A Brave New Wonderful

In the days after September 11, 2001, I talked to one of my best friends who boldly told me that "we had it coming."

I wouldn't have gone that far, but I did go so far as to say that the foreign policy of the United States (as well as actions of American corporate conglomerates) contributed greatly to the conditions to which the events of that day were tied.

So, I applaud the public statement by actress Maggie Gyllenhaal in which she said that September 11 was:

...an occasion to be brave enough to ask some serious questions about America's role in the world. Because it is always useful as individuals or nations to ask how we may have knowingly or unknowingly contributed to this conflict.

Not to have the courage to ask these questions of ourselves is to betray the victims of 9/11.

Of course, her comments have created an uproar

It is beyond me how Americans can be so unable to connect dots... so unwilling to recognize that the attacks of September 11 didn't happen in a vaccuum.

Did the nearly 3,000 people who died that day deserve what happened to them? No. Did the Goliath United States deserve what the David Al Qaida slingshot its way. Maybe. But instead of trying to learn and understand the history that unrolled its matching red carpets in New York City, Washington and the Pennsylvania countryside, we attack those who have tried to point out that the attacks might never have happened had the United States been just a bit more respectful of human life around the world and a little less concerned with military and corporate might.