September 11, 2001.
September 11, 2010, 11:53 am
Posted by Grant Gallicho
From the archives: our editorial “September 11, 2001,” and “What Kind of ‘War’?” by Peter Steinfels, Robert White, Jean Porter, and Bruce Russett.
“There is also no doubt that the 19 men couldn’t have done it alone. They were losers, after all. They were psychopaths. They were murderers. They could never have succeeded without us.”
Read more: http://www.esquire.com/blogs/politics/are-the-terrorists-winning-091010#ixzz0zEn4McWZ
You have allowed yourselves to become victims. Your economy has crashed, you routinely torture people, some who turn out to be innocent. Your values have been changed, you are no longer the democracy to whom the world turns. You, as a people, would deny the freedoms that took you years to obtain, and for which your fought a world war.
It is difficult to think anything other than the fact that you lost.
Et tu, Britannius!
Canalis
First thank you for reprinting the historical articles. Also the GG article from 2001Sep28.
Second, were I at work now I could post my tag line that says, in Latin, “Things sound more important when said in Latin”.
What we have failed to do is listen to all the voices around us, the witnesses present and not present, and searched for a way forward that addresses what I think is the root of what happened that day — what is the proper response to violence?
One voice to listen to is an article I can now not find in either Commonweal or America on the small schrines erected hither and yon by ordinary people on the occasion of violence, and in particular death by violence. Large when John Lennon or Princess Di was involved, small when it is just someone’s child, or sibling, or parent, or friend, or classmate, or ….
What are these telling us about ordinary people and how we should be using the motivations they display to deal with violence writ large.
Blessed are the peacemakers. When and where do we think how to do that?
Mr. Kuebbing –
About the way forward –
It seems to me that ignorance is at the root of much ethnic violence (which is how I would describe 9/11). Those terrorists seemed to think that their troubles were all our fault. So how to change the minds of extremists?
Can the psychologists tell us *how* to change the minds of extremists? The psychologists seem to have established that once we have made our opinions known publicly that it’s all but impossible for us ever to change those opinions. But as Christians I don’t think Christ’s message will allow us to despair of peace. On the other hand, it’s all well and good to say “Love your neighbor”, but what does that MEAN when your neighbor hates you? What to say? What to do — or not do?
Any psychologists around? Theology takes us only so far.