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We Are One: Revisited
More to come.
The following is the World Campaign Issue of the Week reflection from September 17, 2001 following the events of September 11, 2001. In view of the events of last week, the issue of the week for World Campaign this week will be a reflection, rather than an issue to vote on. We are beginning the second week of what has been described as the other side of history. The unprecedented and horrific terrorist attacks on the United States have left us heartbroken beyond words. And yet, many extraordinary words of wisdom, love, courage, resolve and insight have been spoken over the past week. And beyond words--silence, tears, prayers, songs, flowers and shrines around the globe have been imprinted upon all of our minds, hearts and souls forever. Is there a core truth that September 11, 2001 can be reduced to? On some levels, there are clearly more than one. But we believe the most useful core truth we can focus on is this: We are on the other side of history because out of this unbearable tragedy has come the universal experiential realization that we are one world and one people with one future that will be universally shared. Out of the horror of September 11, 2001, has come a globally experienced epiphany: We are one. We are one because if this can happen in America at this point in history, we are all vulnerable everywhere, because at this point in history, America and even the possibility of global security are synonymous. We are one because we can now see with certainty a reality to come in which extremism combined with weapons of mass destruction could potentially destroy all life on earth unless we find a way to prevent it. We are one because for whatever it lacks and for all the reasons it is hated, the entire world has made clear that America still represents in both ideals and opportunity, more than any other place, what humanity longs for. And we are one because the overwhelming majority of the people of the world have cried out in anguish and love for Americans and for each other, across all national, ethnic, religious boundaries or boundaries of any kind, demonstrating through this very action complete opposition to the psychopathic belief that anyone can be an instrument of God in being willing to destroy humanity as the only alternative, much less a holy alternative, to humanity accepting their version of truth. September 11, 2001, to the ultimate terror of us all, may also go down in history as the first shot of Word War Three--although what this may mean is yet to be defined. Is there more violence to come? Yes. That has already been decided, by national and international will, and by terrible necessity. Spiritual wisdom teaches us that retribution for its own sake is wrong, but that accountability and justice are necessary. This is not a choice between acting out of either anger or love, between war or peace, as one-dimensional aphorisms. In the end, love, justice, accountability and peace do not exist in separate boxes, but are all parts of a universal value system that are intellectually and spiritually interdependent. We will not perfectly choose or act on these intuitive, interdependent and paradoxical values. But choose and act we must, with open hearts and open minds. The United States, NATO, the United Nations--the entire global community--has responded in unanimity to the attacks of September 11, 2001 as a declaration of war by terrorism against the world. The scope of the response is unprecedented. The President of Russia, the mortal enemy of America in the Cold War--the nation that suffered millions of deaths at the hands of the Nazis, more than any other nation by far in World War Two--has called the September 11, 2001 attacks on America the moral equivalent of the Nazi holocaust against the Jews. But with the most chilling additional twist possible. Ideologies that will commit suicide and murder simultaneously in God's name will clearly be willing to do so on a global scale with nuclear, chemical and biological weapons when accessible--and they will be accessible soon if not prevented. This changes the fundamental premise of the argument of the most committed pacifist, who may be willing to lay down their own life in the face of violence, but will not commit violence--out of reverence for life, in order to enhance life and to end violence. A true pacifist recognizes that absolute non-violence means living up the following scenario: If your infant child is about to be raped and tortured and killed in front of you, although you will give your own life by stepping in front of the perpetrator and trying to stop them, you will not commit violence against the perpetrator, and certainly not kill them, even if this is the only way to save your child. Horrible as this choice is, the true pacifist believes that only through mass adoption of this approach will humanity ever be morally shamed into giving up violence and the cycle of violence stopped. Most people believe, however, that defending the innocent is a moral duty, and in the above circumstance, that dispatching the perpetrator to the next world if necessary is the spiritually correct action for all involved. Taken to a global level, in the face of a Hitler, most people believe in self-defense, because they are not willing to see innocent millions slaughtered and enslaved. While standing by his principles when asked about Hitler, even Gandhi evinced doubt as to whether or not non-violent tactics would have worked. Now, in the context of combining the darkest sides of humanity with technology, personal and global suicide can be accomplished simultaneously. What then is left for the pacifist to save? Violence