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 THE Moumrns

established in .1986}

50’... OR‘ tN‘"¢.HlEf.i: 

Tragedy

Because the spiritual foun-
dation of Twelve Step pro-
grams is anonymity, I can’t
sign this letter; but I -feel
compelled to share my
thoughts in the face of this
national crisis we’re facing.
I’m _convinced that the media
can be both good and evil. I
was brought to tears by the
news of the heroic acts, heart-
felt anguish and sincere show
of support all over the globe
in the face of the September
11th tragedy. It gave me great
hope for the spiritual trans-
formation that can emanate
from such a disaster. I also
acknowledge that if it weren’t
for excellent reporting
(OITM being a prime exam-
ple) our Civil Union Law
might never have passed.

On the other hand, if it

weren’t for our sick attach-
ment \to viewing all the hor-
rors of the planet on our little
screens every night, terrorism
would never be able to get a
foothold in society. Watching
this latest atrocity on our own
soil felt eerily familiar, like
viewing a grade B movie —
planes crashing into tall
buildings, bodies falling out
of skyscraper windows, peo-
ple in New York City running
panicked in the streets glanc-
ing at the mayhem behind
them. And now the threat of
seeking revenge on civilians
from -tiny, third-world coun-
tries like Afghanistan in some
sort of bombing campaign for
another one of our infamous
military “operations” promis-
es to “entertain” us with more
thousands of hours of media
“adventure.” I am not exempt
from this pull as I felt myself
drawn into the information

Sunday, October 7

 fessor-3B_ejel, Chai

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web in order to get a handle
on this trauma. Still, I am
profoundly frightened of this
media monster we have creat-
ed.

And yet we are an open
society which is probably
why we are so vulnerable to
nasty men with knives who
can sneak into our airports
and in one half hour, snuff
out the lives of untold thou-
sands. There is no winning
this war. There is no way we
can stop the media from
reporting these wars. We need
to cling to freedom of speech
as one of our precious rights.

So ifI believe that lashing
out at more poor people in
foreign countries (like the
tens of thousands we killed in
Iraq during “Desert Storm” or
the thousands we massacred
in Vietnam) is not the answer,
what are my suggestions for
resolving these conflicts
short of blacking out the
media. during periods of
national crises and develop-
ing less sensational (infinite-
ly dull) ways of communicat-
ing vital information which
sidestep drama-rama? How
about communicating to our
leaders that it’s OK to admit
we are powerless over terror-
ism and that our country has
become unmanageable? That
only calling upon the poten-
tial of goodness within all of
us can restore us to sanity.
That we need to turn our
knee-jerk desires for retalia-
tion over to the care of those
in our midst who have the

courage to respond non-vio-

lently (like Ghansdi,
Mandela, King). That we do a
fearless and searching moral
inventory of our past mis-
takes, confess them honestly
to each other, find support in
changing these devastating
patterns. That we make
amends to those we have
harmed and spend the rest of
our lives focusing on helping
others so we don’t sink into
greed, self-absorption, self-
pity and rage which will lead
us back to our addiction to
domination. Admittedly, I’m
grasping at straws, but sitting

. here three days after the

attack, I can’t come up with
any damn suggestions other
than the spiritual principles I
try to live by in my own life
which have definitely led to a
modicum of serenity in the
midst of chaos.

Anonymous
VT

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