PSYCHICBABBLE^SM

     Introduction

     Greetings loyal readers! This month's column will be devoted to the tragic destruction of the World Trade Center in Manhattan. Since I live a quarter of a mile from what is now being referred to as Ground Zero, and since I was fortunate enough not to have been evacuated from my home, I feel compelled to report my experience. In addition, the local authorities are encouraging New Yorkers to talk about their feelings regarding the disaster, so I will devote space to that subject as well. As I write, I realize that I am still in shock and will probably continue to be so for many weeks - if not months -- to come.

     Personal Chronology

     I came close be being present on the scene when the buildings came down. There was a primary election in New York on September 11th. My polling place - now inaccessible due to its location within what is now a crime scene - was in the lobby of a high school just one block south of the World Trade Center (WTC). I had voted two hours before the destruction took place. My partner Bryan had been planning to leave my apartment at 8:30 am to go to the WTC to catch the PATH train to his apartment in Jersey City. The only reason he did not leave then was because he decided to check his e-mail. Information addiction saved his life - God bless e-mail! I rushed into the living room at 8:50 after hearing about the first plane crash on the radio and told Bryan the Trade Center was on fire.

     Because there are many large buildings between my apartment and the WTC, we did not hear the first explosion. However, we did hear the second explosion. It was an indescribable experience to be watching the buildings collapse in real time on television while feeling the ground shake with each impact. After the first tower collapsed we looked out the window and saw smoke and papers flying in the air. After the second building fell the neighborhood got so dark with smoke and ash that we could not see across the street. We remained inside with the windows closed.

     For the first few days our neighborhood looked as if a volcano had erupted. There was a thick coating of dust and ash everywhere. The next day the City sent sanitation trucks into the area to spread water on the streets to keep the ash down. After a few days it rained. This helped clean things up somewhat, but it also impeded the rescue effort as the rain added weight to all the rubble.

     On Wednesday morning (September 12th) Bryan and I went to his apartment in Jersey City. Mostly we wanted to get more news, because our cable television went out around 6:30 p.m. on Tuesday when 7 World Trade Center collapsed. We also wanted to buy dust masks, since Manhattan was completely sold out of them. As there was no public transportation in our neighborhood, we had to walk over to Christopher and Hudson Streets on the West Side of lower Manhattan in order to get a different PATH train line to New Jersey.

     First we stopped in at the Marine Church Institute in the South Street Seaport. We spoke with some people who had spent the night there after being evacuated from their homes west of the WTC. (My apartment is located to the east and never lost electricity, which is why we were allowed to stay.) We were told that the rubble of what once was the WTC was eight (8) stories high.

     We continued on through the nearly empty streets of Chinatown. A few coffee shops and bakeries were open, but Chinatown was practically deserted compared to the bustling center it usually is on a Wednesday morning. As we walked west on Canal Street, we were struck by how much of a ghost town it seemed. Normally Chinatown is overflowing with vehicular traffic and the sidewalks are normally so packed with pedestrian traffic one can barely walk. It was eerie to see so few people and no traffic other than official vehicles. There were police barricades on every street on the south side of Canal. We later found out that the entire city was sealed off below 14th Street to everyone other than rescue personnel and neighborhood residents.

     As we came by the corner of Church Street and Canal, there were several people sitting on a stoop looking despondent. They were staring south down Church Street at the wreckage of what used to be the WTC. We could see giant steel pieces of what used to be building infrastructure sticking up like an abstract sculpture. We continued to trudge west on Canal Street and made our way through the West Village. It was surreal to see so many businesses closed and no civilian vehicular traffic on what are normally very busy streets.

     All the authorities were recommending that New Yorkers try to live their lives as normally as possible. Since Wednesday is Bryan's day off and he usually plays tennis with his friends in Jersey City, he called his tennis buddies. The Jersey City courts where they usually play were closed for construction, so Bryan and his friends decided to play in a park in nearby Bayonne. I tagged along for the ride. Bayonne is south of Jersey City and directly west from the burning wreckage of what used to be the WTC. The wind was blowing westerly that day. The air was so acrid that I donned my swimming goggles and a silk scarf over my mouth (we had not yet bought masks). The air quality was worse in Bayonne than it had been in the West Village of New York City!