will have ended because all life will have ended. And we are not talking about global superpowers pointing nuclear missiles at each other, in which context an argument could be made that war was less an option than ever, morally or pragmatically, because this too could have ended life on earth. Rather, we are talking about a few people, or a few small tyrants, made large by combining such weapons with their own insanity. They must be deprived of the opportunity before they can become the equivalent of superpowers with the potential to destroy the world. This means violence out of self-defense, whether called war or not. And as in all war, in order to protect the innocent, the horrible truth is that not only will good people die who are soldiers, but innocent civilians will die. Saying anything else is morally dishonest. The attempt should be made to avoid this at all costs--save abandoning the planet to those who are willing to end all innocent life. The two-century old argument in America between isolationists and internationalists is over. We thought it had been concluded before, more than once, but this is different. September 11, 2001 has made it different. The blood of thousands of innocent Americans shed on American soil in the heart of American (and in many ways global) capital cities on a single day have made it different. We are the world. And it is us. This is perhaps the moment at which both the blessing and the opportunity created by the end of the Cold War are most evident. This is precisely the situation which calls for, and which offers the opportunity for, a truly global security system--in effect an international police force--envisioned by Wilson for the League of Nations after World War One and by Roosevelt for the United Nations after World War Two. Only America is in a position to lead the world in this direction. If America does so appropriately, the world has never before been so prepared to follow. However, just as Americans and the people of the world saw September 11, 2001 as an attack not just on America, but on the planet as a whole, so must America lead a response that evolves into a truly global police force in which the nations of the world become the united nations of the world. That is what will constitute victory. Anything less will eventually bring September 11, 2001 times infinity. This is an extraordinary challenge. It will require patience and diligence and fortitude of an unparalleled degree. And it will require evolutionary thinking. But a challenge to survival, to life itself, is an extraordinary motivator. There is also another extraordinary danger, opportunity and challenge. It will be tempting to focus all our energy on this unique crisis in American and world history instigated by the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. But if we do so, America and the world are doomed to defeat. The other great global problems of human rights, hunger, poverty, disease, population and environment will not wait for a more convenient moment. We must make war on these problems with equal vigor, and we must foster cultural understanding and tolerance as never before, or there will be no victory and no peace. Otherwise the nationalist, tribalist, us-or-them survivalist, endless ism-at-each-other's throat dynamic will finally consume us. The extremists of the moment will give way to the extremists of the future, with different ideologies, religions and backgrounds, but with the common ground of having been bred in one hell or another of injustice or deprivation. And the planet itself, our mother earth, will not wait for us to attend to her nurturing, which nurtures all life. Lastly, we must continue to evolve personally, to see the connection between all things, if we are to survive and thrive as a species. In a reverse way, September 11, 2001 must become the second shot heard round the world, but this time, not just for an American Revolution proclaiming freedom and equality for Americans, but for America leading a World Evolution proclaiming freedom and equality for all citizens of the world and sustainable life for the planet itself. A tall order? An absurd order? An idealists daydream? Every good and great thing that has ever happened in human history which has made human life worthwhile seemed all the above before it came to pass. We're not talking about making the world perfect here. We're just talking about treating it like the neighborhood it really is for us all. We're talking about moving on from bondage to age-old problems that are becoming the equivalent of primordial at this point in history, to a new level, where we will still deal with the problems and challenges of being human, but where we can focus on our humanity in a more refined way. And we're talking about survival. Again, when its time to grow or die, human beings will choose to evolve and live. As we heard the American National Anthem played around the world last week as a memorial to the thousands of fallen victims and heroes of September 11, 2001, we heard it not only as Americans, but as citizens of the world in a new way. What an irony, that those who wished to destroy what this anthem represented, had instead turned it into a Global Anthem. The responsibility of America and the world now is to create a new global anthem, which represents one world, one people, working for one future of justice and peace and plenty for all. We are one. Like all epiphanies, it will not do by itself. It will recede in its emotional and mystical and intellectual impact. But like all epiphanies, it will establish a new benchmark; in this case, an evolutionary benchmark in the collective human consciousness. We are one.
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