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Here is another point of view, with the hope that we can allow ourselves to
try to understand other perspectives.
Perhaps, after much thought we can make a decision that we can all accept.



>>A World Out of Touch With Itself:
>>Where the Violence Comes From
>>
>>by Rabbi Michael Lerner.
>>Editor, TIKKUN Magazine
>>
>>
>>There is never any justification for acts of terror against innocent
>>civilians it is the quintessential act of dehumanization and not
>>recognizing the sanctity of others, and a visible symbol of a world
>>increasingly irrational and out of control.
>>It's understandable why many of us, after grieving and consoling the
>>mourners, will feel anger and while some demagogues in Congress have
>>already sought to manipulate that feeling into a growing militarism (more
>>spies, legalize assassinations of foreign leaders, increase the defense
>>budget at the expense of domestic programs), the more "responsible"
>>leaders are seeking to narrow America's response to targeted attacks on
>>countries that allegedly harbor the terrorists.
>>But though the perpetrators deserve to be punished, and I personally
>>would be happy if all the people involved in this act were to be
>>imprisoned for the rest of their lives,  in some ways this narrow focus
>>allows us to avoid dealing with the underlying issues. When violence
>>becomes so prevalent throughout the planet, it's too easy to simply talk
>>of "deranged minds." We need to ask ourselves, "What is it in the way
>>that we are living, organizing our societies, and treating each other
>>that makes violence seem plausible to so many people?"
>>We in the spiritual world will see this as a growing global incapacity to
>>recognize the spirit of God in each otherwhat we call the sanctity of
>>each human being. But even if you reject religious language, you can see
>>that the willingness of people to hurt each other to advance their own
>>interests has become a global problem, and its only the dramatic level of
>>this particular attack which distinguishes it from the violence and
>>insensitivity to each other that is part of our daily lives.
>>We may tell ourselves that the current violence has "nothing to do" with
>>the way that we've learned to close our ears when told that one out of
>>every three people on this planet does not have enough food, and that one
>>billion are literally starving. We may reassure ourselves that the
>>hoarding of the world's resources by the richest society in world
>>history, and our frantic attempts to accelerate globalization with its
>>attendant inequalities of wealth, has nothing to do with the resentment
>>that others feel toward us. We may tell ourselves that the suffering of
>>refugees and the oppressed have nothing to do with us that that's a
>>different story that is going on somewhere else. But we live in one
>>world, increasingly interconnected with everyone, and the forces that
>>lead people to feel outrage, anger and desperation eventually impact on
>>our own daily lives.
>>The same inability to feel the pain of others is the pathology that
>>shapes the minds of these terrorists.  Raise children in circumstances
>>where no one is there to take care of them, or where they must live by
>>begging or selling their bodies in prostitution, put them in refugee
>>camps and tell them that that they have "no right of return" to their
>>homes, treat them as though they are less valuable and deserving of
>>respect because they are part of some despised national or ethnic group,
>>surround them with a media that extols the rich and makes everyone who is
>>not economically successful and physically trim and conventionally
>>"beautiful" feel bad about themselves, offer them jobs whose sole goal is
>>to enrich the "bottom line" of someone else, and teach them that "looking
>>out for number one" is the only thing anyone "really" cares about and
>>that anyone who believes in love and social justice are merely naive
>>idealists who are destined to always remain powerless, and you will
>>produce a world-wide population of people feeling depressed, angry,
>>unable to care about others, and in various ways dysfunctional.
>>Luckily most people don't act out in violent ways they tend to act out
>>more against themselves, drowning themselves in alcohol or drugs or
>>personal despair. Others turn toward fundamentalist religions or
>>ultra-nationalist extremism. Still others find themselves acting out
>>against people that they love, acting angry or hurtful toward children or
>>relationship partners.
>>Most Americans will feel puzzled by any reference to this "larger
>>picture." It seems baffling to imagine that somehow we are part of a
>>world system which is slowly destroying the life support system of the
>>planet, and quickly transferring the wealth of the world into our own pockets.
>>We don't feel personally responsible when an American corporation runs a
>>sweat shop in the Philippines or crushes efforts of workers to organize
>>in Singapore. We don't see ourselves implicated when the U.S. refuses to
>>consider the plight of Palestinian refugees or uses the excuse of
>>fighting drugs to support repression in Colombia or other parts of
>>Central America. We don't even see the symbolism when terrorists attack
>>America's military center and our trade center we talk of them as
>>buildings, though others see them as centers of the forces that are
>>causing the world so much pain.
>>We have narrowed our own attention to "getting through" or "doing well"
>>in our own personal lives, and who has time to focus on all the rest of
>>this? Most of us are leading perfectly reasonable lives within the
>>options that we have available to usso why should others be angry at us,
>>much less strike out against us? And the truth is, our anger is also
>>understandable: the striking out by others in acts of terror against us
>>is just as irrational as the world-system that it seeks to confront. Yet
>>our acts of counter-terror will also be counter-productive. We should
>>have learned from the current phase of the Israel-Palestinian struggle,
>>responding to terror with more violence, rather than asking ourselves
>>what we could do to change the conditions that generated it in the first
>>place, will only ensure more violence against us in the future.
>>This is a world out of touch with itself, filled with people who have
>>forgotten how to recognize and respond to the sacred in each other
>>because we are so used to looking at others from the standpoint of what
>>they can do for us, how we can use them toward our own ends. The
>>alternatives are stark: either start caring about the fate of everyone on
>>this planet or be prepared for a slippery slope toward violence that will
>>eventually dominate our daily lives.
>>We should pray for the victims and the families of those who have been
>>hurt or murdered in these crazy acts. We should also pray that America
>>does not return to "business as usual," but rather turns to a period of
>>reflection, coming back into touch with our common humanity, asking
>>ourselves how our institutions can best embody our highest values. We may
>>need a global day of atonement and repentance dedicated to finding a way
>>to turn the direction of our society at every level, a return to the
>>notion that every human life is sacred, that "the bottom line" should be
>>the creation of a world of love and caring, and that the best way to
>>prevent these kinds of acts is not to turn ourselves into a police state,
>>but turn ourselves into a society in which social justice, love, and
>>compassion are so prevalent that violence becomes only a distant memory.
>>
>>Rabbi Michael Lerner is editor of TIKKUN Magazine
>>and Rabbi of Beyt Tikkun Synagogue in San Francisco. He is the author of
>>Spirit Matters: Global Healing and the Wisdom of the Soul and most
>>recently (Sept 2001) editor: Best Contemporary Jewish Writing
>>
>>
>>[log in to unmask]
>>

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