It’s 25 years after 9/11.
As the terrible images of 9/11 flash through our brains, I ask myself how, as a nation, we have responded to that devastating attack on our country.
Soon after it with the message that Muslims are not the enemy; radical terrorists are.
I hoped our nation would lead in bringing peace and cooperation to our world community. Instead, under this current administration, the attitude is: "We live in a world that is governed by strength, by power. ... the iron laws of the world for all ages." Right? Wrong.
From our earliest evolution as human societies, partnership with others, not power over them, is the primordial ingredient of life on Earth.
The dominant rigid hierarchies and patriarchies have risen to power and eventually collapsed, as we witnessed with the rise and fall of Nazi Germany.
War has never been the solution to human conflict, no matter how many times it's been tried.
Yes, we have had to stop by force the violence of others, but our fundamental challenge is to make peace with our fellow citizens of the Earth and with the Earth itself — which we are currently destroying.
JIM O’NEILL
Metairie