September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows was launched on February 14, 2002, and today includes more than 50 family members directly affected by the events of September 11, 2001, as well as 2,000 supporters. Its mission is to seek effective non-violent solutions to terrorism, and to acknowledge the shared experience of September 11 families with all people similarly affected by violence throughout the world. By conscientiously exploring peaceful options in their search for justice, the group’s members work to break the endless cycle of violence and retaliation engendered by war. In doing so, they hope to create a safer world for themselves and for their children.
NEW YORK CITY,
February 12: Returning from six days of making people-to-people contacts at schools, hospitals and universities in Baghdad and Basra, Iraq, family members of September 11 victims challenged world leaders to "use some imagination" to find alternatives to military action in that nation. The four-member delegation represents September 11 Families for Peaceful Tomorrows, an advocacy group seeking effective, non-violent alternatives to war and terrorism.
"During our trip, I met a lot of people who want their country healthy again, and their children happy," said Kat Tinley, whose uncle, Mike Tinley, perished at the World Trade Center on September 11, 2001. "Like much of the world, the people of Iraq have known violence entirely too long, and they long for peace."
"We talked with the teachers of a primary school who described the hopes they have for their students," added Terry Rockefeller, who lost her sister, Laura Rockefeller, at the twin towers. "We found a striking commonality in our grief for lost loved ones and our dreams for our children."
The delegation also visited the Amariyah bomb shelter and met relatives of the hundreds of civilians who died after a US missile struck the shelter on February 14, 1991.
"The personal connections we made with the people of Iraq have been very deep and meaningful," said Kristina Olsen, whose sister, Laurie Neira, was aboard Flight 11 on September 11, 2001. "Meeting with sick children and families who have lost loved ones has underscored the importance of the human bond that we share in our mutual suffering."
Colleen Kelly, who lost her brother, Bill Kelly Jr., at the World Trade Center, added, "In Iraq, we have begun to realise our hope of connecting a human face and story to the people of Iraq. This has only deepened our resolve to petition the governments of this world to explore every viable, peaceful alternative to the crisis here, using creative and perhaps non-conventional diplomacy."
In a press conference at the UN Church Center in New York City, the delegation also recognised that January 15 was the birthday of Rev. Martin Luther King Jr., whose 1967 declaration that "wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows" provided the inspiration for the group’s name.
(www.peacefultomorrows.org/)
A Grieving Father’s Hope for Peace
JOHN TITUS
I write this letter with sadness in my heart and with a hope that we the people of the United States of America can overcome our differences, put aside our political biases, and open our hearts and minds to greater understanding and compassion. We are standing at the precipice of a war that looms like a dark shadow in the distance and my soul cries out.
Much controversy has resulted as our nation’s leaders move forward with preparation for war. Families, friends, the citizens of our country and the world are divided on the rightness or wrongness of such action. Each of us must search our hearts and souls and come to our own conclusions. I pray for enlightenment for each of us and especially for the leaders of the world as we move forward.
My message is borne of grief but with a clarity that comes from deep soul searching and meditation. When death strikes the heart our view of the world changes profoundly. Clarity finds its way to those who seek truth and understanding born from love.
My daughter, Alicia Titus was murdered by terrorists on September 11, 2001. She was a wizened young woman who lived life with grace, beauty, and compassion. Her whole life was dedicated to loving others, embracing differences, seeking truth and doing acts of goodness. Her joy was a gift she gave freely to all. She was able to see through the outer façade that so many of us maintain to protect our gentle souls. And she communicated at a deep level, beyond the trivial, beyond the mundane, to a level of love and understanding.
She travelled the world with the goal of experiencing all that life had to offer and to meet people from all walks of life. She embraced the sanctity of life. The people of the world were her family. It is a sad irony that she would die so violently at the hands of hate-filled zealots, diametrically opposed to all she stood for and believed in.
My message comes from deep within my soul, a place that feels the connection with all of life, that place where the Divine resides in each of us. The dark forces that took Alicia’s life self-righteously believed that they were fighting evil, ridding the world of the infidels who opposed their core beliefs. They struck at the heart and soul of America and over 3,000 innocent people died. Now we stand ready to use our advanced technology and risk our sons and daughters to fight those whom we believe to be infidels, those who oppose our ideologies and beliefs.
