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Infinite Justice

© Dorothy Harris

I'm struggling, like everyone else, to find words to bring us forward from the airplane attacks on September 11th. It's difficult to move forward, to go back to normalcy, when nothing is normal anymore. There is nothing normal about being attacked, there is nothing normal about losing almost 8,000 people, there is nothing normal about the change in our economy as a result of the attack, and there is nothing normal about being at the brink of war. Our nation's leaders have declared war on terrorism... Operation Infinite Justice, with a promise, in the title alone, that justice will be finally accomplished, and will last... infinitely, through this war. Our newspapers reminded us this weekend, to believe in war by telling us again, less than two weeks after telling us that 8 in 10 of us agree with Bush's decision, that 9 of 10 Americans support the use of force to defeat the terrorists. If I were polled, I'd be the one person who would vote against the war.

Barbara Lee, a California Senator, who serves on the house committee on international relationships, was the lone no vote to the use of military force. (http://www.house.gov/lee/Floor_Statement... I support Senator Lee's vote and the significant statement that her vote makes to the country, especially to those of us who do not support the use of force to defeat terrorism. I applaud her today for opting to stand up for what she believes, even in the midst of an environment in which we are convinced that we must believe what our nation's leaders have told us about the need to go to war, that she relied on her "moral compass, [her] conscience, and [her] God for direction". Thank you, Senator Lee for your understanding and assertion that Infinite Justice can not be found in mutual violence.

On the 11th of September, many people, even (or shall I say especially) our media journalists, audibly asked why someone would do this to us. But no one really wants to explore the answers. No one really spends time analyzing, for instance, the role our country has played in this attack. None of our media personality reminded me that we have also bombed other countries, killed innocent people and have shouted victory when many of the attacked dug through ruins to find their families and children, to find some semblance of hope, quite the way we are doing now. Eye for an eye is not the answer. Sending troops over to destroy other innocent people is not the answer. Rushing over to make other soils suffer as we are currently suffering (and who have suffered at our hands in the past) is not the answer. I agree with Senator Lee, Military actions will not prevent further acts of international terrorism against the United States.

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