• I am saddened too by the prospect of more war, more suffering and bloodshed.
• I am saddened by the bigotry being displayed on our streets by people who believe that all people of Middle Eastern or Asian descent should be beaten to assuage their own rage over the atrocity.
• I'm saddened that people like the Reverend Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson can use this tragedy to promote their own form of narrow-minded hatred.
• I'm saddened because -- in the current climate of outrage and hectoring for vengeance -- my fellow-countrymen will both sacrifice the personal freedoms they once cherished and defended, trading "security" for privacy and also succumb to the type of xenophobia and brutality we once attributed to the enemies of democracy, peace and freedom.

Most importantly, I am saddened because many who feel the same fear and loathing as I do are probably being cowed into not expressing their misgivings for fear of being accused of being unpatriotic or worse -- and that is a chilling prospect. The dragon's teeth are being sown.

Those of us who know history, and it seems there are very few extant in my country these days, are faced with the dilemma of following our conscience and our principles or buckling under to the popular will.

Jefferson saw this, even as he advocated for the "will of the people" and stood against Hamiltonian federalism. But the problem of this dichotomy in the American impulse is even more consequential today.

We need only look at the problem of perception.

What we take for "pride," at this moment of crisis and pain and outrage, could easily (and perhaps justifiably) be taken by those outside of the United States as another example of our own chauvinism. Our cries of vengeance can be taken as self-absorbed and neo-imperialistic arrogance.

The questions are begged:

How many candlelight vigils have we ourselves held for the countless dead of other countries? Are we righteous now ... or merely self-righteous?

And, again, there is the question of our need, our willingness, to go to war.

• For how long?
• Against how many countries?
• To what end, other than retribution? and
• Are we willing to expand it into the third World War?

The Mouthpiece Media, of course, are asking none of these reflective questions as they quote Public Opinion Polls and give us the Talking Head bombast of the Congress (the Congress concerned with the impending 2002 midterm elections.) But we, as citizens, fathers and mothers, have a duty to ask ourselves such questions before being so anxious to sacrifice the lives of young men and women for a sense of "justice."

Terrorism has been in the world for decades, but it has seemingly NOT been important enough to mobilize an "international coalition" until thousands of American lives were lost. What about the British lives, the Israeli lives, the Japanese lives, and on and on?

I would refer you the story of the first Crusade.

If I thought you would listen, I would refer you also to the Jewish War against the Roman Empire in the first century of the Christian era. But that's history, and we were an ahistorical country before Tuesday, 11 September, 2001.

I am amazed at how many people, even here in New Orleans, have asked me about world geography ("What countries border Afghanistan?") and history ("Tell me something, Rod. You're the history buff and world traveler, what was that you mentioned about us supplying the Afghans against the Russians? Why did we do that?") since that Tuesday that changed everything.

Years ago, when my country listed Egypt among its enemies, because of that country's opposition to the state of Israel, I almost lost a close friend and college chum, because of my decision to move to Egypt. I did so on a grant provided as a memorial to Thomas J. Watson, the founder of International Business Machines (IBM.)

Mr. Watson, like myself, believed that the best way to change the world for the better, was to promote internationalism. The foundation his wife established after his death had a mission to send young people like myself out of the United States, out into the world most Americans don't know, to seek knowledge, access, education and connection. I only realize now what a damned good idea that was.

Only 12% of the American people even have passports. 12%.

Even before I left this country, I suspected that we were all wrong -- and did not understand the Egyptian people. I lived in Egypt when Anwar Sadat was President. The same Anwar Sadat who made the historic peace with Israel and changed the landscape of the Arab world. When I left the United States to go to Sadat's Egypt, President Sadat was considered another "Arab Devil," to use the most charitable phrase I heard.

I suspect --- strike that! Having just returned from Eastern Europe, I know that we are wrong again.

Again, we are missing the complexity of the enterprise upon which the drumbeat of war is urging the country to engage. I would be less than a man to say otherwise, despite the tenure of our time provoked by the events of last Tuesday.

The most Luciferian thing we can do, as a people, as a nation, is to presume the prerogative of The Most High to decide on life and death. Each and every time we do that, we move not toward the defence of civilization, but its destruction.

I know you will not all agree with me on this, and many of you will unsubscribe from this magazine. But it's only a magazine, not the Louvre, and the purpose of this enterprise is to speak Truth.

Call me "Jeremiah," if you'd like. But our country needs a Jeremiah right now.

ABOUT THIS ISSUE

To focus entirely on America, and its tragedy, (as many publications in this country have done) would have been a betrayal of our mandate.

I did not use the editorial "we," in this case, because I didn't consult the rest of the G21 staff on this decision. It was mine alone.

There is one simple fact behind this:

The Mouthpiece Media in our country have ALWAYS given Americans news that is skewed toward the American perspective and that ignored the rest of the world. That I could go to the New York Times and ONLY see articles relative to Tuesday seemed DEAD WRONG to me for a journalistic organization and only fed into the jingoism and propaganda.

You might consider that a bad call. You're free to let me know that.

But, I, personally, believe we would not be in this state of shock, mourning, and realization today IF the American media had done a better job of letting us know that we are part of a complex, trying, mournful, global community. That has been the mission of the G21 and it will not change.

In my view, as Editor and Publisher, it is therefore important that you read about Northern Ireland, Africa, the UN conference. BECAUSE THEY ARE ALSO IMPORTANT DEVELOPMENTS.

End of Sermon.

THINGS I LOVE THIS WEEK

Rod was a columnist for the Andover News Network, where he wrote over two hundred articles on web design and development issues. He was also principal writer and Editor for IT Manager's Journal, where he reviewed technology issues weekly, producing 383 editorials. He became the Managing Editor for Electronic Mail/Newsletter Publications at Andover.net at the end of February, 2000, and left in September of the same year. He was a contributing writer for ACCESS magazine, which appears both on- and offline for 10 million readers in 100 newspapers like the San Francisco Chronicle, New York Post, Boston Herald, Austin American-Statesman, Denver Post and Orlando Sentinel, among others. Rod was the US reporter for Silicon.com, a division of Network Multimedia Television in London, UK, reaching 3.5 million European readers, until May, 2001.

Rod lives in New Orleans, Louisiana, right now. The new home of the magazine. But he plans to return to Serbia next year.

He continues to be committed to integrity, chastity and a dose of humility.

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