     We spent Wednesday night in New Jersey watching the news and calling our neighbors to find out what was happening in the neighborhood. We came back on Thursday morning (September 13th). Since there was no public transportation to our neighborhood until Sunday, we had to walk back the way we had come the day before. There were police, army, marines and National Guard personnel everywhere. We had to pass through checkpoints every few blocks and show identification in order to get back to my apartment. The place looked more like Macedonia than lower Manhattan. I showed my driver's license. Bryan showed his passport and his merchant marine card. (Because he worked on cruise ships for seven years, Bryan has a card indicating lifetime membership in the merchant marine.) The authorities were far more impressed by his merchant marine card than his passport, and did not demand proof of local residence - they just let him through.

     Thursday night we cooked dinner for some of our neighbors and had a little party. We found out later that this was exactly what the authorities were recommending. People were discussing their discomfort with being disrupted from their daily routines. We had neither newspaper nor mail delivery (not to mention food delivery, a quintessential New York experience!) Our neighbor Joan Bowker, who is in her 70s, decided to bake a cake, since "that is what normal moms do." Her eldest son Andrew laughingly pointed out to her that she hasn't baked a cake in 25 years. When Bryan knocked on Joan's door to invite her to our little party, she was thrilled to be able to bring the cake she had baked. It was highly delicious on its own merit, in addition to its symbolism.

     Air Hazard

     For the first two days we felt like we were breathing glass - which we probably were, along with asbestos, fiberglass, PCBs from burning computers and heaven knows what else. It has been reported that there were toxic substances in much of the furniture in the damaged and destroyed buildings. When are we going to wake up and realize that we have to stop putting toxic substances into our environment, especially building materials and utilitarian objects? Furthermore, it is a very sobering thought to realize that we are smelling and breathing the ashes of people who perished in the fire. Our Indian friend Rajiv, who manages the delicatessen next door, instantly recognized the smell of incinerated human bones and flesh. "You people in this country don't know this smell," he said. "But in my country we do - this is the smell of cremated people."

     The New York Fire Department estimates that the smoke will continue smoldering for six to eight more weeks. Some days the air is more breathable, depending upon the wind. Whenever a pocket is opened in the wreckage, new fires flare up as oxygen hits the smoldering mass. Some days the smoke is worse than other days. During the first two weeks, people in the neighborhood laughed at me as I sometimes walked around with my swimming goggles. I just told them it's the newest look among the downtown crowd.

     Even though things are somewhat more normal since the downtown area east of Broadway opened for business on Monday September 17, the heavy police (both state and local), army, marines and National Guard presence is still extremely spooky. And we still have to present identification after business hours at certain police checkpoints. Since our insane presidential pretender began bombing on October 7, our fascist mayor has ordered even more police on the streets. When will our leaders learn (as Israel and Ireland already have) that creating a police state will not stop terrorism?

     Amazing Stories

     We have been hearing the most amazing stories of the courage, bravery and valor of ordinary New Yorkers during this entire experience. There is the story of the two strangers who carried a disabled woman in her wheelchair down 68 flights of stairs to safety. There is the story of the man who willingly died in order to stay with his wheelchair-bound friend, instead of saving himself. There is the story of the Muslim man who escaped from the WTC and had run five blocks north when he decided to look back at the wreckage. In doing so, he fell and was lying on the ground. He wore a charm around his neck that held a prayer for health and safety written in Arabic. Suddenly he looked up to see a Hasidic man holding his charm and reading the inscription out loud in Arabic. Then the Hasidic man extended his hand and said, "Brother, take my hand. There's a rain of glass coming at us - let's get out of here." The two of them ran hand in hand to safety. The Muslim man said the Hasid was the last person on earth he expected to save him, but that's who did.

     All the stores in Manhattan were completely sold out of all the items that the authorities were asking to be donated - flashlights, batteries, socks, underwear, etc. They asked for food donations for the rescue workers and for people to donate blood. After a day they were asking people to stop donating food and blood, because they had too much. Scores of volunteers were being turned away because there was no room for them at Ground Zero. (Unfortunately volunteers were also being turned away because they were caught stealing jewelry off of corpses and body parts.)

     Our friend C. Bangs was on a train in the Wall Street area headed for her home in Brooklyn when the planes hit. Her train was stopped underground. When the smoke began pouring into the cars, the authorities realized they had to move the train to the nearest station and evacuate. They let the people out at the Wall Street station. There they were confronted with screaming, bleeding people running in the streets. Nonetheless, everyone walked calmly together over the Brooklyn Bridge. The mood was somber, but no one panicked, no one stampeded, and no one said a word. We watched the images on television of the hundreds of people silently trudging en masse across the bridge.

