at war with
terrorism. But who or what is ter
rorism? Is it Afghanistan or Iraq?
Eric Rudolph or the Unibomer?
The oppressed people of Kosovo or
East Timor who routinely employ
acts of terrorism against their op
pressors?
The problem is that no one really
knows. When a nation goes to war
with an ideology instead of with
another nation, the prospect for
unlimited war in an unlimited
sphere of action is made a reality.
One only has to look back over the
closing half of the 20th century to
see proof of this claim.
The Cold War was a war against
communism, which pitted the
United States against a political
theology. We were drawn into con
flicts all across the globe, including
Korea, Vietnam, Cuba, Afghani
stan, Panama, just to name a few.
Billions of dollars of support went
to non-communistic regimes, and
over 100,000 American lives were
lost before domestic support finally
teetered.
I wonder how many conflicts will
have to be fought, how many bil
lions of dollars will have to be spent.
and how many lives will have to be
sacrificed before the American pub
lic sees the futility of warring with
terrorism. The idea should not be
who did this, but why was it done?
What, as a nation, did we do to
cause/ allow this egregious event to
occur? We should be looking for
answers rather than war.
That is not to say that I don’t feel
remorse, pain, and anger when dis
cussing the hijackings. I want who
ever is responsible for the acts to
pay for his crimes tenfold. How
ever, I don’t think that our anger
should rule over our reason. An old
legal axiom reads “jus ex injuria
non oritur;” rights do not arise from
wrongs.
Time will bring us our enemies
and restraint will yield justice.
In closing, I would like to state the
following: As an American, I will
support my government in what
ever course of action they choose to
pursue. As a patriot, I will fight and
die for the future of my country.
However, as a human being, I
must hesitate and question the real
ity of the situation.
The Blue Banner Staff
“When a nation goes to war with an ideol
ogy instead of with another nation, the
prospect for unlimited war in an unlimited
sphere of action is made reality
Editor-in-Chief
Lena Burns
Features Editor
Rachel Grumpier
Photo Editor
Walter Fyler
Online Editor
CJ. Eland
News Editor
Luke Knox
Sports Editor
Deleon Dendy
Copy Editor
Sarah Wilkins
Advertising Manager Business Manager
Emily Schell Dearborn McCorkle
Circulation Manager Faculty Advisor
Matt Deal Mark West
Computer Consultant
Breandan Dezendorf
Photography Technology Manager
J.P. Ammons
Reporters
Lori Brenner, Hollie Childers, Lana Coffey,
Megan Fazekas, Ed Fickle, Lynne Fox, Stuart
Gaines, Sachie Godwin, Sarah-Vance Goodman,
Jenna Lahmeyer, Margaret Lee, Ben Martin,
Alison McKone, Rae Stephens, Sarah Wilkins,
Ryan Wilson
Photographers
Ian Baillie, Jon Basirico, Miriam Barlow,
Anthony Greco, Sean Stevens,
James Pritchitt
Columnists
Justus DAddario, Brian Smith, Sean Clancy
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