"We face as a nation the deep, profoundly perturbed and perturbing question of our relationship to others—other cultures, states, histories, experiences, traditions, peoples, and destinies. There is no Archimedean point beyond the question from which to answer it; there is no vantage outside the actuality of relationships among cultures, among unequal imperial and non-imperial powers, among us and others; no one has the epistemological privilege of somehow judging, evaluating, and interpreting the world free from the encumbering interests and engagements of the ongoing relationships themselves. We are, so to speak, of the connections, not outside and beyond them."

—Edward W. Said, Culture and Imperialism (1993)

I can't fully comprehend what happened on Tuesday. I don't understand, and I'm not going to. I feel a tremendous sadness, and I'm frustrated and angry. But I also feel hope. And, as I try to figure out where to go from here—as I decide what I'm going to do with the emotions I've experienced—my hopes have begun to acquire a shape.

I hope that we continue to take care of each other. The compassion I've seen people express has been astounding. People have reached out to each other and responded to each other. Concern and empathy are good things always, but they are especially good right now. The interaction I've seen among LJers alone has been both comforting and inspiring. I think it's important for us to continue to reach out and support one another, to allow for the wide variety of emotional reactions we have all experienced, and to give ourselves room to feel differently and heal differently. This support and appreciation for diversity among ourselves is powerful.

I hope that we each do something to help. We can give blood. We can donate money. If we are in a place where it makes sense to do so, we can volunteer our services. There is a post with some good resources here: http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?itemid=10562015&nc=2.

If you have already taken advantage of these options, or if you cannot, for one reason or another, there are still things you can do: you can organize a vigil, among friends or on a larger scale—this helps, too. You can think carefully about how we will discuss these issues with children. You can tell our government officials how you would like them to respond in the face of this crisis. These sorts of things are important.

I hope that we each cultivate and maintain critical perspective. This is the hardest part, because this is where we decide what do to with our anger and how to channel the pain we are feeling. The media coverage of the events in New York City and Washington is problematic at best. There is a tendency to move to the right in the face of a national crisis. I've heard people saying that we should "nuke 'em all." I've heard people saying that we should change policies to allow for the assassination of suspected terrorists without trials. I've heard people saying that we should deport any people from the Mid-East currently in this country, including those on work or student visas. I've heard people reviling all Palestinians because they saw a horrifying picture of a group of Palestinians celebrating Tuesday's tragedies.

We must remember that there are people in the countries we feel threatened by who are mourning along with us, who are as scared as we are. We must remember that blindly striking out in retaliation would destroy innocents as well as the potentially guilty, and it would not necessarily remove the threat. We must remember that cultures are multifaceted, and that most of those of Middle Eastern descent who live among us are both horrified by Tuesday's events and frightened for their own safety. We must remember that, just as we distance ourselves from those in our own country who perpetuate hate crimes or spout ignorance—"that's not us," we say—many people in Palestine are thinking the same thing about those who celebrated in the streets when they heard that the World Trade Center had been hit.

We might not feel up to the challenge, but I think we are at a point when it is absolutely crucial that we do challenge ourselves, our news sources, and our own assumptions. We probably will not (and should not) understand the hatred and the bloodlust that caused so many deaths on Tuesday. At the same time, we can (and should) try to understand why so many people in other countries resent the United States and its foreign policies—not because we should feel sympathy for murderers, but because the actions of our own government have often been profoundly troubling, and because we are blessed in this country with a voice, with the ability to effect changes in our government's policies. It's difficult work, to be sure, but we have that capability.

Moreover, exercising that capability—our right, our responsibility to express informed dissent and to clamor to make our opinions heard by those making decisions—by no means indicates that we despise our country. On the contrary, taking such action is a decidedly American thing to do. The kind of debate it engenders is the very core of democracy, and believing in that process and appreciating our access to it—even when we do not condone our leaders' foreign policies, even when we question those leaders' own commitment to the democratic process—makes us citizens in the truest sense of the word.

To that end, I would urge you all to seek out alternative sources of news and opinions. I would urge you to compare perspectives. Most of the links I am about to post are left-oriented, because those are some of the sources I have found most helpful when trying to wrap my mind around some of the perspectives lauded in the mainstream media—most recently, George W. Bush's claim that the attacks happened because "we're the brightest beacon for freedom and opportunity in the world." This is a gross oversimplification, though a useful one if we wish to cast this conflict as a straightforward battle between Good and Evil. Reality is, as always, considerably more complex.

Some resources:

Always interesting, it provides information on numerous US involvements in foreign conflicts, some of which I—quite shamefully—had never even heard of before I saw discussions of them in Z Magazine. Very much left biased, but quite powerful.

My first experience with The Nation was when I had to write a paper on propaganda and the Spanish-American War. Unfortunately, my library carried none of the Hearst or other publications that provided such propagandistic points of view, but it did carry The Nation. I was thus forced to change my paper topic to "Moderate Reactions to the Spanish-American War." Editions of The Nation from this period were invaluable, and the publication still reflects its original commitment: "to wage war upon the vices of violence, exaggeration, and misrepresentation by which so much of the political writing of the day is marred."

Formerly hailed as a non-corporate alternative to NPR, the Pacifica Network has been beset by controversy over management and content. I used to make a yearly donation, and I no longer have enough confidence in the network to support them financially. Still, they provide much programming that I find both enlightening and refreshing.

Mother Jones always has interesting content, and they do provide some web exclusives. It is primarily a print publication, so don't expect to rely on it as an online source.

I do not aim to turn you into a Chomsky devotee or to convert you to a darling of the left. I simply hope that we will do the work necessary to provide us with a wider variety of perspectives on the state of our nation, to sift through point and counterpoint in an effort to find out where we ourselves really stand. And I do this because, as Edward Said claimed seven years ago, "We are... of the connections, not outside and beyond them." Let us not forget that we are not only of those connections by default, but that we can shape them if we have the resolve and the energy, and that the attempt to do so is a profoundly optimistic act of faith in the principles upon which our country was built. Peace and healing to you all, and I mean that sincerely.