39 � 2002 Blanton-Peale Institute

Journal of Religion and Health, Vol. 41, No. 1, Spring 2002 (� 2002)

True Security,September 24, 20011

PAUL MOORE JR.

It is raining. The flowers are wilted; puddles of wax lie on the pavementwhere candles burned. Pictures of the beloved wrinkle in the wet and spoil.The excitement of the first days has subsided leaving dull, stunning grief. Youhave lost a child, a lover, a husband or wife, a roommate. You feel the coldloneliness of death. Even for those who have not lost someone close to them,the inchoate miasma of fear seems to settle across the city, fear of the un-known.

Yesterday I visited “Ground Zero.” I was wounded as a Marine platoonleader on Guadalcanal. I have seen and felt the terror, the blood of war. Thehurt was so deep, I could not weep, until, in the safety of my home, I brokeinto uncontrollable sobs. This recurred again and again, over the weeks andeven over the years that followed. However, when I stood in the mud in frontof that maw of smoking steel, concrete, twisted girders, that mountain ofhorror, my whole being was shaken in a way I have never experienced before.

What will we do, when volunteers are no longer needed, when the bloodbanks overflow?

The President calls us to war. Since we do not know how we could partici-pate in such a war, in bombing raids or secret hit teams in the midnight ofthe caves of Afghanistan, how can we know what to do? He says the war willlast until no terrorism exists. Even if we were able to do that, which I seri-ously doubt, it would only be the beginning of rooting out the poison.

The powerless harbor resentment against those who dominate them. Thisis why so much of the world rages against the United States. And so it is thatfor the long war which lies beyond retaliation, a different emotion is called forbecause the ultimate source of our wounding was not Bin Laden, but themassive resentment, in the hearts of millions of oppressed people across theglobe.

On September 11th, I saw hundreds of New Yorkers fleeing wildly from theinferno of “Ground Zero.” Suddenly, there flashed across my memory, thescene of Vietnamese peasants screaming in terror as they fled from a burning

The Rt. Rev. Paul Moore Jr. is the retired Episcopal Bishop of New York.

40 Journal of Religion and Health

village. I thought of Nicaraguans being shot down by the Contras. I thoughtof Panama, Iraqi children, Granada, East Timorese slaughtered by weaponsmade in the USA I remembered Cambodia; all the suffering, homelessness,death, and tragedies of millions over the last decades. This suffering has beencaused by the Realpolitik of our overbearing foreign policy, which has sup-ported the dictators who have impoverished their people. This deep hypocrisyon the part of the “land of the free,” this policy of greed and exploitation,these short-sighted power plays that have sown worse disasters in the ensu-ing years, this carnage of much of humanity goes far beyond the most fiend-ish dreams of Bin Laden.

Therefore, I believe that we must not count on the power of military mightand wealth, but build on the extraordinary power of the love witnessed in thelast few days; the courage of the firemen and other heroes, the compassionatesupport for the bereaved in the memorial services, the informal shrines ofUnion Square, the heartbreaking messages scrawled beneath the photo-graphs of beautiful New York faces. We must unleash that love across theworld in a foreign policy intent on relieving suffering and bringing justice, thelasting foundation of peace. Only if we change from a nation clothed in theimage of fear, to a nation respected as once we were, a real friend of allhumanity, will we dwell in safety, for then our fear will have been cast out bylove.

What then can we do? Tell our Congress and our President where lies thetrue nature of our safety, the true salvation of our beloved nation. This wouldtake a change of heart, a deep national resolve. In times past, such a resolvegave leadership to the founding of The United Nations, funded the MarshallPlan, and sent young people across the world in the Peace Corps. With asimilar resolve, new initiatives will be found which speak to the 21st century.Many are insisting that we forego unilateralism and join the land minetreaty, the Kyoto protocol, the chemical and biological warfare agreements,the negotiations to end the use of child soldiers, and that we cease our insis-tence on going it alone with the ABM program. These and many other morefar reaching possibilities will come to mind when we transform, may I saytransfigure, the face the United States turns toward the rest of humanity.

Endnote

1. This piece was first published in Episcopal Life, the national journal of the Episcopal Church.It is reprinted here with permission.