A Vision Of Hope
you attack us, you attack a part of yourself! You cannot change us, you can not divide us, for this is our nature and our heritage! We stand together beside that Golden Door, still willing to provide a haven for all peoples! This, THIS is America!"
But when Bet Middler came on and sang her signature song, The Wind Beneath My Wings, I had an amazing awareness. The song was dedicated to the fire fighters, police and rescue workers who continue to labor at the wreckage of the World Trade Center, but I saw a different reality. I realized how difficult it must be for all those poorer nations of the world to reside in our shadow, while we got the glory and they got the strife. I saw how these peoples and nations had lifted us up, while they toiled in abject squalor and disease. I saw how many times we soared, shining like an eagle against the sky, the symbol of our nation, while the third world countries, amidst their poverty and oppression, provided the wind beneath our wings.
How many people are aware that the mathmatics we use to balance our bank accounts was born in Arabia? That many of the religious concepts that we have based our faith on were born in the Middle East? That the practice of medicine was first developed in China and the Middle East? So much of what we base our economy, our religions and our sciences on, came from this part of the world. We owe them much. They have indeed been the wind beneath our wings.
Still, there is a history of war and oppression, of narrow mindedness and the struggle for possession of land that stretches back into prehistory. Because of the inhospitability of much of the land in that area of the world, and because of the nomadic nature of its peoples, a tribal mentality still rules. It is this tribal mentality that lies at the root of their oppression and their warlike attitudes toward other nations. It is this tribal mentality that upholds the customs and the religious beliefs that are so oppressive to its peoples. Customs, such as the surgical altering of women, often in an unsterile environment, so that they cannot experience the pleasures of sexual intercourse. Customs, such as the sanctioned killing of any woman who practices adultery, or is suspected of adultery. Customs, such as Jihad, or the holy war, waged on any tribe or nation that does not uphold their narrow view of life, religion and interpersonal relationships. We can't change these people. We can't force them to adopt our
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