The Sleeping Mammoth is Awakened and the Glass Cage is Broken

We felt sorry for the victims, but we cared more about Leo the Bischon Frise who was a victim of road rage in San Jose. Of course, Leo was important but aren't people's lives also or more important than Leo's? Is it because they live thousands of miles away, so it justifies just to "watch"? The least thing that we can do is think and pray for them, if we aren't capable of doing anything else.

We kept our comforting lifestyle and became more worried -even hysterical-- about a broken nail than bothering to keep a brief moment mentally depicting how the children in Rwanda are trying to survive day by day without clean water and sufficient medication to help them grow up. There are children in other parts of the world who don't wish to become a lawyer or a doctor. Instead, they just want to grow up.

Rather, we wanted to Americanize the world with Coca Cola, Nike, Mohammad Ali, Marilyn Monroe, McDonald's, Universal Studios and Disneyland. To some level, we have accomplished it. We have helped shaping an Americanized world, while at the same time creating more predicaments than we have ever imagined.

As time passes, we all realize that most Americans live in a glass cage, where they can see the outer world without touching it, without feeling it, without having to become a real part in it. They use their own standards in comprehending anything as if there are no other paradigms available. Many of them, however, do sincerely care about the world outside. And their number is increasing exponentially after the recent attacks against America.

Now the mammoth has been awakened and the glass cage is broken. The smoke and dust from the ruins of the WTC Twin Towers and the Pentagon building have filled up the innermost of all Americans and touched them to the very core.

Now we can truly understand how it feels to really experience exploding buildings and terrorist attacks. It goes without saying that now we can feel more than a mere "sorry" and sympathy for those children whose legs were blown away by landmines. Suddenly we deeply understand how painful it must have been and share their intimate terror.

This new feeling bridges the existing unfathomable gap between America and other countries where safety and daily survival is considered a luxury. From this moment on, America has come home to its senses. Its windows of perception

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