     I have been extremely fortunate that so many of my friends who worked in the WTC survived through flukes. One friend was late to work because she was stuck in traffic near her home in New Jersey. Another friend was late to work because she voted first and had to wait on line. Another friend didn't come in because a client of his had taken him to a party the night before with models and had convinced him to have too much to drink. He was setting out an hour later than usual. As he was driving to the train station, his wife called him on his cell phone to tell him to come back home. Another friend of mine was getting over the flu and working from home, although miraculously all 600 employees from his company who worked in the WTC survived.

     I also feel extremely fortunate to have been far enough away from the site so as not to hear the screams of the injured and see people jumping out of the windows. My friend John Dougherty witnessed these events from his office at 222 Broadway, and called me while they were happening to discuss it as he waited to find out when he could get a train from Grand Central Station to his home in White Plains.

     Byran and I both used to work in the WTC. I also used to work in the World Financial Center (WFC) adjacent to it. Bryan used to work at Windows on the World. None of those people survived, because they were above the fire and there was no way for them to get out. A friend of ours worked lunches at Windows. That morning the restaurant was hosting a conference of 235 people. We do not know if our friend was working breakfast that morning, and we have no way of finding out because he lived in a building in Battery Park City that has been evacuated and will not be habitable for some time. We have another friend who owned her own business across the street from the WTC and who also lived in a building that was evacuated. We don't know where she is or how she is. She has lost both her home and her business.

     I cannot help thinking about my former co-workers and acquaintances in the WTC and the WFC, or about the Indian and Pakistani people at the newsstands in the WTC that I used to buy magazines from. I cannot stop thinking about all the people who worked in businesses within the crime scene area who are now without jobs. I cannot stop thinking about all the farmers we regularly bought produce and bread from who sold their wares at the farmers' market on the street in front of the WTC. We pray that they are alive and well.

     The Rest of the City

     As we walk through other neighborhoods we see posters up everywhere with the names, descriptions and pictures of people who will never be found. Many say such things as "Last seen on the 108th floor of the World Trade Center." It is heartbreaking. There are impromptu candle shrines everywhere in memory of dead and missing people. We walked through Chinatown on the Sunday night after the blast and saw groups of people just standing silently by candle shrines set up in parks. We walked by our local firehouse and saw a piece of paper with the first names of all the firefighters from that company who were killed while trying to rescue others from the burning buildings. Because we are so close, our local firefighters were some of the first on the scene. I'm sure some of those who died were people we knew by sight. I used to speak with them when they patronized the delicatessen next door.

     Union Square, where the eight-hour workday was won during a massive labor strike, has become the focal point for grieving New Yorkers and for the peace movement. An impromptu shrine developed on the south side of the Square and few exponentially during the first few weeks after the disaster. There were candles, incense, flowers, notes, pictures, and stuffed animals. However, once the rescue effort ended and became a search and clean-up effort, Mayor Rudolph Guiliani went back to doing what he does best - being a fascist. On Wednesday, September 26th the Mayor ordered the Parks Department to remove the shrine.

     Pacifism is Not Pathology

     Yet despite all the personal losses I have experienced, and the losses my friends and neighbors have experienced, this atrocity has only reaffirmed my belief in and commitment to pacifism. I realize I am taking a great risk by expressing an unpopular viewpoint, but dark times call for great courage. All of humanity is now being called upon to evolve as a species. We must evolve spiritually. We must realize that we are all one, and to hurt others is to hurt ourselves. Killing only leads to more killing. Violence only leads to violence. Vengeance only leads to more of the same. Martin Luther King said that "[h]ate cannot drive out hate - only love can do that."

     I fully believe that we must bring the people responsible for these atrocities to trial. However, if we find them guilty we should NOT execute them. If we do, we will make martyrs out of them and their followers will seek revenge in even more horrible ways than we can imagine. I have stopped watching television news, because I can no longer tolerate the hateful voices in the media calling for vengeance and more killing and terror. The term "collateral damage" is a euphemism for senseless murder. There is absolutely no reason for more civilians to die. Our bone-headed pretender president is putting all Americans at risk for more terrorist violence by bombing Afghanistan and killing more civilians.

     This is a phony war. The destruction of the WTC and the Pentagon were criminal acts, not acts of war. Criminal acts call for criminal investigations and judicial process. Why is our thief-in-chief so anxious to mischaracterize recent events and to bomb Afghanistan? My friend Jim Bell has propounded a fascinating theory to explain this lust for destruction. As with so many prior wars the US had entered into, this war is about drugs and oil. It is estimated that as much as ninety percent (90%) of the world's heroin supply comes from Afghanistan. In addition, there is the planned construction of a trillion dollar oil pipeline through Southeast Asia. The Taliban have been consistently mischaracterized in our press as backward and ignorant. The truth is that these are very sophisticated business people who have been holding up the construction of this oil pipeline because they want a better deal. They want a bigger piece of the pie for the pipeline to come through their country.

