There is a feeling among many that to disagree with our leaders, to challenge them on their proposed methods to address the atrocity of September 11, is unpatriotic. As a veteran who is angered and sickened by the horrific death of thousands of innocent people, I believe it is important to remember that dissent is as American as baseball and apple pie. And I for one cannot blindly back our politicians or advocate mindless militarism. I will not support an undefined war on an amorphous enemy, nor will I support further erosion of our constitutional and God-given rights.

Our outrage and desire for vengeance is understandable but, if we are to keep a country worth fighting for, we cannot play into the hands of suicidal fanatics by forfeiting our freedom or plunging the world into war. As Rabbi Michael Lerner recently wrote in Tikkun magazine, “The best way to prevent these kinds of acts is not to turn ourselves into a police state, but turn ourselves into a society in which social justice, love, and compassion are so prevalent that violence becomes only a distant memory.”

I think humanity is at a crossroads, where one road may lead to World War III and the other to a chance for greater world peace. I hope that every person of good will on the face of the Earth will wake up – in defiance of human history – and unite as one human race against violence and oppression in all its forms.

Everett