I see that OJ Simpson will soon stand trial for road rage. Not surprisingly, they are having some trouble finding an unbiased jury.
         The 1995 OJ trial was a real circus, and it made headlines for months. But while we watched OJ, Newt Gingrich and company were quietly mowing down targets in their “contract on America,” liquidating gains in social and environmental programs that had been painstakingly achieved over the preceding thirty years.
         The current world crisis can in no way be likened to the lurid OJ fiasco, except in one respect--it sells newspapers. I myself much more often now read the San Francisco Chronicle and the New York Times. And I’m not the only one.
         This is good. I’m getting a lot more educated. Many people are learning deeply and finding the courage to take an honest hard look at our place in the world. Countless news stories and opinion pieces are doing an amazing job in exploring the roots of our current crisis. Our free press is our greatest strength!
         I’m skeptical of polls that say 95% of us think a certain way. That supposed near-unanimity is not reflected in the remarkable diversity of opinion I’ve seen in “letters to the editor.” Individuals with whom I talk always seem to have complex views, reflecting the extreme complexity of the real situation. Try to squeeze those views into a yes-no format of six quick questions, and you get a completely skewed perspective on “what people think.” But those published polls are powerful in actually shaping opinion, because we naturally consider what our neighbors think when developing our own views.
         We’re told that 95% of us “support the President” and are gung-ho behind military force in a “war on terrorism.” But it seems to me that much more than 5% are at least a bit skeptical about whether Tomahawk cruise missiles will be effective against a loose-knit bunch of men spread half across the world--men armed with boxcutters, with cold-blooded ingenuity, and with an eagerness to die for their version of True Belief.
         Along with these polls, I am distressed by manipulative voices who seek to create an emotionally-enforced climate of conformity with a certain view. It saddens me that the concept of patriotism has been partially co-opted by those who advocate military solutions and the worldwide flexing of U.S. muscle. It’s not obvious to me that that approach is truly in the best interest of our nation. It’s frightening to risk being called a “traitor,” but then we live in the Land of the Free, Home of the Brave--and it’s courageous to speak your mind freely in the public discourse through which our nation can develop creative and effective solutions to dangerous problems.
         But back to OJ. He did some serious blocking for Newt Gingrich, who was the real ball carrier in 1995. Necessary as it is, I’m concerned that our intense focus on September 11 and its aftermath may allow some brutal dictators in Africa or Latin America to step up the violence against their own people while we’re looking even less than we usually do. It may allow an accelerated giveaway of taxpayer dollars, as many corporations are lining up right behind the airline companies to feed at the public trough. It may tilt the scales on whether to sign over the Arctic Wildlife Refuge for oil extraction, in an era of decreasing average miles per gallon achieved by new cars sold in the United States.
         The rest of the world’s affairs didn’t stop on September 11, so I’ll try to pay at least a little attention to other news, and I’ll listen for themes like those that recently thundered into our previously insulated world. September 11 didn’t happen in a vacuum, it happened in a context--the whole world and our place within it. That context is what we need to study.
 
 
 

         For other articles on September 11 and its aftermath, please click back to the "articles page" and scroll down to the fall of 2001.