     My friend Jim Bell has propounded a fascinating theory to explain Spurious George's lust to bomb Afghanistan. Jim says that when the bombing ends, we will discover that the bombs were dropped in precisely the places that have been designated for the oil pipeline to go through. This will save them huge amounts of time and money toward the pipeline's construction.

     We as Americans are being called upon to understand we have become victims of terror, and why we must not go into further condemnation and commit more murder, destruction and terror. The horrific acts of September 11th did not occur in a vacuum. They were the direct result of numerous atrocities committed by the US military-industrial complex around the world. The recent terror inflicted on Americans was totally karmic. Why?

     Because the largest terrorist organization on this planet is the United States government. Because we are a nation that comprises six percent (6%) of the world's population, yet consumes forty percent (40%) of the world's material resources. There are six (6) billion people living on this planet. One (1) billion of them are starving. That's right, America - one out of every six people on this Earth does not have enough to eat. Why do Americans believe we are somehow entitled to have a better lifestyle than the rest of the world? Why do we believe we are entitled to over-consume the world's wealth? Why can we not understand the rage that the people of the third world have for us when we have destroyed and plundered and exploited so many of their lands? The people that hate us are not envious; they are rightfully outraged by global injustice engendered by American greed.

     The United States commits terrorism militarily and commercially. During the past few decades the US has militarily attacked Somalia, Sudan, Afghanistan, Angola, Bosnia, Cambodia, Chile, East Timor, El Salvador, Grenada, Guatemala, Iraq, Iran, Korea, Lebanon, Libya, Nicaragua, Panama, and Viet Nam. Our failure to act has killed thousands in such places as Rwanda and Haiti. US sanctions have killed over a million people in Iraq and countless thousands in Cuba. My older sister said we are not terrorists because we don't destroy other nations' national symbols. First of all, I fail to see how national symbols are remotely relevant to a discussion about terrorism, which consists of killing people, poisoning their air and water and destroying their property. Second, the statement is simply not true. The United States destroyed the Museum of Baghdad, which harbored 5,000 years of Persian history. Was that museum not a national symbol of Iraq? Those 5,000 years of Persian history were a treasure that belonged to all of humanity, not just the people of Iraq.

     Our leaders are calling for punishment of countries that harbor terrorists. Shall we punish ourselves then? Shall we punish our president (a serial killer who has gleefully executed scores of people in his native Texas, some of whom were retarded and others of whom were clearly innocent) and his cabinet of warmongers? Shall we punish Henry Kissinger, the man who overthrew a democratically elected government in Chile, committed genocide in Viet Nam and has advocated and executed countless dastardly deeds around the world? Shall we punish Israel for their terror against Palestinians, and punish Palestine for their terror against Israelis? Shall we punish Ireland for harboring the Irish Republican Army? And speaking of Ireland, isn't it ironic that the US facilitated the peace process there? We didn't bomb Northern Ireland - we brought the parties to the bargaining table to get them to end their difference without violence. Is this because the Irish are white people who speak the same language we do? Is it perhaps harder for our leaders to demonize and destroy people who look like us than people who wear different clothes, speak a different language, practice another religion and live on the other side of the planet?

     Is what happened here any less terrifying and horrifying that what the US did in the twenty (20) or more countries where our own CIA overthrew functioning constitutional democracies? I have been speaking with people who tell me that it is. When I ask them why what happened to us is worse they simply repeat that it is without giving me a reason. The simple fact is they cannot give a reason, because there is no reason. Are American lives worth more than lives of people in other countries? Only a racist would say so. Only a racist can view other human beings as less than human because they belong to a different ethnic group or speak a different language. America is a very racist nation. This racist consciousness has created the suffering and oppression around the world that we are now being called upon to pay for.

     It is also important to note at this juncture that September 11, 2001 marked the beginning for terror of white people at home in America. For our brothers and sisters of color terror at home is an everyday thing, just as it was for many Jews of my grandparents' generation (and my parents' generation, in particularly backward parts of the United States). If this experience does not awaken understanding and compassion in the hearts and minds of American racists, nothing will.

