ORDER FORM | HOME PAGE | SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
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A good friend told me about his early experience as a soldier in Vietnam. He and another young soldier were walking along a path. Suddenly, an enemy soldier sprang out and killed his friend. My friend killed the killer as he had been trained to do. Then, he realized what he had done and was horrified. The young man he had killed was his age. A few weeks before that, my friend had been surfing in California, now he was an 18-year-old who had just killed someone.
He eventually came home; more than 58,000 other young men and women did not. My friend still has daily trauma from what happened there.
War is a romantic idea that gets men fired up to do what no human being should be asked to do. They do it and live with the consequences every day of their life.--BT
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Who counts as innocent? I hear about "innocent citizens" as contrasted with "soldiers" and wonder what the 18-year-old boys who've been drafted are guilty of.--CV
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It helps me so much to hear those occasional voices of peace and tolerance in the midst of so much anger and cries of retaliation. Even though I haven't lost anyone personally, I have been feeling such an unspeakable burden of sadness and have shed untold number of tears--sadness not only for the profound losses of those directly involved, but also sadness for the pain and fear in the hearts of those who would be driven to such senseless acts of violence, sadness for all those in the world who have so long felt unheard, unacknowledged, and left-out, sadness for the pain of the entire world. And when I watch the news, I only feel more sadness for the ignorance of leaders who somehow believe that more violence is the solution. Why are people so afraid to look for the truth and for the root causes of all this pain? Isn't looking for the real causes the only way to find real solutions?
When Katie (who is ten years old) acts in a way that hurts me, do I reach out and slap her? Of course not. I step back and ask myself what she might be feeling to cause her to behave in such a way. And if I can't figure it out, I ask her heart to tell me what part of it is in pain. Shouldn't we, as a nation, be "loving parents" to those peoples whose hearts are in pain? To me, that truth is so clear. I can't understand why more people can't see it. Yet, at the same time, I also have compassion for those who operate out of fear, for I know, too well, how its darkness can surround and engulf you. All I can do is pray for the broken heart of the world and feel its pain.--JO
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Terrorize is defined as "threats or acts of violence." War against terrorism sounds a little bit odd to me.--KS
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This event has made me realize that I have no choice but to make a decision about how I will respond to hate. I can either hate back or I can try to understand, accept, and love. It's clear that the only route to survival and indeed to a life worth living is the latter.--JJ
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People are recognizing the humanity in each other here in this city. They look you in the eye and beyond. I have hope that this powerful opening of our hearts will carry us forward. --SB, New York City