There is no doubt that Saddam Hussein is a corrupt, self- centred, egotistic and "evil" person. But, can we justify in our hearts and souls, the killing of hundreds of thousands of innocent people to try and get one man? And, like Osama bin Laden, he may elude our efforts and taunt us as the innocent dead lie in the Iraqi streets. Estimates range from 500,000 to 1,000,000 people who will directly or indirectly die as a result of our bombing. Sixty per cent of these are children under the age of 15 whose greatest sin is being born. Please, do not write these human lives off as "collateral damage". This is very dehumanising, extremely callous and it goes against all that is right and good.
We have a choice whether or not to move forward with this war. Unlike the message you have been repeatedly given, this is a war on the Iraqi people, not a war on terrorism. If we systematically kill the citizens of Iraq out of our own sense of self-righteousness and fear, we reduce ourselves to the level of those that we deem as terrorists. Look deep within your soul and seek the truth that longs for expression. There has to be a better way of resolving this conflict other than committing more senseless killing. It is my hope that we can learn from the terrible tragedy of September 11, 2001, without perpetuating a world in which violence and unjust killing are accepted as a solution to conflict. This is how our primitive ancestors resolved differences.
Surely, we have grown in love and understanding beyond that. My prayer is that God will be with our world leaders, our troops who would sacrifice their lives for us and to the children of Iraq whose cries will ring out in agony and resound in the soul of America.
(March 2003).
(http://www.peacefultomorrows.org/voices/jt_030903.html)
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‘I’m not going to respond to terrorism by becoming a terrorist’
If you had lost a loved one, would you want revenge? As the world edges closer to war, RACHEL SHABI talks to relatives who believe retaliation is wrong.
RITA LASAR, 71
New York, USA
My brother Abe (Zelmanowitz, 55) worked in the north tower of the World Trade Center, on the 27th floor. He could have got out, but his colleague, Ed, a quadriplegic, was trapped with him. My other brother and sister-in-law called him, begging him to leave, but he said he would wait for help to get Ed out. But help came too late.
Then Bush made his speech at the National Cathedral (September 14, 2001). He mentioned my brother’s heroic act, and it became immediately apparent to me that my country was going to use my brother’s death to justify attacks in Afghanistan. That was as horrendous a blow to me as the actual attacks on September 11. I hoped and prayed that this country would not unleash forces in my brother’s name. When it (the bombing of Afghanistan) happened, I was horrified and devastated. I felt so impotent.
Then I got a call from Global Exchange (a human rights organisation), asking me if I’d like to go to Afghanistan. What I saw there changed my life forever. I had been a very privileged, blessed American who had only ever seen war on TV. And then I went to Afghanistan and saw the devastation and horror of what happens to innocent people when bombs fall — anyone’s bombs, anywhere in the world. That my brother’s name had been used to justify attacks on the people I met, became family with, cried and grieved with, brought it to a point where it was emotional and real. I found nothing but understanding, warmth, hugs — they knew all about 9/11 and they grieved for us and apologised to us. Every American should go there — because, if they did, they would stop the plans for war on Iraq immediately.
I did not pay any attention to who was to blame for 9/11 — there was no place left in my mind and heart other than the grief about my brother and the people who were going to be killed in his name. I didn’t feel anger. I didn’t want any other sister or mother to feel this way. It was only later that I began to think about how to bring the perpetrators to justice. I knew that bombing was not the answer. We are no safer now than when we started bombing. We are going to war with a country that had no connection to 9/11, our privacy and our freedom in this country are being slowly whittled away, and Muslims are afraid to go out in the street — in a city that used to welcome everybody.
Revenge for 9/11 is the excuse they are using to bomb Iraq. There are people in Iraq who are alive today and who will be dead next month if we have a war — and my country will say that they have done that to avenge my brother’s death. I will not let my brother, my dear brother’s death, be hypocritically used in this war — the fact that his death is being used cynically hurts me so much, I can’t tell you. Imagine someone who you loved, who died violently, being used insincerely and untruthfully in a political campaign. It is an exploitation.
