Yet hatred is not the antidote to hatred. The only solution is love.

Certainly, it is difficult to speak of love in the face of such atrocities. How ridiculous and inadequate a response it seems. But what will more hatred get us? Only a spiral of violence and death that grows and grows as a funeral pyre, destroying more lives, leaving nothing untouched by its flames.

Only nonviolence can extinguish the flames of violence. After thousands of years of warmaking it seems the world is no wiser.

US Government leaders, with much support from allies and US citizens, are loudly proclaiming their intent to retaliate, to defeat those seen as responsible for the atrocities of Sept. 11.

There is another way, however; a better path. To respond with nonviolence does not mean to passively accept the terrible, evil actions perpetrated against the United States.

While violence is never justified, and we condemn terrorism on all fronts, we must be willing to try to understand why terrorists sacrifice their own lives, and the lives of thousands of others, for a cause they perceive as just.

US foreign policy has brought death and destruction to untold numbers of people around the world. The US is the number one purveyor of weapons globally. In recent years we have often had our own weapons turned against us. Policy decisions, such as US-supported sanctions against Iraq, have resulted in the devastation and death of thousands of civilians, mostly children.

We cannot continue on this violent path. The nuclear age has brought our world to the brink of destruction. Now, more than ever, alternatives to violence and war must be found. We must find a way to bring about justice, not revenge.

The Seamless Garment Network urges US leaders to look for those alternatives to war and to look to the United Nations and to the international community to help find solutions to global terrorism. The perpetrators of the Sept. 11 attacks and all terrorists should be brought to justice in an international court of law.

It is time for us to stand together, not as Americans, but as members of the global family. We are all one people who share a common destiny because we share a common home, the Earth.

As the Rev. Martin Luther King said, "We must all learn to live together as brothers or we will all perish together as fools."

The Seamless Garment Network opposes violence in all its forms: war, abortion, poverty, racism, the arms race, the death penalty and euthanasia. We call on the United States to seek a nonviolent response to this tragedy, to focus on healing and reconciliation rather than revenge and retribution. Let us now turn from violence and embrace nonviolence for the sake of the Earth and her people.

Back to Our Library...