Past
What the Greek Thucydides recorded about the Athenians in 429 B.C. could be said of Americans today.

“We throw open our city to the world, and never by alien acts exclude foreigners from any opportunity of learning or observing, although the eyes of an enemy may occasionally profit by our liberality; trusting less in system and policy than in the native spirit of our citizens.

“We cultivate refinement without extravagance. Wealth we employ more for use than for show, and place the real disgrace of poverty not in owning to the fact but in declining the struggle against it. Our ordinary citizens, though occupied with the pursuits of industry, are still fair judges of public matters.

Instead of looking on discussion as stumbling blocks in the way of action, we think it an indispensable preliminary to any action.

“In generosity we are equally singular, acquiring our friends by conferring, not by requiring. It is only the Athenians, who fearless of the consequences, confer their benefits not from calculations of expediency, but in the confidence of liberality.”

We can clearly see our country in the history of the Athenians. For today the United States is the most open society, with the most informed citizens, unequaled in generosity, and has demonstrated fearlessness time after time.

If we see the parallel between the Athenian and the American, then perhaps we can learn from what happened to them.

The Spartans struck horrors into the homeland of the Athenians. The Spartan invasions were mercilessly aimed not at the soldiers but at killing the country people and destroying their farms. The Athenians, after years of this warring, became as brutal, ruthless and oppressive as the Spartans, so that historians have said the Athenians won the war but lost their soul.

Present
Without question, we must bring to justice those responsible for the more than 5,000 souls lost on Sept. 11, 2001.

We must be as responsible as a physician treating a cancer patient. First, a doctor must do no harm. To treat too timidly invites the spread of the cancer and death.

Treating too radically can also cause the patient’s death. Somewhere in the middle lies the best course.

Our political leaders must wage the war against terrorism with the same responsibility, in order to achieve the justice our nation demands. The nation need not exercise any restraint nor show one ounce of mercy in dealing with the guilty. At the same time we seek this justice, we must recall that one of the great strengths of this nation is its diversity, which we have celebrated for over 200 years.

We must not fail to also embrace the diversity of the world as we wage a war against terrorism. The world, which has shared our time of sorrow, now seems poised to unite with us against the brutal violence of terrorism.

As I watched those towers crumble to the ground time after time after time, the same feeling flooded my mind: rage for the terrorist, horror for the innocent and pride for the many men and women who raced to the aid of others and to their own deaths.

The threat is real and does not end with those few suicidal terrorists. There will surely be more to follow. What can be done to break the cycle? There are many areas to consider, one of which is starvation, the terrorists’ recruiting ground. There must be a war against starvation. Not to, in any way, minimize the death of those 5,000 souls, but there are thousands of other lives lost to starvation every day.

So, I offer my simplistic solution. Wage war against the terrorists with our might, wage war against intolerance with our tolerance, and wage war against starvation with our generosity.

Future
For one brief moment, peace seemed to sparkle in our time.

The missiles had rusted in the ground for so long that many felt the great powers would never unleash them. Then, a few madmen made missiles of themselves. There was a call for an eye for an eye, blood for blood, and we had war ... all over again.

God knew that it had started all over again ... the suffering ... the long slide into the twilight’s last gleaming.

Starvation was a plague upon the world.

The flies had come to minister to the small child’s running sores and drink from his eyes. His mother weakly rocked him, bathed his skin with her tears and, at last, placed him on the ground, brushed the flies away and closed his eyes forever.

She rocked back and forth on her knees and cried as she felt the new life within her move. She cried because it was starting ... all over again. She cried because it seemed as if it would never end, or that it might. She cried because her child had not mattered and because she didn’t matter ... except to the flies.
God saw her halo of flies ... knew her every sorrow ... felt her every tear and infinitely more ... all over again.

There were a few sweet people who saw and cared. They tried to bring the promise of hope and food but often, too late ... all over again ... mother and child starved to death waiting for the promise.

The social order broke apart under the burden. Hearts turned cold. There was intolerance of another’s class, race, religion and nation.

The wisdom of cold revenge unleashed the violence of the silently rusting arsenals. The power of Pandora began ... all over again. It was as if all the meteor showers that ever passed the world had come back ... all over again.

At the twilight’s last gleaming, when all the missiles had flown and the last mother suckled the last child, God cried.

God wiped his eyes and began ... all over again. This time, He would call it Eden.

(Steve Torda lives in Waynesville.)

 

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