Tags: America | ecology | religion | terror

I have wrote these lines as an attempt to deepen our view of our ways of life, since I believe that is the best protection we can have in these troubling days...

To start, I'd like to express my condolences to the relatives and friends of all the victims of the senseless terror attacks taking place in the world, and I hope that we can all learn something from these terrible experiences and put down something meaningful to the memories of those who died so needlessly, so it's not just another disaster of history which doesn't help anyone.

And from this point on in the article I won't probably be so much in accordance with the 9-11 official story and the usual patriotic approach to the events of this "War on Terror". Still, all this is written in my deepest will to eliminate such catastrophic events like 9-11 in the future, at least to reduce them to a minimum and bring our societies closer to a life of harmony, which I believe we all really wish for. But it will take some sincere effort and significant changes within our minds and system.

Living today we are happy to have our lives of convenience and ease, and we thank science and industry for serving us so well with its achievements and discoveries. We like to live in luxury. But it seems that, especially in America, people would like to forget about the negative aspects of this lifestyle and simply escape their responsibilities when the same science they like to use for boosting their wealth is causing damage in ecological and social dimensions.

Here in Europe the situation is not perfect, but still we are a bit more forward thinking about the matter. America is one of the richest and most developed countries in the world (as it often likes to remind us), yet also consumes twice the energy per person of what we use here in Europe. When their last president claimed that they cannot afford to join other countries' efforts to improve our lifestyle in terms of a more reasonable respect to nature – the Mother of all of us - it is one of the bitterest laugh ters I've yet to experience.

Even though this is not what the terrorists follow, I believe there is still a certain logic that I can observe behind these things. And once you claim any spiritual interests such as believing in God, I don't think it is the course to simply oversee these signals.

Former president Bush called for the ultimate defense of freedom and democracy. Does he speak of the freedom and life of the Tibetan people suffering and dying under Chinese occupation, is that what he has on mind and that America, without any significant interest in what the bible teaches, trades instead in its surely lucrative economical deals with China?

Would America pay the same interest to the gulf events years ago if there was no oil and money in the area? Surely it doesn't pay the same attention to the Tibetan tragedy. And as we saw in Bush's first "election", where is the passion for democracy when it comes to the proper counting of election votes? (Gore won by the way, the official tally showed).

Often we hear the name of God from the mouth of American presidents and people, but do you really think if there is a God that he likes the ways America is going, and what chances does he have to express his disagreement while his name is being spoken every day?

The two above mentioned aspects of American life today lead to the major columns of the American democracy - life and liberty - and both problems are huge and not quite considered. We used to know a dictatorship called China and now we have strong dictatorship country called China. Why? Because we allowed it to economically grow through having huge trades with us all. But that is not just America's problem.

What do we really know about ecological equilibrium? What I know is that once we lose the environment we have it will be very difficult, or maybe even impossible, to establish a new one.

On 9-11, Mr. George Walker Bush said that America saw the Devil (one wonder's what he sees in his mirror?).

Firstly, I don't like such symbols because the things they are used for can be described very clearly if someone has real insight and also because this simplification often leads to the negative and sad destruction we witness visited upon Iraq by the Americans. Pain and more pain. But if so, then I can see half of its face on each side as described above.

I am still afraid of blind reactions. While stupid revenge-themed movies can make many millions of dollars, I don't think this attitude can serve anyone well in the real world. I am certainly not calling for passivity but I believe that any good solution starts with a healthy and deep self-reflection and criticism.

Also I should maybe mention that the God that is spoken about on the American currency speaks for forgiveness not revenge, so we probably cannot go both ways at the same time, and I don't think we want to. I can also very clearly see the negative states of mind of many Muslims that lead to more useless pain and destruction (although nothing in the world is quite without meaning, is it?).

I feel also compassion to those basically brainwashed and abused kids that populate most of the USA. Their history is not much of a walk in the park (e.g. colonialism, killing of American natives, slavery, witch hunts and so on). So far we were not quite able to thoroughly reflect these facts into our present life, so what do we expect? Some may say they killed Indians, but it was a long time ago, and these are Arabs or whoever.

Excuse me but I can still see certain connections beyond.

I don't want to scare anybody here. The way I understand this situation is a chance to deeply analyze our ways of life and get rid of the things that are superficial and not quite in accordance to the ideals which we say we hold as western culture.

As well as the things that are not quite respectful to the life in its whole scale. We are just cells of the whole organism called Earth. That is how we can really improve our lives I believe, simply by recognizing this fact. What I fear most are the politicians, which often seem to lack common sense, unable to see things holistically from a distance, and act in favor of our common good instead of their own profits.

And I would certainly like the Americans to consider that killing one "terrorist" only puts ten others onto his place, that every act of violence provokes another act of violence, often bigger, and that if I over-punish someone who is just another victim of ignorance, then I start to loose to myself.

What I am talking for here is probably a very selective, free of hate, solution starting on our side. Something that people on the other side could see that we feel with them, but cannot let such a thing just happen.