Brenda, Since some of your other comments seemed aimed at me, let me add a few more: >Many people are saying that we as a nation > will never be the same. I hope so. Not that we should >sacrifice liberty and live in fear, but we should accept >that we are not immune and we can no longer pretend >that isolationism in any form works. Maybe because I'm older than a lot of the crowd here I have a different perspective. I cannot recall a time ever in my life or historically since WWII when America was isolationist. I'm not trying to argue with you but I just can't see it. We've been involved in numerous wars or actions in other countries almost constantly since that time. We are no doubt also the most diplomatic country on earth. We've been the biggest supporter of the UN since its inception. > I hope that we seek to understand more about the >world from which we've tried to separate ourselves. >Instead of being defensive about why other people in >the world may dislike or despise the U.S., let's seek to > understand their position. In my view of reality, all we have done is tried to understand other people in the world. I certainly won't claim we have done a good job of it, however. > I am not at all advocating validation of > the notion that we "deserved" it; I am suggesting that >there may be legitimate reasons why people (who are >not extremists, radicals or terrorists) hold disdain for our >country. And therein lies the supreme irony. Most hold disdain for us precisely because of our involvement in their country or other countries. It's a total Catch 22 - we are damned if we do and damned if we don't. Or maybe they have disdain because they don't like our capitalistic system. If that is the case, that is their problem and not something we have to beat ourselves up about. They are free to have their own system. If no one was capitalistic in this world, where would the money (and what it represents - hard work, innovation, production) to support people come from? Human nature will never evolve to the perfect collective creature who will work for free and share all they have with everyone. I am not advocating isolationism - that is stupid and a totally unrealistic conception. But can anyone really chastise anyone for feeling a little weary sometimes about the abuse that other countries so freely throw on us, especially at a time when we are down? Am I suppose to apologize for being upset about that? I am a human being, not some programmed robot with no feelings. Neither I, nor most of my fellow Americans, nor the people who died in WTC are personally responsible for the things other countries blame us for. >The response seemed to uniformly be that > the terrorists hate us. I hope that there are more >sophisticated discussions happening in schools. I think >alot of kids could understand it, if it is explained to >them. What would you suggest we tell them as to the reasons why the terrorists hate us? I agree that children should not be left with uninformed and simplistic reasons, but practically how do you download to them in a way they can understand, complicated socio-political events of the past 50 or so years? > I'm very concerned about the ongoing rhetoric in the >media and from government leaders which places the >focus on Bin Laden. We cannot be lulled into the >notion that this is simply about one man, his capture and >the shut down of his network. This is no longer just >about terrorism, and never really was. I agree with you here 100%. As for war and bombing and destroying other countries, let me tell you that when I heard the first inklings of this last week I became physically ill and experienced a feeling inside of me that I have never before in my life felt. I can't even describe it. I also have had nearly constant vertigo with nausea on a daily basis since this all happened to the point where I had to go to the hospital one night. My blood pressure which is usually 100/60 has been shooting up to 150/100 for no known reason. I absolutely do NOT want to destroy other countries because of this. I absolutely do understand the peril in that. That is what is so horrendous about all this - we have to stop it in a way that will not exacerbate it. It's a hellish challenge for us. Kakki
