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From out of the woodwork, and from under every rock

by Eric Jackson

When people have reason to feel attacked, it brings out their best and worst qualities. This principle applies to societies as well as individuals.

Some 6,000 corpses left in the smoking ruins are proof enough that the United States has been attacked. We have seen, and are seeing, America at its best and worst in the aftermath.

Hundreds of the dead were firefighters, cops and emergency medical personnel who died trying to help others. Panama has reason to understand that sort of martyrdom. The names of the fallen on what we now call The Day of the Martyrs are largely unknown, as are the circumstances under which they fell. However, the one whose name is commonly remembered, Ascanio Arosemena, was a high school student on his way to the movies when the shooting started, and he was trying to help a wounded person to safety when he was shot down and became the first to die on January 9, 1964.

Let us always remember the firefighters, those who run into burning buildings from which others have fled in terror. Theirs is the most dangerous of vocations, for which all the rest of us should be grateful. The magnitude of the New York City Fire Department's loss has much to do with the outpouring of recognition for the fallen firefighters, but we should remember that these kinds of sacrifices happen somewhere in the world almost every day. It's why Panama has a statue honoring firefighters killed in the line of duty in Cinco de Mayo Plaza.

Meanwhile, amid the calls for retribution, many kinds of appeals are heard. There are the calls AGAINST retribution, which will surely not carry the day after such a vicious series of attacks. Then there are the calls for retribution against those who are against retribution. Those are unfortunate.

I'm a person who believes that there are times when war is justified, but who also thinks that such times are precisely when there is the most need for a peace movement. In wartime a nation inevitably shows its ugliest face, and those who object are the ones who guard the precious seeds of civilization to replant in the physical and moral rubble that the mass violence of warfare leaves in its wake. It was necessary to devastate Germany and defeat the Nazis, but it was also important for Kurt Vonnegut Jr. to chronicle the insanity of the process in his partly fictional, partly autobiographical "Slaughterhouse Five." It was necessary for Douglas MacArthur to lead the Allied military forces to victory over Japan, but the man's finest hour was when he supervised the feeding of the vanquished and the rebuilding of their country. The caution of those among us who now plead for the lives of the innocent is one of the main things that distinguishes Osama bin Laden's people from those whom they want to destroy.

We are witnessing war hysteria, and all sorts of people are trying to take advantage of it to push their own agendas. David Duke has slithered out from his hole, and is telling anyone who cares to listen that the Jews are responbible. America's seven million or so Muslims are getting lots of obscene or threatening telephone calls.

A number of religious leaders are saying that the attacks on passenger airliners, the World Trade Center and the Pentagon are God's wrath, brought on by the sins of people whom said reverends don't like. The Reverend Jerry Falwell stepped out on such a limb, alleging that God was punishing America for the sins of gays and lesbians, feminists, civil libertarians, et al. It set off a storm of protest, and he apologized.

However, if we read the Old Testament, it is full of references to bad things happening to the Jews because they had offended God. People jilt a jealous God for a golden calf and the whole nation has to wander in the desert for 40 years. Society gets more interested in cheap thrills than religious observance and the Babylonian army lays waste to Jerusalem and carries the Israelites off to slavery. And thus it is not strange that those who believe that every word of the Bible is literally true would exhibit a similar thought process. A terrible catastrophe has befallen America, and the fundamentalists are asking or telling us about the sins that they are certain must have provoked it. We should not rush to lump people who think this way into the same category as David Duke, who runs on pure hatred.

In America, people have the freedom to believe whatever bizarre ideas they wish. It's legal to believe, like Minister Farrakhan does, that Earth used to be one happy black-populated planet until a mad scientist named Yacub invented white people and ruined everything. If people want to worship Reverend Sun Myung Moon as the Third Adam, sent here to purify the bloodlines of a human race tainted by Eve's extramarital relations with the devil, that's their right. If Pat Robertson wants to allege that the United States has been attacked by fanatics because God is displeased about abortion, he should be allowed to say it.

I trust that you will be able to distinguish wisdom from foolishness, and make common cause with well-meaning neighbors despite the weird ideas they may entertain. These are difficult days, which will come to a quicker and happier conclusion if civilized people retain their sense of decency and present a calm and united front against those who have no sense of decency.