We the people of the United States have suffered a terrible wound with the injuries and death of many thousands of our people, as well as hundreds from many other countries.Now that we have treated the injured and mourned the dead, and while we attempt to bring to justice the perpetrators of this crime against humanity on Sept. 11, it is imperative that we rethink how we have looked at the new world order and reevaluate the way in which we have been rushing toward corporate globalization, seemingly without regard for its negative, even disastrous, effect on many millions of people in other parts of the world.
Corporate globalization as it is being pursued now, along with its attendant free trade policy, will lead to further unrest among the exploited working populations and to further degradation of the environment.
Unless we reorder our priorities, I fear we are destined to experience more than one catastrophic event. We cannot continue indefinitely to use a disproportionate share of the world's natural resources without generating more hatred from the dispossessed and poverty-stricken people (many of whom live in countries from which we have extracted valuable resources) of the rest of the world. Nor can we expect that our quick resort to war will solve these basic problems; it will, rather, more likely exacerbate them.
So let us bind up the wounds we have suffered and move forward, resolving to use some of our wealth, technical abilities, and the goodwill of our people to improve the lives of those billions who have not yet shared in what we consider the basic necessities of life. The alternative could be that this war will be a "war to end all peace" for many years to come.
The United States, its economic entities, and its people need to be benefactors, rather than exploiters, of the impoverished people of the world. If we help them to achieve better living and social conditions, we will be doing more for peace and stability than we can hope to accomplish by waging war. Let us join together with other nations to create a more just world irrespective of our differing cultures.
—Dana Snyder
Amherst
[Ed.: At a Washington news conference, Ralph Nader said that as a result of the terrorist attacks, "There is a whole range of power grabs going on. There is an escalation of the corporate takeover of the United States. The ground and soil are ripe for a revolt by the American people."]
