"Why did this have to happen?"
Statement on 9.11 on Return from Durban, South Africa
by Ann Fagan Ginger
Lying in bed early the day after tragic Tuesday, I heard on the radio a weeping woman on a New York subway tell a reporter, "I don't know why this had to happen."
Then George Bush was quoted as saying this was "an attack on our way of life."
I cannot adequately express my grief at the loss of life in the World Trade Center in New York City, in the Pentagon in Virginia, and on the airplanes, and I cannot find any memorable words of comfort.
But I feel the need to acknowledge that everything has sharpened since the terrorist attacks on Tuesday.
And I do think I know why this had to happen.
At the U.N. World Conference Against Racism in Durban, South Africa, I saw fifteen thousand people strongly reject the racism inherent in both of the institutions attacked. They told one story after another of attacks on their way of life and their cultures, attacks by corporate globalization and by U.S. military bases and strategy.
The U.S. buildings that were attacked are symbols of the attitude of the U.S. Government that we are the king of the world The people from 160 countries in Durban made it clear that we are not the largest nation in land mass or in population or in wisdom.
The man in the White House is wrong when he says this was an attack on our way of life. My way of life is not based on the World Trade Center or the Department of Defense. They do not make me more prosperous or safe. My way of life is based on the work that should be done by the U.S. Departments of Education, Health and Human Services, Labor, Interior, State, and Agriculture. It is based on the work of the United Nations General Assembly and the Economic and Social Council and its relations with NonGovernmental Organizations, and on the work of the World Court.
Tragic Tuesday leads me to make a deeper and stronger commitment every day of my life to find more effective ways of working for peace and a decent life for all peoples in the United States and in the rest of the world
This means working right here and now
- to live in peace and dignity and with equality within the United States
- to work for a culture of peace, justice and equality with all peoples in all nations, and with all life forms
- to work much harder to stop U.S. bombing of Iraq and to lift the sanctions against Iraq, and to defend the rights of Arab and Muslim Americans
- to insist that the U.S. not retaliate illegally
- to work to close every U.S. military base on the territory of another country and to replace it with a U.N. peace-keeping force or with a U.S. office of friendship
- to work with every caucus in Congress to stop all spending for nuclear weapons and the Star Wars scheme and to replace them with adequate reparations for the long-term attacks on the culture of people of African descent, and for indigenous peoples
- to work to close down the illegal border patrol activity on the U.S. borders and the heartless and sometimes violent actions of the INS
- to work in my city council, county board of supervisors, and state legislature to get back to the principles of equality in government and emphasis on public education
- to work against U.S. corporations laying off workers in the U.S. in order to hire people somewhere else at lower wages, and then to repeat the process frequently.
As a woman, a mother, a lawyer, a teacher, and a writer, I have no choice now but to seek to save myself, my community and my country from the scourge of war and depression that will be the result of the actions of the institutions that were attacked on Tuesday.
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