Editor's Notes, October 2001

YOU HAVE ALREADY HEARD ENOUGH FROM ME with this issue's lead article "A Crisis Retreat." So I will keep this short. In fact, I will turn it over mostly to other people.

It's good that, at least for the moment, restraint and what appears a deep consideration of consequences seems to be underway in the American government's response to the devastation wreaked on September 11. Why, you turn to political magazines like The Nation and it's heartening to find what sounds almost like Buddhist mindfulness being counseled.

It's rightly said that in the face of the attack, America must be strong. Its military strength is beyond doubt, but strength consists of more than firepower. The strength now needed is the discipline of restraint. Restraint does not mean inaction; it means patience, discrimination, action in concert with other nations, resolve over the long haul.

We live, as we have since 1945, in an age of weapons of mass destruction -- nuclear, chemical, and biological, During the cold war there was one ladder of escalation that led to oblivion. Now there are many. Now as then, escalation is "unthinkable." It must be avoided at all costs.

OF COURSE, IN OTHER QUARTERS of the land the crowd is baying for blood. In a local drug store, I spotted a tabloid newspaper last night with the now familiar hangdog face of Osama bin Laden in full color: "Wanted: Dead or Alive," said the headline. The word "Alive" was crossed out.

The commentary has been dizzying. Over on the right -- the far right -- you have people like former joke writer Norman Liebmann not joking at all when he suggests no less than a nuclear strike if that's what it takes to punish the malefactors, and damn the consequences, Dr. Strangelove!

Yeah, that'll feel good. Turn the sands of Afghanistan into a plain of fused glass. Trap those bugs in amber!

On the left, you have the usual cacophony of voices laying a proportion of the responsibility for the attacks in America's lap-- it depends on the thoughtfulness of the commentator how much -- because of this country's often sorry colonial, imperial misbehavior on behalf of its oil supplies in mostly Muslim lands. Then there's that other hot button -- America's too often unqualified support of Israel and the blind eye turned to the fate of the Palestinian people.

To get a clearer picture of the passion and the politics, American readers should peek over the shoulder of their own near-sighted media outlets. (Did you notice during the reporting after the crisis broke how few foreign service reporters in Afghanistan, Pakistan and elsewhere were from American networks? Cutbacks, you know.)

A good place to keep track of alternative commentary with an Islamic tilt, is to read columnists posted on the weekly version of the Cairo newspaper Al-Ahram And check out the "Letters" sections where pissed-off Americans have been firing back at the commentary. These are some of the fault lines. How do we build bridges across them?

We need to step back from the imaginary thresholds that supposedly separate people from each other into supposedly clashing civilisations and re-examine the labels, reconsider the limited resources available, decide somehow to share our fates with each other as in fact cultures mostly have done, despite the bellicose cries and creeds.

"Islam" and "the West" are simply inadequate as banners to follow blindly. Some will run behind them, of course, but for future generations to condemn themselves to prolonged war and suffering without so much as a critical pause, without looking at interdependent histories of injustice and oppression, without trying for common emancipation and mutual enlightenment seems far more willful than necessary.

Demonisation of the Other is not a sufficient basis for any kind of decent politics -- certainly not now, when the roots of terror in injustice and misery can be addressed and the terrorists themselves easily isolated, deterred or otherwise put out of business. It takes patience and education, but is more worth the investment than still greater levels of large-scale violence and suffering.

The immediate prospects are for destruction and suffering on a very large scale, with US policymakers milking the apprehensions and anxieties of their constituencies with cynical assurance that few will attempt a counter- campaign against the inflamed patriotism and belligerent war-mongering that has for a time postponed reflection, understanding, even common sense.

Nevertheless, those of us with a possibility for reaching people who are willing to listen -- and there are many such people, in the US, Europe, and the Middle East, at least -- must try to do so as rationally and as patiently as possible

LISTENING AND TEACHING PEOPLE how to listen is one of the major skills of Thich Nhat Hanh, one of the world's great spiritual teachers. If you read one thing this week in the continuing avalanche of news about the crisis, read the Q-and-A with the Vietnamese Buddhist monk posted on Beliefnet.com, with the provocative title: "What I Would Say to Osama bin Laden."

For the American people, I would suggest that we do everything we can to restore our calm and our lucidity before responding to the situation. To respond too quickly before we have much understanding of the situation may be very dangerous.

The first thing we can do is to cool the flames of anger and hatred that are so strong in us. As mentioned before, it is crucial to look at the way we feed the hatred and violence within us and to take immediate steps to cut off the nourishment for our hatred and violence. When we react out of fear and hatred, we do not yet have a deep understanding of the situation. Our action will only be a very quick and superficial way of responding to the situation and not much true benefit and healing will occur.

Yet if we wait and follow the process of calming our anger, looking deeply into the situation, and listening with great will to understand the roots of suffering that are the cause of the violent actions, only then will we have sufficient insight to respond in such a way that healing and reconciliation can be realized for everyone involved.

The ball is truly in our court, where -- from a Buddhist perspective -- it has always been. The terrorists have done their handiwork. Ours remains.

The peaceful planes turned terrorist missiles that brought down the World Trade Center were... designed to undermine our spirit, unhinge our reason, and fog our vision. Whether they will have prove to have succeeded or failed is beyond the power of the terrorists to decide. It is entirely up to us.

PREVIOUSLY:

EDITOR'S NOTES, September 2001: "Are we going to have World War III?" my son asks. "No, we're not," I say as he goes off to play hide-and-seek and I go off to see whether I just told a fib.