9/11 was a wake up call to the United States that we can no longer ignore the plight of our uneducated and poor brothers and sisters throughout the world.

As Butler Shaffer wrote ~ " To begin with, the destruction of the WTC did far more than kill nearly 3,000 people. It also visually symbolized the ongoing collapse of vertically-structured social systems."

It was not a call to arms but instead a call to the heart and commonality ~ for the only way the war on terror can be won is by altruism, social cooperation and a worldwide war on poverty.

Dan Jones, founder of the September 11 families for peaceful tomorrows organization, said ; " We wanted justice, not war. War is no way to get justice. It took a long time for the man who blew up the plane over Lockerbie to come to justice, but it happened in the end. We wanted this pursued as a crime, not to be considered as an act of war. The war in Afghanistan has not brought those who plotted my brother-in-law's murder to justice. And the war in Iraq has certainly not served that purpose either . "

This tragedy was never meant to be used as an excuse to illegally invade and occupy another country and kill over 100,000 innocent civilians under the false banner of freedom and democracy .

As Sy Safransky, The Sun, accurately wrote;" George W Bush leapt upon the tragedy of 9/11 like a vulture on fresh roadkill. "

Now five years later, he's still feasting on the remains .

Let's put 9/11 in the proper perspective of a CALL TO UNITE NOT DIVIDE AND CONQUER .

On September 11, 2001 - 36,000 children worldwide died of hunger.
Where: poor countries
News stories: none
Newspaper articles: none
Military alerts: none
Presidential proclamations: none
Papal messages: none
Messages of solidarity: none
Minutes of silence: none
Homage to the innocent children: none

On September 11, 2001 - With the terrorist attack, collapse of the Trade Towers and 3000 dead ( representing 87 different countries ) ~ the world reached a place of shared grief and COMMONALITY .

Where: Most of humanity lives in poverty and is politically disenfranchised.
Where: Three out of five children receive no education at all.
Where: We are fighting a stateless adversary that has nothing to lose since their common root beginnings are despair and disenfranchisement.
Where: We can only WIN by creating a foreign policy whose aim is altruism , social cooperation and the well being of the destitute and politically disenfranchised.
Where: We can no longer individually, and as a country, go through the motions and be selfish spectators in life - ignoring the plight of others.
Where: We realize that the first step towards self-realization and compassion is commonality.
Where: We can no longer be guided by greed and self serving arrogance.
Where : As the September 11th families for peaceful tomorrows rightfully proclaimed ; " We call for an end to war as our nation's one blunt instrument of foreign policy in our increasingly complex world. We recognize that our freedoms and security derive not from politicians or the Pentagon, but from our Constitution, and call on all Americans to rise in its defense against the triple threats of fear, lies and ignorance . "

Where: 9/11 is seen as a call to unite, not divide and conquer. For one shining moment in time and shared grief five years ago ~ all the world were Americans. A moment that was lost when the Bush administration chose the path of institutionalized revenge by waging an illegal and unjustified war and occupation of Iraq ~ and the world was divided in the process .

We must now remake that fateful decision this November by demanding that Congress represents the true desire of the American people and surrender to our innate urge to unite and the truth of these words by Teilhard de Chardin ~ If there were no real propensity to unite, even at a prodigiously
rudimentary level, indeed, in the molecule itself ~
it would be physically impossible for love to
appear higher up in the ' hominized ' or human
form.

ONLY LOVE HEALS

Allen L Roland