On this International Day of Prayer, all our hearts go out to the victims of this terribletragedy. This is the time, I believe - three days after the event -- when we can finally begin to move through the emotions of what has happened. It's taken this long because I think that we have had to fully feel this horror, to grok it with the right brain, to be present with the families who lost someone. We have had to imagine what it's like to wander the streets of New York looking for someone who was with us Tuesday morning, and by afternoon, incomprehensibly gone. Certainly, going through this catharsis has been necessary for me.
With this day of prayer, we move from shock to understanding and action. Like Pearl Harbor was for those who were alive to experience it, this attack on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon will forever color our character and experience. We will always remember where we were and how we felt, and like those reacting to the attack on Pearl Harbor in that earlier era, our response and resolve will also be measured and analyzed by all future generations.
The picture of what occurred is beginning to sink in. In perhaps the most coordinated terrorist attack in history, four US airliners were hijacked by terrorists harboring the intent to crash them into targets around the country. Three of them succeeded, destroying both towers of the World Trade Center and part of the Pentagon. The fourth was apparently on its way to another target when the passengers successfully overcame the terrorists, at least long enough to crash it into a field, losing their own lives but saving who knows how many others at the target site.
Contemplating such heroism only adds to the need for right understanding and right action by the rest of us. We owe it to them to be just as heroic, and effective. The World War II generation responded with disgust and commitment at Pearl Harbor, and the next day long lines of volunteers felt motivated to join the Military. Forces were marshaled because deep within, this generation knew that the world must be saved. We are now called upon to respond in much the same way -- though, for us, the mission is more complicated. We must respond in a way consistent with what we now know about the psychology of terrorism, how it arises and what motivates it; and what we can really do to make things better.
Our first mission, voiced already by President Bush, is to find out who our friends are in this effort. But exactly how this is done is important. Terrorism arises out of scapegoating and grievance and then moves to radical action. Usually twisted leaders, such as Osama Bin Laden, use a peoples' feeling of grievance to create a fervor of hatred and then they distort the dictates of religion, in this case - Islam, to create a religious fervor as well, promising martyrdom and rewards in heaven to recruit suicide bombers. The Ku Klux Klan has done much the same thing in the past with Christianity.
Given these facts, the crusade we are entering then becomes one of winning the hearts of more mainstream Moslems. Already hundreds of these leaders across the world have voiced objection to the attack on the USA, and have made it clear that the terrorist idea of martyrdom is in direct conflict with true Islam. Win that support and expand it and we isolate the terrorist, and make the governments who condone them more isolated as well. On the other hand if we bomb indiscriminately, or if we fail as people to separate Islam and Middle- Eastern appearance from our disdain of individual terrorists, then we will lose this support, and more moderates will slip toward hatred and radicalism, and Bin Laden's job is made easier. The problem of terrorism is one of cyclical violence. You kill my father and I will grow up and kill someone of yours. Repetitive revenge as a solution or deterrent only makes things worse. It creates generation after generation of fanatics. And in the end, the only way to stop the cycle is to marshal a large enough consensus on both sides to move toward a just peace.
Key to reaching such a consensus, of course, is to fully utilize what we know about Prayer. If one thinks that prayer is just a way to keep in touch with God and to plead for God's help for our physical actions, then one does not take advantage of the greater power of prayer. One cannot look at the more recent research without beginning to understand that prayer is a great force that can flow out and influence individuals in a positive way -- bringing enemies to the peace table and further isolating terrorists, even lessening their inner hatred and weird rationalizations. But to do this we must not just ask, we must expect, believe, visualize, image, hold with all our might that moderate Moslems will join moderates of all other religions in all countries to force an end to this cycle of terror. Prayer is not just asking for help from God. It is giving help to God, by becoming a channel of this intention.
The silver lining I can find for this tragedy (and we all must find one) is that we might finally reach a state of urgency where we will act fully on what we know, and will move to utilize prayer for the positive force it is. Generations in the future will take this power for granted and they will look back on Tuesday, September 11, 2001 as the day we decided to fully implement the power of prayer on an international scale, or failing that, when we resorted again to merely acts of war. The World War II generation met their historical challenge with all the effort they could muster. I only hope that we will do the same.