So I have no intention of touching the subject of revenge. If people ask me why I don’t want retribution, I say that it is the natural human reaction to not seek retribution — or it should be. It cannot accomplish anything. My brother is dead. I privately mourn for him every moment. But I am not looking to atone for his death. I’m looking to prevent the death of others. I don’t want to see other people die to amend a ghastly, unbelievable death. The world is larger than just me. Things don’t have to be done to make up for things that have happened to me. Things have to be done to make things better in the world. I draw from my love of human beings that everyone is the same as I am. That it is possible — not in a dream, but some day — for this to be a peaceful planet. I’ll fight to the day I die against this war on terror. I don’t want my granddaughter to be sitting here at my age, facing the same world that I’m facing now: a world of starvation, war and inequity. Surely we can do better than this.
DAVID POTORTI, 46
North Carolina, USA
His name was Jim Potorti – he was my eldest brother,53. Jim worked on the 95th floor of the north tower, almost directly where the plane hit.
I was surprised at my reaction at the time, which was that I didn’t have a lot of anger in the way that others did. I felt sadness more than anger, because I recognised that these terrible acts were desperate acts reflecting a desperate feeling.
All the radio and TV stations were saying we should kill the people responsible for 9/11, just go and bomb people — and it made me sick in the heart to hear that. I had just lost someone and they were saying we should do the same to others. I never remember being angry at the people who did it, because it was such a political act. It wasn’t like a drunk driver hitting my brother, where I would have been really angry.
I remember being angry that the bombing of Afghanistan was being carried out in my name. Yes, anger is the only word, because I think of what a nice person my brother was, how much he loved his family. I felt we were really dishonouring his memory by throwing our constitution out of the window, that if we really wanted to honour him we should hold on to our principles instead of throwing them all away. I don’t think my brother died for my country, but I hope that my country doesn’t die for him, by rejecting its values and principles.
The goal is always justice, but how you achieve justice is the question. We have all wanted to bring the people responsible for 9/11 to justice. And so another source of anger is that we are not doing that, we are not locating Osama bin Laden or the Al Quaeda network — in fact, we are making it harder to find them. It’s the exact opposite of what we should be doing. Justice for me would be a more equitable world, where people did not live in such misery that they had to hate each other. A world in which the US contributes to a sense of equality, rather than making it worse.
So the rage I felt after 9/11 was rage at the whole system, that people could be so desperate that they would do something like this. The people who flew the planes into the building are dead: what more can you do to them? But this kind of terrorism is like a cancer. The only way you stop it is to stop the cycle, by saying, "I’m not going to respond to terrorism by becoming a terrorist." If you do respond with violence, you are just promoting more and more terrorism.
I don’t make any connection between Iraq and 9/11, because I’ve never seen any. I would only justify an attack on Iraq if the Iraqi army attacked the continental US. Not a terrorist attack, but the official Iraqi army. I got a vicious e-mail today in which someone claimed that Saddam killed my brother. How do you respond to someone who’s so out of touch with reality? My brother’s death was a nightmare, and I feel like it just gets worse every time it’s used to justify more terror and more pain. I just want this to be over. I just want people to stop being so angry. I want people to stop dying.
No one has ever asked me how I feel about anything. That’s where the feeling of violation comes in — speaking for me, instead of asking me how I feel. We had a baby about a month ago, and I’m realising that she will never know my brother. How could I possibly wish that kind of loss on anyone else’s brother, or daughter, or parents?
The thing to atone my brother’s death would be for there to be more honesty in the world, for America to start being more honest about the repercussions of its world policy. Over the past year, I have really educated myself about foreign policy – I wanted to know why this happened. What I wish now is that people in the US would do the same. I want people to just shut their mouths and read – stop talking until they know something. We all have to do that, including me.
(Excerpted from a report in The Guardian, UK, Saturday February 22, 2003).
Archived from Communalism Combat, March 2003 Year 9 No. 85, Cover Story 2