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I was sixteen years old, and already a High School graduate. I had just served a six-month enlistment in the Civilian Conservation Corps. The winds of war had reached even the serene peacefulness of the village of Peñasco, New Mexico (USA) where I was born. December 7, 1941 was a day I remember not so much because it became a day of infamy but because I remember exactly what I was doing that day. We had one of the few radios in the village and the neighbors were at my house listening to what was happening. Franklin Delano Roosevelt was President, and to the predominantly Spanish-American population of Northern New Mexico, he was revered only next to God. However, I was just sixteen, and not aware of the meaning of the attack on Pearl Harbor much less the impact it would have on my life. I was more interested in pulling one of my "jokes" on my "friends." George Vasquez observing that a wire went into the ground from our battery operated radio; there was no electricity in Peñasco at the time; asked what the wire was for. I answered that it was "to be able to hear the people from the other side of the world!" Sixty years later, the news of the second day of infamy came to my home as we were having breakfast by way of a telephone call from Lilly Torres, my sister-in-law. She said, "Are you listening to TV? Turn on Channel 4." So, I did and my world will never be the same. Many comparisons have been made between December 7, 1941 and September 11, 2001. To me one came in the spring of my life the other in the full autumn of a life that has taken me from the sereness of the village of Peñasco through numerous wars, two of which I was an active combat participant in; World War II and the Korean War. During those 60 years I have been a (airdale) sailor, a West Point cadet, a combat flyer, a nuclear weapons engineer, a Peace Corps functionary, a do-gooder liberal activist serving on New Mexico State governing Boards, a government executive, a college professor, a science and technology advisor to developing countries, a social critic, and now an author and publisher fiddling with Web site development. I believe I have the broad experience necessary to undertake this extremely complex human phenomena, our appetite for war. The subject of this work has to do with the root causes of the September 11, 2001 disaster from the perspective of the seldom-heard voices of the poor, the young, and the disenfranchised, considered in a systems theory approach. Mostly it relates real life encounters with hate for Americans, by Americans. I attempt to make sense of the why of it all and to offer a set of solutions for its cure. The solution is radical, band-aids will not do the trick. I also summarize what the so-called experts claim are the root causes of the hate that exists world-wide for Americans. On or about 9/12, Peter Jennings, the ABC anchor broached the subject briefly by saying that we must deal with "the systemic root causes," of the catastrophe. Myriam Marquez of the Orlando Sentinel, on the same day, asked "Why do they hate us?" Mark Bowden of the Knight Ridder Newspaper chain wrote that, ". …support of Israel, and our wealth, made the United States the target." Bowden began his story by quoting the late Pablo Escobar, the most violent terrorist of modern times who is supposed to have said, "terrorism is the atom bomb of the poor." Leonard Pitts, Jr, Syndicated columnist, depicted the then current mood in America. He said, "You monster. You beast. You unspeakable bastard. What lesson did you hope to teach us by your cowardly attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed. Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause. Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve. Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together. We are a family. Let me tell you about my people. "We are a vast and quarrelsome family, a family rent by racial, cultural, political and class division. We're frivolous, yes. We're wealthy, too, spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God. Perhaps you think that any or all of this makes us weak. We are not weak. Yes, we're in pain now. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect. Both in terms of the awful scope of its ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and indeed, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before. But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost in the pursuit of justice. Sad, but determined, in days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation, fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment; sobered, chastened, sad, but determined. You see, there is steel beneath this velvet. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish. Still, I keep wondering what it was you hoped to teach us. Maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange: "You don't know my people. You don't know what we're about. You don't know what you just started. But you're about to learn." It certainly was not quite like I remember the first day of infamy. All Americans knew what we had to do then. Even the crippled and the infirm sought to enlist in some way to help in the war effort. Rosie the riveter perhaps became the most famous. On 9-11, as the severity of the attacks began to sink in and the mood of America began to take shape, even I, at age 76 e-mailed my West Point classmates that I was ready to hone my Korean War bombing skills and go to Afghanistan and take Osama bin Laden out! It was not until a month or so later that some critics began to suggest that Americans take a look in the mirror for the answers to those questions. My first hand experiences with hate and with problems of the poor led me to begin that process that very same day. This work reflects what I see in the mirror of my life and experience. It will deal with the failures of the CIA and the FBI stressing how the disenfranchised feel about these two intelligence arms of our government. It will cover, briefly, the overthrow of Salvador Allende in Chile, and Jacobo Arbenz in Guatemala; the assassination of Archbishop Ramirez in El Salvador with emphasis on the role of the CIA in each instance. There will be a chapter on Ruby Ridge, Waco and other perceived failures of the FBI. Two chapters will deal with the alienation of youth; Columbine and all the copycat school incidents that have occurred in our school systems including currently discovered new attempts at outdoing Coumbine. Two chapters will deal with the Bi-modal Workforce and an attempt to define what a job should be. There will be a chapter on Corporate Social Responsibility, citing the Furrs and Enron Chapter 11 abuses by management and stressing how the workers, not only of those companies, but how workers in general feel towards management of Corporate America. General Systems theories will be discussed as they apply in various instances to point out the synergic and symbiotic relationships of the events discussed and as they relate to the 9-11 disaster. 12-7 started out with Tora! Tora! The beginning of the end of 9-11 has started out in Tora Bora. This is not the only similarity; however, this work is not to compare the two events but to offer hope of what society must do to prevent another day of infamy. The solutions that have been proposed to date are mere band-aids. What is required may well require a National Constitutional Convention. Is anyone listening?
UNPUBLISHED MANUSCRIPT ONLY!
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