A new America - or is it?

A new America - or is it?

October 25, 2001

Straight Talk
By Muriel Sluyter

Greetings, Gentle Readers,

The events of Sept. 11 have created fundamental changes in American society, especially in New York City. One rescuer said: "We New Yorker have an attitude, but not anymore. We are all working together now. It doesn’t matter who is working be-side us; we are one. The things that divide us are in the past. They all changed on Tuesday, Sept. 11."

Many Americans, especially Easterners, came to realize that their job, house or apartment and daily routine were dependent on a static society that had disappeared in a matter of hours. They have been based on the all-encompassing security we Americans have enjoyed since W.W.II, and when that disappeared, it took everything with it. Or, did it?

Some families have been devastated by the death of a parent, but the essential structure of America itself is still intact. Our children are not starving in our streets. Our homes haven’t been invaded by soldiers

Parents haven’t been shot or stoned to death by vicious men, leaving unprotected children to be preyed upon by a brutal gang of criminals.

These things are happening in Afghanistan; they are not happening in America. Though our reality has changed, the basic goodness of Americans has not. Jewish women make a point of escorting Arab women, in traditional garb, to the supermarket, to ensure their safety. That is totally American. Americans have given vast sums of money to the families of the victims of the attacks. That is typically American.

Most of that money has not been distributed, because our people began donating it before adequate structures were in place to give it to those in need. That too is American. Our hearts inevitably shower our bounties on the less fortunate before our heads become engaged. Why? Because we are Americans; we are impetuous, and sometimes we do things backwards. May I humbly suggest that it is not a fault? We will catch up; we always do.

Some near-Eastern governments are trying to stop the burgeoning Islamists who attacked America because they are a direct threat to the existence of those governments. Remember, these militants overthrew the Shah of Iran and they assassinated Egypt’s Anwar Sadat.

Their leader, bin Laden, is cagey. He has successfully inflamed the youth of Islamic countries to support his vendetta against Western countries in general, and the U.S. in particular. In Malaysia, teenage boys buy shirts with bin Laden’s face on them, all while chanting that they live for jihad. Unfortunately, 75 to 80 percent of the population in most of those countries is less than 25 years of age. Equally unfortunate, that age group is the easiest to indoctrinate.

He tells them they are desperately poor because their governments have abandoned "pure Islam," as Muhammad gave it to them, and they will continue to be destitute until they re-establish it. He tells them that America is the cause of their problems, that we are the great Satan. They are too young and uneducated to see through his subterfuge. They don’t know they could change the very face of their homelands, if they would engage in the hard labor that builds countries, rather than war, which destroys them.

All the while, American children are well fed, clothed, housed and educated. They do not live in the rubble that first the Soviets, then the Taliban have made of Afghanistan.

We are at war, but we are a well-blessed people. Let us be grateful to Him who is the cause.