Pat, I truly appreciate your feelings, as honest and direct and heart felt as they are, very clear in your writing.
All of us are grappling with the scope of this horror, and the most effective, the best way to respond. People of good conscience and of good will of course will disagree and that is as it should be, for we all bring our own perspectives, insights, and understandings to these momentous events. Please know, Pat, that as I see it, that we differ on the "how" of the response, and on nothing else. As a nation, we must find ways to do justice to our own people and to others, to keep our people safe. I do not feel that war will keep Americans or anyone safe. Again, people of good will, people with good intentions, will differ on this. And people who care will differ on whether peace has ever been given a chance in a part of the world where war has been a constant since the late 70s at least (Afghanistan) and in the very neighboring states of India and Pakistan in the late 1940s, since the partition and independence. And people of good purposes will differ on whether American foreign policy has reflected options other than support for warring factions, or ignoring situations in their totality. No one side of any of the multitude of ways that these things can be looked at can claim any greater concern for the victims of September 11th. But I will differ with you, my friend,, that it is not "always easier to point the finger and say....hey!!! give peace a chance!" The tarring and feathering of those who did not support the American Revolution, the draft riots in the Civil War, the attacks on the Adventists in the Civil war because they would not take up arms, the arrest and imprisonment of people during World War 1 who spoke against that war, the way this country was torn by the peace movement in the Vietnam era, the shootings at Kent State, the hard hats who attacked the peace marchers, the constant accusations of a lack of patriotism and loyalty because one advocates a different route than war - it is not easy, has never been easy, let alone easier, to take the side of nonviolent alternatives when conflict is present. But that quibble aside, Pat, I thank you for the consistent honest and heart felt and caring qualities of all your posts, which I know is a reflection of the real you. Take care, my friend! Vince
