A late evening e-mail to my American Government class following the address by President Bush
Sept. 20, 2001
Robert G. Anderson, associate professor of political science

Last Tuesday and Thursday in our class, I mentioned that while we were experiencing -- individually and a nationally -- a time of immense tragedy, it was also a time that might be remembered as "lifting our nation to an even higher standard of excellence and clearer affirmation of our basic values and American ideals -- domestically and globally."

Today in class, we talked of our basic liberties -- those values that distinguish democracies like ours from other countries not as fortunate to enjoy such freedoms. We also discussed that the liberties we know today did not appear "overnight." We struggled for over 200 years to define and perfect their meaning and expand the scope of their coverage.

While still far from perfect, we have moved closer -- in most of our lifetimes -- to greater personal liberty, more political inclusion, less state control and expanded opportunity to enrich our lives intellectually, spiritually and materially.

But being less than perfect, we have sometimes acted arrogantly and with less sensitivity to the wider world of differing cultures and suffering world economies than might be expected from a country in our position of our global political prominence and economic leadership.

Secure in our material affluence and protected by our physical distance, we often failed to recognize -- especially as individual citizens -- the depth of suffering of so many in the world -- and the subsequent alienation, hatred, terrorism and fatalism that such conditions inevitably breed.

From our American perspective, we did not see ourselves as major contributors to the world's inequities -- and therefore not obligated to remedy -- and certainly individually incapable of healing -- the economic and political wounds that seemed almost "terminal" in some countries.

To our credit, the human and monetary contributions we have made to address world hunger, serious health problems, natural and manmade disasters, the plight of refugees were greater than most of the world's countries -- but never up to our true capabilities relative to our enormous global wealth and resources.

As we painfully learned last week, other persons (some associated with states -- some stateless) -- with motives yet to be fully understood -- used our relative absence from (or alleged contribution to) the suffering of desperate people to brand the United States as the primary broker of the forces that more directly initiated their suffering. Whether by in avert acts of omission or overt acts of commission, the United States became -- in the hearts of a small but significant minority of global sufferers -- the source of their problems -- and in turn -- the logical target of altruistic and politically radical opportunists.

Their goal -- which was basically unheard by American domestic ears two weeks ago -- was to rid the world of dominance by the American evil and create -- through fear and their brand of faith -- societies and states based on values and beliefs that only remotely resemble the values associated with any free and democratic people.

Last Tuesday, those messengers of terror politics brought their form of violence to our homeland. The term -- the politics of terrorism -- now has an American definition that jolted the average American from a relatively peaceful global "security slumber" to the nightmare reality of global terror, personal suffering and endless sorrow born of suicidal political violence.

In global terms, our suffering September 11, 2001 was really not that significant based on the number of people killed or injured -- for death and injury on a global scale in the last two decades from political terror is measured in the millions -- not thousands.

What makes our suffering "significant" is that it occurred "in America" -- the democratic citadel that seemed immune to the terror that most of the world has endured for decades.

What makes our suffering significant is that we knew the dead by first names. They died in places many of us had visited and revered as symbols of our strength and success. In a sense, a blow was dealt to our collective national soul.

What makes our suffering significant is that ALL Americans suddenly realized their physical vulnerability to world forces in our workplace and homes. We also felt, as never before, the grief of demonic violence.

And the reaction? It is natural that our country -- a military, economic, political giant -- would not only mourn its loses in unity -- but seek -- national punishment, vengeance, retribution, justice from those responsible for such a violent awakening.

Though not necessarily a source of wisdom, those in my generation (50 and above) have seen -- and experienced -- conflicts and undeclared wars in which the honesty of our country's leaders' was sometimes "questionable" and their motives -- as revealed by historical record -- less than democratically admirable.

So there are valid and very patriotic reasons and experiences undergirding hesitancy in giving unreserved support for calls to war -- and the subsequent subtle references to the need for possible re-evaluation of our cherished substantive and procedural liberties.

Prudence -- and a sense of recent history -- caution that one should take ample time -- away from the heat of the violent moment -- to sort out "appropriately" the new "value mix" of liberty, equality, procedural democracy -- and SECURITY -- that serves best the interests of our nation.

But on the night of September 20, 2001, I believe that President George Bush began to articulate the type of national response to this new global American reality that has the possibility of positively uniting our nation and the world -- and "lifting our nation to a higher standard of excellence and clearer affirmation of our basic values" than at any time in our history.

If we pursue a course of justice -- as outlined by the President -- that relies on global consensus, minimal violence on civilian populations, use of diplomatic, legal and economic strategies as valid vehicles of our strength and resolve -- we will accomplish our national goals with the dignity, certainty, respect for life and humanity that our basic values demand of us.

And if we go one step further than the President laid out tonight -- and empower America with the ongoing will not only to fight physically political terror -- but address substantively -- with the full power of our values and resources -- the underlying economic poverty and associated personal alienation that nurtures terrorists -- we will provide the world the "finest demonstration" of the values of our political system -- values which the September 11 tragedy was designed to undermine and erode.

An America acting from its core values for justice appropriate to address the immediate crime done to us -- and justice that would address more adequately the sources of the economic and social suffering that nurtures future terrorists -- would be the most enduring national memorial to those whose lives were lost September 11, 2001.

May blessings of hope, prosperity and grace fall upon all of humankind -- in which we as Americans now hopefully recognize our place of leadership, companionship and interdependence with ALL people.