2001-09-11 - 2:20 p.m. - do you have a voice?
terrorism- a policy intended to strike with terror those against whom it is adopted; the employment of methods of intimidation.violence- to do violence to; to violate.
sanctions- action of ordaining as inviolable under a penalty. also a decree or ordinance.
--the compact oxford english dictionary.
killing is wrong, always. there is no question in my mind as to that. all the deaths today have been a terrible tragedy. i do not argue any of this.
the question i am struggling with under todays terrible circumstances though, is this: our government has been acting out terrible things on other countries for a long time. maybe we had this coming.
but our government doesn't kill innocent people! you say vehemently. and this is where my discussion of sanctions begins. our country is partly responsible for the deaths of thousands of iraqi citizens (largely children) a week due to the sanctions we have imposed on them. this is no less a terrorsit act than ramming buildings with airplanes. human life is the important factor here (and if you dont think so i pity you) and we have been committing terrorist acts on iraq, among others for years. we won't let them get the medicine they need to heal their sick or enough food to fill all their hungry mouths. this sounds like a violation to me. like a form of intimidation. our sanctions are therefore not only terrorist acts, but violent terrorist acts.
violence isn't just guns and bombs and fists and knives. violence is an act. and we are violent.
so did we deserve this? only as much as the people we enact terrorist actions on deserve it. meaning: no, nobody deserves to be murdered but in the world of politics in belief there is no right and wrong, only action and re-action.
todays tragedy was caused by the way our government treats other countrys. i use iraq as an example but it goes far beyond that. and honestly, if you stood in the same spot for 10 years letting somebody punch you in the face wouldn't you get sick of it and slug them as hard as you could?
there is no black and white answer here as much as our news media (the rusty syringe of which has been stuck in my veins all day) would like us to believe.
would i feel differently if my parents were killed in one of the terrorist actions today? you bet i would. id be crying and kicking and screaming. but when the pain wore away, slowly, i think i would come to realize that maybe the fault for today's events lay just as much in our government and their actions as the people who acted out the crimes.
this world is not a beautiful place, it is filled with ugliness. today is the first time we've seen such a large piece of ugliness in our own country. it feels pretty horrible doesn't it?
i was disturbed to hear that somebody referred to these actions (senator orrin hatch i believe) as an act of war. i honestly regret that he made this statemment because it shows that, as usual, we are going to attempt to solve violence with violence. maybe we should use this opportunity to try to find some form of understanding between people and cultures. not merely to cause more destruction.
xoxo
james brubaker.
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