A Small World After All

“Where are those other countries to help us after everything we do for them?” That was a very pointed question asked by an acquaintance of mine in the wake of the New Orleans disaster. I told this person it would come, and it did, pouring in from over 60 countries. Now, this person is a good person whom I love very much, has a point of view that has been cultivated in the US since the attacks of September 11^th: rampant patriotism at the expense of the rest of the world.

I love this country but I believe that we are all citizens of this planet, and these days our world is small. We can travel the great oceans in mere hours where it could have taken weeks in the past. You can talk to someone on the other side of Earth in real time, instead of the months it might take for mail to make it (if ever) just a few hundred years ago. I have encountered Americans yelling to “bomb the Arabs” for September 11^th. They are a sickening bunch that sees everything as “us versus them.” In reality it is all “us;” there is no “them.”

As we go on in our efforts to combat terrorism remember the aide coming to us, from Arab countries, from former cold war enemies, even from the President of Venezuela. Two weeks ago Venezuelan President Hugo Chavez’s assassination was called for by an American (from one who calls himself a devout follower of the teachings of Jesus), yet he has stepped forward to help.

Now is the time to question the US’s place in this world. Question the wars, treaties we have failed to honor, every move we have made since 2001. Take off the blinders and answer this: is this world a better place that it was four years ago?