Facing Our New Reality: Can we maintain a steely resolve?

Facing Our New Reality: Can we maintain a steely resolve?
by Rodolpho Carrasco
Thursday, November 2, 2001
in Pasadena Star News

Rodolpho Carrasco is associate director of Harambee Christian Family Center in Pasadena, Calif.

The American assumption of safety is shattered. Some - New Yorkers and anthrax victims come to mind - know it better than others. Our new reality is that every person who lives on U.S. soil is now a target for terrorist attacks. Terrorists have decided that innocent civilians – you and me – are legitimate, even preferred, targets.

It doesn’t matter if you are an immigrant to this country and do not identify with our government or culture - you are a target.

Even being a Muslim, clinging to the same faith as the September 11th terrorists, will not save you - many of the dead buried in the World Trade Center rubble are Muslim.

Neither is there an illusion of safety beyond our borders. Every nation that is friendly to America is now calculating the odds of a terrorist strike. England, France and Italy expect attacks. Mexico is jittery. Americans traveling abroad must consider the fate of Gilbert Sorbero of nearby Corona.

In June Sorbero was vacationing in the Philippines when he was kidnapped. The rebels who took him and 19 other tourists hostage did so to advance their cause of creating a separate Islamic state in the southern Philippines. Sorbero, the father of three boys, fell victim to a conflict half a world away when these rebels followed through on threats and cut off his head.

It brings me no joy to write these things. It’s a drag, a bummer, a downer. But it’s our new reality. If we are going to rise to the occasion, we have to face facts like these.

Buffered by two oceans and bordered by Canada and Mexico, the only time in the 20th century that the United States was attacked on our soil was Pearl Harbor – and even that attack occurred off the mainland. We are forgiven for once believing that war and terror are similes for Kosovo, Israel, or Somalia, but not us. Looking forward, we who are citizens on the street need to change the assumption that it cannot happen here. Our new assumption must be that it can and will happen here. That may seem like an obvious truism, something everybody is saying. But I think that for many, this truth has not sunk in.

Some fancy that if a few circumstances could be changed, we might be able to head off this transformation of American life. Perhaps if we capture Osama Bin Laden and get him to trial at the United Nations, one courtroom away from Slobodan Milosovich, and let the whole world examine the evidence, maybe the murderous anger against us will abate.

Or maybe if we convince Israel to ease up on the Palestinians, Al Qaeda will call off the jihad against us. But giving the terrorists what they want is not likely to do much good.

Read the rhetoric coming out of the Middle East. I’m not talking about the Reuters or New York Times versions. Examine the writings of the people who support Bin Laden and Al Qaeda. Decide for yourself if giving them what they want will stop the madness. Even if the terrorists put down their weapons and join us in a few stanzas of Kumbaya, another person or group with a grievance against the United States can conspire and attack.

Thomas Friedman, in his book The Lexus and The Olive Tree, points out that scientific and technological advances make it possible for any one angry man to visit wide-scale death anywhere on the globe, whether via catastrophe or biological and chemical warfare. Today it’s Islamic holy warriors led by Bin Laden. Tomorrow it could be another super-empowered angry man invoking the name of different god. It is the nature of the advanced world we live in.

Yes, it can happen here. We must let that truth sink in. I’ve been trying to face facts by scrutinizing a popular Christian saying: "The safest place to be is in the center of God’s will." It’s a curious statement.

Paul, the author of many New Testament books, was arguably in the center of God’s will. But as Paul preached the gospel throughout the Roman Empire he lived dangerously. He was stoned by mobs, whipped by government officials, and eventually beheaded. One must ask: Did God not keep Paul safe? If Paul was indeed safe, might I need to change my definition of safety? If I change my definition of safety, have the terrorists won?

There is value to these types of inner monologues. A little soul searching can be a very good thing, especially because it prepares us for moments when we must act quickly. It could have been any one of us inside the plane that crashed outside of Pittsburgh – would I have taken action as Todd Beamer and others did? Firefighters sprinted up a staircase of death that bright, clear morning, focused on saving lives, knowing theirs were at risk.

If – God forbid – something should happen around here, or around me, I want to act decisively and courageously. Facing facts, chilling and unnerving as they may be, helps steel one’s resolve.

The copyright for these materials are owned by Rudy Carrasco.  These materials were used with permission by TechMission