The Lessons of 9/11

THE LESSONS OF 9/11
Rev. Morris W. Hudgins
Northwest UU Congregation
September 11, 2011
Introduction
Today we come together to remember what occurred 10 years ago, September 11, 2001. This day was one of those days we all probably remember where we were, what we were doing, and how we learned about the tragic events of that day.
For me it was my day off.  Usually on my day off I would play golf in the afternoon at the nine hole golf course where I lived in Cincinnati.  I was offered a membership in the club and had become friends with many of the members, mostly Proctor and Gamble and General Electric retirees.  On this day I got up and turned on the television.  I believe it was about 8:30 or 9:00 in the morning.  They were reporting the downing of the first World Trade Center Tower.  As they were reporting this event, the second tower began to fall.  I was stunned.
After watching these events on television, and the reports that followed I did not want to be alone.  I drove to the golf course club houses.  It was clear that others were as stunned as I was, and we all wanted to be with others that day.  So we all came to the clubhouse.
After lunch we began to play golf.  As I drove to the third golf hole, I saw the head golf pro coming to the tee in a golf cart.  He approached and said my travel agent had called my home and told my wife we had to make a decision about our trip to Transylvania planned for October a month later.  The travel agent said we could cancel our plans because of what happened that morning, but we had to make a decision that day.
I went to the club house (this was before I had a cell phone) and called my wife.  We decided we wanted to go anyway.  So my wife called the travel agent and told her.  A month later we would follow through on our plans and visit our friends in Transylvania.  My sermon in our partner church would be titled, “The Phoenix Rising” a reference to the fact that the United States would recover and rebuild where thousands had died that day.
Our friends in Transylvania were surprised we made this trip.  They had written numerous emails, from the minister, and the bishop, expressing their sympathy and concern for America.  We learned that day that America is not alone in our search for freedom and democracy.  We have friends around the world who are hoping and praying for our success, for our health and well being, and for our partnership with them.  Transylvania is just one place on the globe who were with us that day. 
Islam
We also learned many other things that day.  Yes, there are people around the world who hate America.  Many of them are willing to take their own lives to destroy ours.  Some of these people are Muslims, but this doesn’t mean that all Muslims hate us.  Many of the people who died on 9/11 were Muslim.  Other Muslim countries were praying for us. 
Since 9/11 I feel an obligation in America to reach out to Muslims.  I want them to know that many Americans hate the prejudice and anger many of our fellow countrymen have shown toward them.  I am pleased that Unitarian Universalists are not among them.  This past year we joined forces with other religious groups to support the building of Mosques in Lilburn and Alpharetta.  The opposition to their expansions are just one ways some have masked their prejudice against Muslims.  I encourage us to oppose such prejudice.
Slow to Point Fingers
We also learned after 9/11 that we should be slow to point fingers.  President Bush was ready to retaliate for these events and he decided to invade Iraq, though he had no evidence that the people who were behind the events of 9/11 were from Iraq.  We know they were from Saudia Arabia.
Information Sharing
As I read the editorials about the lessons of 9/11, there seems to be a common theme:   the problem had to do with how our government did or did not share information.  We blame our intelligence communities because they did not share information with each other.  Zoe Budinger and Jeffrey Smith of The Washington Post say it this way:
In hindsight, it is clear that our failure to discover the Sept. 11 plot was in many ways a failure of information sharing and a lack of skill at empowering out best and brightest.  Ten years ago, our law enforcement and intelligence communities were driven by a Cold War ‘need to know’ culture that stove-piped information and stymied cooperation.  The lack of major attacks over the past decade, along with a string of notable intelligence successes, is a testament to the fact that things are changing.
The writers see decentralization as the key to the future.  They see things as better today than 10 years ago.  They write:
            Today, our government is able to function in hubs and spokes and distributed networks, empowering people at the edges of agencies instead of working in hierarchical pyramids.  Information is shared, and teams from disparate parts of government go in and out of the National Counterterrorism Center and fusion centers nationwide.. . . No longer must all information or requests for authority go up a chain of command or come down from on high.
Budinger and Smith reach this conclusion after 9/11:
The challenges confronting our country are in some ways greater than they were 10 years ago.  The world is more complex and our resources more limited.  Our intelligence assets – indeed, all the assets of government – must be deployed in a way that is smarter, more networked and efficient, and in line with our core values.  The task remains enormous, but our progress in intelligence sharing since Sept. 11 points the way.
I understand from a recent NPR report that we did make some progress after 9/11 on information sharing.  The killing of Osama bin Laden is an example of agencies working together for a common goal.  The Defense Department and the CIA worked closely together.  The FBI and Homeland Security also worked closely together to stop an al-Qaeda plot to bomb the New York subway system.  However, we also hear that there is a tendency to return to the old ways of calling everything as “Confidential” and not sharing key information between departments.  Old patterns are hard to change.
The main problem is that these old patterns are ways to keep the public less informed.  We learned this from the Pentagon Papers in the 1960’s.  And now we see it with Wiki Leaks.  Our government’s tendency is to keep things hidden, even when it comes to knowing what wars our government is fighting.  I hope 9/11 reveals the importance of sharing important information between departments and with the public.
The 9/11 Commission made several recommendations regarding communication and they have not been implemented by Congress including a wireless broadband network for first responders, streamlining congressional oversight, and setting up an effective board to balance security and civil liberties.  The Commission also recommended having a national ID which has turned out to be controversial.
