This September 11, I watched the principle ceremonies on television, as well as the repetitive re-broadcast of the images of the Twin Towers crashing to earth. I also recollected my day 10 years earlier. I was living in a spiritual retreat centre out in the country. I had a loft apartment which looked out at seemingly endless farm land.

The silence was broken by a phone call from a good friend who thought perhaps I needed to turn on the television, an annoying device I had not used in months. I did, and I was instantly and rudely transported into horror. By the time the second tower fell I was on my knees and in tears. There was a hurried lunch date made with another friend, who had to suffer through my agitation and babbling, but the company and kind conversation helped me come down a bit.

On my return to the centre I was told that the members of the large retreat from Africa had been informed of the event and brought up to date. Circumstances had me spend some time with a wonderful woman from Uganda . She was kind, and she too consoled me - to a point. And then she looked at me and said, "I understand that this sort of thing is new to you. But you need to understand that we are not overly affected because we lose 3,000 people to terrorism every month!"

When things are put into a different perspective, and I get to see an event from different eyes, so too does my experience of it. I realized that the reality of much of the world's population had suddenly become my reality here in North America.

I remembered all of that change of mind even clearer when I read: "In the decade since the attacks of 9/11, approximately 100 million children have died as the result of extreme poverty. This, in fact, is the silent and scandalous terrorism of our day. Distracted by other concerns, persons of faith have neglected the cries of these children." This is an excerpt from my 'Voices' selection below.

"It is not as simple as that!" I am told. I am not sure what is simpler than the fact that children die without food and care. And I find the answer even simpler: Feed them, care for them, and love them.

We spent a decade waging wars that are impossible to win. History has proven that fighting a nation on its own soil is impossible to win in the long run. The wars of Europe, the fledgling Americans defeating the mighty British Empire , and Gandhi doing the same (and he without arms). The South Asian wars of the 50's 60's and early 70's. All of them impossible to win because the will of the invaded population always wins out. It appears that our wars of the early 21st century, fought on the home turf of far less wealthy countries, are also going to prove the point.

It is estimated that overall our collective nations of the world spend a total of one trillion U.S. dollars on armaments, army's and other military costs yearly.

The futility of war is as old as our collective scriptures and as fresh as today's news.

The greatest wisdom that I recall seeing come out of a war was the Marshal Plan at the end of the Second World War. The allies, concerned over the allegiance of European Countries (to the east or west) chose to spend huge sums of money to feed and rebuild these countries. They won the collective hearts of the beaten populations with food, compassion and sharing of resources. In doing so they not only won allies, but they also launched a genesis in Europe which saw a phoenix like rise for these broken societies out of the ashes and into productivity and strong social order.

A trillion dollars a year would go a long way to rebuilding many of the damaged places in our world.

One of the perks of living in this western society is that we are allowed to dream. I have grown fond of dreaming that all of the religions of the world will someday collectively realize that it is beholden to them and their members to treat with compassion and love those of this planet who are in need. The very core values of their tenets cries out for this to happen. What a collective effort that would create!

My parent's generation fought a world war. To do so the entire population gave up many luxuries in order to assist the war effort. We, as religious members, could declare a new type of engagement: one waged on the scourges of the earth: war, starvation, poverty, disease, ecological crisis’s and most of all: Self-centred Greed.

We need to learn our lessons from 9/11 as much as we need to mourn those whose lives were stolen that day. And those lessons are not as simple as who the demon is and what the just revenge is. Perhaps we need to re-look at our responsibility to the world; and question our negligence of our responsibilities: to be loving to neighbour and enemy alike, to be good and equal stewards of the earth's resources, and to not give a child a snake when they ask for a fish.

There is a wonderful spiritual statement which says: One of the great transformational experiences is to see a people, a thing or a situation differently.

Enjoy our selections for this Newsletter: There is Love, Compassion and Gentle Strength in the work of Unity!

Peace, Salaam, Pax, Shalom, Namaste

Terry Weller

BUILDING THE INTERFAITH YOUTH MOVEMENT:

BEYOND DIALOGUE TO ACTION

SHOULD ONTARIO JUDGES MIX COURTS WITH RELIGION?

FROM THE PUBLISHER’S CORNER

NORTH AMERICAN INTERFAITH NETWORK

VOICES – A DIFFERENT VIEW OF TERRORISM AND IT'S SOLUTION

BUILDING THE INTERFAITH YOUTH MOVEMENT:

BEYOND DIALOGUE TO ACTION [HARDCOVER]

RESOURCES

SHOULD ONTARIO JUDGES

MIX COURTS WITH RELIGION?