September 9, 2002
In this special week let’s think about Eleanor Roosevelt’s reflections a year after Pearl Harbor. "All day …I was trying to think what the lesson of Pearl Harbor was for most of us in the United States. It seems to me there would be very little point in celebrating this day as a holiday but I think there is every reason for keeping in mind this tragic day.
First , we must try never to be unprepared again, either mentally or physically, to defend the things in which we believe. Peace is something we want to work for, day in and day out, but we want to work for it with the knowledge that only justice keeps the people of the world at peace.
Therefore, when injustices occur we must always be sure of our position and be strong enough to defend it."
I echo these themes. Not to celebrate but to keep in mind and seek to discover and work to ameliorate the injustices that occur both domestically and around the world.
Too often one persons injustice is another persons right. A direct conversation between these points of view is the quickest way to begin to face such issues. Rather than as Nelson Mandela challenges, "We are really appalled by any country…that goes outside the United Nations and attacks independent countries." pick up the phone and call Saddam, "We’ve each said a lot of harsh words about one another. Let’s cut it out and get together and resolve our differences."
Michelle Townsend is a 2000 graduate of Madison West and studying in Beirut, Lebanon at the American University. She is often published in the Madison Capital Times. On May 12, 2002 she wrote and illustrated with her personal experiences, "I have found people become inconsistent when they find out their enemies are human… They talk about American apathy and ignorance. I say, well I’m an American too, yah, but your not a real American, your different." Be different!
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