Root Causes of Terrorism
To blame the problems on 9/11 on the intelligence communities alone, I believe is a mistake.  We must look beyond this one area.  What about the reasons why terrorists hate America?  Steve Kirsch, of The New York Times, agrees.  He writes:  “If we want to stop the attacks we must address the root cause.”  The problem is America’s foreign policy.  Political leaders tell us that terrorists are jealous of America.  Kirsch disagrees.  He compares our foreign policy problem to that of “Playground Psychology.”  He writes:
Most children learn pretty quickly that if you constantly bully others and try to use force to influence their behavior towards you, eventually those others will retaliate – in many cases this leads to an escalating cycle of violent behavior.  Children who go on to be successful very quickly learn that the way forward is to work hard and building trusting, mutually beneficial relationships with others.  Children who don’t learn this usually don’t get far in life.  The comparison here is obvious.
The 911 attacks were a predictable result of US/Western foreign policy over the past 50 years.  Money and might has been used to support regimes which suppress freedom in parts of the world where stability is a requirement in order to ensure continuity of western energy (i.e., oil) supply, and what happened is probably mainly a result of this.
We can give many specific examples how the U.S. has supported dictatorships in the past then wondered why the people of the country are opposed to us.  Isn’t it interesting how we joined the rebels after we had been working with Kadafi for so many years?  From Vietnam to Iraq to Libya, the U.S. has often been on the wrong side, then turned the tables on our loyalty.
Kirsch has some recommendations to help our foreign policy:
1.      Have a Department of Peace and International Cooperation and Assistance, not a Department of Homeland Security.
2.      Support International Treaties, not backing out of them.
3.      Be a leader in seeking peaceful solutions to conflicts, not a leader in the pre-emptive strike.
4.      Be respectful of foreign leaders, not insulting them by calling them pygmies.
5.      Respect foreign governments, not label them “evil.”
6.      Have talks with adversaries, not refuse to talk (as with North Korea)
Kirsch is obviously responding to the Bush administration foreign policy, but his recommendations can also apply to our present administration.  I agree with some of his conclusions but not all.  I think the main lesson of 9/11 is that we do need a homeland security department, but we should also have a department working on building good relations with other countries.  We have this department and it is called, the State Department, and this is the role of the Secretary of State, presently Hilary Clinton. 
I hope we have learned from 9/11 that our government should be following the model of Henry Kissinger, who spent much of his time mediating disputes, and not just making pronouncements about how America is the best country in the world, and we have all the answers.  Kissinger, who won the Nobel Peace Prize pioneered détente with the Soviet Union, orchestrated the opening of relations with the Peoples Republic of China, and negotiated the Paris Peace Accords ending America’s involvement in the Vietnam War.  I don’t mean to say that Kissinger was completely pure.  He also initiated the bombing of Cambodia.  But we should look to our Secretary of State to build peaceful relations and not just make war.  This is my point.  Too often our Secretary of State is seen pontificating about democracy and not building peaceful relations with those with whom we differ on important policies.
Conclusions
Yes, we can look back on 9/11 and remember that we have friends of America around the world and some of them are Muslim.  We can see how our government and the many agencies that should be working together can improve their communication, and their decision-making.  But what I don’t want us to forget after 9/11 is the courage of our firefighters and police that face dangers everyday.  I want us to honor these men everyday.
I saw this when I lived in Raleigh, NC and the house next door had a fire.  A young boy and his dog were in the house when the fire started, caused by the heating company that worked on the furnace under the house.  The told the young boy who was home alone, that there may be some smoke, but it would be okay.  The furnace caught the floor on fire.  I witnessed three fire trucks come to help.  The boy got out of the house alive, but the dog died because of the smoke.  The firefighters were there until late in the night putting the fire out.  I gained a great deal of respect for firefighters that night.
But what they did does not compare to what the firefighters did on 9/11, entering a burning building that would collapse on them.  And the Chaplain who entered with them—Chaplain Mychal Judge.  The last thing he did was to give last rites to a firefighter and then he died and was the first to be carried out.  He is listed as the first victim of 9/ll, # 0001 among the firefighters.
I hope we will always remember our policemen and firefighters who risk their lives daily for the safety of others.  This summer I took part in a service that was unique among Unitarian Universalists.  At the General Assembly in Charlotte, we held a service for our soldiers who fight for our freedoms.  We had several UU chaplains there to be honored.  It was the most moving service I have ever attended.  I hope that we will take time this year to honor our soldiers who return from Iraq and Afghanistan.  I wish we could do more for their families when they are away. 
The tragedy of 9/11 must be remembered, the lives lost, the 2700 children who lost their father or mother that day, the men and women who lost partners, those that lost grandparents or grandchildren.   These are the spoils of war, a war that goes on in Afghanistan and Iraq, and other places around the world.  I know this tragedy first hand.  My brother died as a result of his participation in the Vietnam War.  Let us remember the horrors of war.   I like to say one can be opposed to a war, and be supportive of those who fight the war.
I hope we will remember 9/11 and learn the lessons from that tragic day.  Let us use this time to honor our soldiers who represent our country abroad and our policemen and firefighters who protect us every day.  Most important of all, let us remember their families.  Thank you.