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October 14, 2001 Honoring the Sacrifice By Michael Toms =20 "We must guard against the military industrial complex" --Dwight D. Eisenhower 1960 Farewell Address =20 This morning I pulled up ABC News on-line, that's Australian Broadcasting, = not American Broadcasting, and the lead story was titled, "Afghans Tell of = Attack Horror." The story was based on the reporting of approximately twen= ty foreign journalists who arrived in Afghanistan for the first time since = the American-led air strikes began on Oct. 7th. These journalists saw civi= lian casualties and talked with civilians whose villages had been bombed wi= th estimates of the death toll ranging from 180 to 230 in one village. One= Afghan farmer was quoted as saying, "I lost my four daughters, my son and = my wife in this attack." Of course, the Taliban want to appeal to internat= ional public opinion by allowing previously forbidden foreign journalists i= nto Afghanistan. However, this does not diminish the fact that American bo= mbing is killing innocent civilians. =20 =20 On September 11, 2001 nearly 6000 human beings sacrificed their lives. The= se individuals were from more than eighty countries. This tragedy is not j= ust an American event; it is a world event. Sacrifice is a noble word. It= means to "make sacred." The deaths of more innocent civilians do not hono= r the sacrifice that these people have made. Do not misunderstand me, I su= pport justice being meted out to the criminals who perpetrated this horrifi= c event. The bombing of Afghanistan is not justice. It is vengeance roote= d in anger. As Gandhi and Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. reminded us before, v= iolence begets violence; it is never the answer. When Timothy McVeigh was = found guilty in an American court of law of blowing up the Oklahoma City Fe= deral Office Building, he was eventually executed for his crime. We didn't= execute his family, or his friends, or his community. That was justice wi= thin the American system. This "war on terrorism" is not justice. Despite= our government's attempts to propagandize this war with the assistance of = the major mass media, we are killing innocent civilians. How are they diff= erent from the innocents killed in the World Trade Center and the Pentagon?= At the same time more than six million Afghan civilians are starving and = the situation is being exacerbated, because they can't get UN relief becaus= e of the bombing. =20 =20 I am an American patriot. I love this country. I love this planet. As su= ch, I have a responsibility as a citizen living in a democracy to speak out= and question the decisions that are being made on my behalf by this govern= ment using my tax dollars. The American Revolution arose from dissent and = the desire to escape the tyranny of King George and the British Empire at t= hat time. The Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill = of Rights, are all about the sovereign voice of the people in a democracy. = The Constitution begins with, "We the People of the United States . . ." = The people are the sovereign voice in America. The government works for u= s, not the other way around. We have a right to question and challenge the= decisions of our government leaders. Indeed it is our responsibility to d= o so. With freedom comes responsibility. I encourage you to speak out and= express your voice, however you can; in community, meet with your friends,= neighbors, colleagues, write letters to elected officials, call them on th= e telephone, contact the media and tell them to report the full story of wh= at is happening in Afghanistan. These are perilous times. The tragic even= ts of 9/11/01 have given us an opportunity to recover our bearings, to revi= sit the founding principles of this nation, which were inspired by the Nati= ve peoples of this land. The Iroquois Confederacy and its democratic princ= iples inspired Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Thomas Jefferson and others. = This is a time to recover those principles and create a world that works f= or all. As President Lincoln so eloquently expressed at the dedication of = the Gettysburg national cemetery, ". . . That we here highly resolve that t= hese dead shall not have died in vain-that this nation, under God, shall ha= ve a new birth of freedom--and that government of the people, by the people= , for the people, shall not perish from this earth."=20 =20 Michael Toms CEO, New Dimensions World Broadcasting Network Info@newdimensions.org <mailto:Info@newdimensions.org< www.newdimensions.org <http://www.newdimensions.org/<;
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