     US commercial interests have been creating horrible suffering and oppression around the globe. Why does Nike pay its Indonesian workers $1.25 a day? Because US labor laws prevent them from doing that here. Furthermore, US corporations have completely polluted all of Indonesia's drinking water. Indonesians who were already poor and hungry are now even hungrier because they must buy their drinking water. Women working in Nike factories are so poor that when they are menstruating they have to choose between buying sanitary napkins and buying food. Is this acceptable while obesity is at epidemic proportions in the United States?

     Furthermore, it has been reported in the alternative press that one percent (1%) of Nike's annual advertising budget is enough to bring all of Nike's workers worldwide out of poverty. So why doesn't Nike do this? Because Nike's management consists of people whose consciousness is dominated by self-serving avarice instead of love and compassion for humanity. These people are so deeply unconscious and so far away from the life of the spirit that they are completely incapable of understanding what they do and why it is wrong. All around the globe US multinational interests have exploited labor and looted natural resources. US biotechnology firms have been patenting native healing plants that have been used for generations. Why should indigenous people suddenly have to pay US corporations for natural remedies that have been used in their cultures for generations? Does this kind of behavior by your countrymen make you proud to be an American?

     The death and destruction hailed upon us on September 11th is a wake-up call for our entire society. Many observers have noted the symbolism of the date, 9/11, as "911" or an emergency call for help. My friend Danny Schechter of MediaChannel (http://www.mediachannel.org) pointed out in a recent article (see http://www.alternet.org/story.html?StoryD=11491) that September 11 is the anniversary of the failed Camp David accords.

It is also the anniversary of the 1973 CIA-sponsored coup in Chile (designed by Henry Kissinger) where the US overthrew and murdered democratically elected president Salvador Allende because Kissinger feared that Allende would redistribute Chile's wealth to help the poor.

     When I tell people that Israelis are watering their lawns and filling their swimming pools while the Palestinians don't have enough water to bathe in, I am met with three different reactions. People either: (1) look at me in horror and say they didn't know that (and why would they when they get all their information from mainstream media that refuses to report the facts); (2) deny outright that such atrocities are occurring; or (3) tell me that the Israelis were the ones who brought the water in the first place so why should the Palestinians get any. There is hope for the people in the first category, for they have the capacity to evolve spiritually. There may be hope for people in the second category if they can get over their denials and confront the truth. There is absolutely no hope for people in the third category, for they are spiritually bankrupt racists who are not willing to see the truth under any circumstances. We should pray for all of humanity, but we should pray the hardest for the racists, since they live the farthest from the Creator. Furthermore, we should find it in our hearts to pity the racists, because there is so much beauty in the world they cannot appreciate due to the constraints of their own prejudices.

     So What Should We Do Instead of War?

     Countless people have been telling me that my messages of peace and love are naïve and unrealistic. They tell me the terrorists who did this are people who cannot be negotiated with, because all they want to do is kill us. I think their viewpoint is naïve and unrealistic. Why?

     Because terrorists are not mere random lunatics. Terrorists are, without exception, people who have been so oppressed for so long that they no longer have anything to lose. Terrorism always results from social and economic injustice. Creating a global police state will not eliminate terrorism. Implementing social and economic justice worldwide will. We need to treat our current social, economic and political problems as a design challenge. We must collectively create new social, economic and political structures that assure fairness and equal opportunity. How can we say it is impossible to negotiate with these people when we are not even willing to try?

     The first step in this process is honest self-reflection. The United States must examine its part in world suffering. We must atone for our wrongs. We must offer forgiveness and seek it from those we have wronged. There is simply no other way to end the cycle of madness that is hatred, violence and revenge. Pacifism takes far more courage and strength than war. We need to teach and practice forgiveness, instead of demonizing those who disagree with us. We need to listen to those we have offended, and figure out ways to compensate our victims. Colman McCarthy, a journalist who was fired by the Washington Post for his pacifism, has rightly pointed out that if violence were effective we would have a peaceful planet.

     For those of you who think a peaceful consciousness is wrongheaded and useless, please meditate upon this closing quotation:

"At first people refuse to believe
that a strange new thing can be done,
Then they see it can be done,
Then it is done
And the entire world wonders
Why it was not done centuries ago."

Frances Hodgson Burnett

Copyright 2001 Marcy J. Gordon. All rights reserved. The author wants you to know you are free to copy and distribute this article for noncommercial purposes, provided you reproduce it in its entirety and credit the author. For quotation permission, please contact the author at mgordon@pipeline.com.