In Response to Michael:

Michael D’Andrea’s stirring and inspiration words challenge all of us to become more involved in our world in the wake of the tragic events of 11/4. For too long, Michael has shouldered the burden of reminding us of our responsibilities and of our need for concerted and organized action. We have heard from only a few in response to his pleas. It is now time for each of us to share the mantle for social justice with him. It is not only a question of doing what we can -- each in our own way and in our own setting. The global community in which we now live requires that we meet the challenges of local, national and global injustice. Our “new” interdependency requires new knowledge, new morality, and new actions.

We must not become the “Hollow Men” of T.S. Eliot -- resigned, vacuous, and content in our stupor. It is now clear that we are in the clutches of institutions that have lost their purpose and mission. We are under the control of a government that has chosen to pursue and indulge the selfish interests of a chosen few who are bleeding our economy and our identity and heritage for profit. We are under the control of churches, temples, and mosques -- indeed religions – who have chosen political agendas in the name of self- righteousness and in pursuit of self aggrandizement. We are under the control of business corporations who have willfully lied, cheated, and exploited workers and the public in search of profit and greater personal wealth of corporate leaders. We are under the control of  media that have distorted truth and compromised accuracy for readership, viewership, and hollow praise. Hollywood and New York, as entertainment communities and institutions, have shaped a popular culture so devoid of substance, so debasing of humanity, so driven by profit that they should be indicted as a public threat for the products they have created and shower upon us.

If religion is “the opiate of the people,” then we now have new opiates that include professional sports, celebrity cultures, and entertainment cultures that dumb down our citizens keeping them captive to wants rather than needs and to an unquestioning and conforming mindset that dulls their intellect and will. Paolo Freire, the brilliant educator and social theorist, was correct when he said our education system has failed to produce students capable of understanding the powerful social, political, and economic forces that actually shape their lives. Even college and university educations no longer challenge the often vapid beliefs and behaviors of students in favor of institutional comfort and tranquility.

And so we get the results of the 11/4 tragedy, one that rivals the 9/11 tragedy in terms of its implication and consequences for death, destruction, trauma, and insecurity. How many more must die as our government blindly and ethnocentrically forces an “unacceptable peace” upon the region and the world. We find ourselves pitted against one another. True believers blindly pursue the psychic comforts of intolerance, certainty, and total conformity to authority. Yet, amidst their comfort, racism, sexism, and ageism continue to thrive under the protection of a government and churches that deny history, morality, and justice.

The question is not whether the Middle-East may need democracy and liberty, the question is why is oppression tolerated by our government in Saudi Arabia, Israel, China, Russia, and the Americas, and the question is why the pursuit of freedom and democracy could not have been done with aid, diplomacy, and the appeal to human rights. Would the increased time that peace often takes not be worth it to the tens of thousands who have died and who know daily suffering.

I say choose social justice! Michael has outlined an action agenda that can mobilize forces. But he cannot do it alone. We must hear from each of you. We must be reminded daily of the challenges we face. We must participate and live within the passions of our times.

The choices are clear: peace over violence and war, justice over injustice, freedom over oppression, voice over silence, service over self-interest, cooperation over competition, change over passivity, diversity over uniformity, and life over death.

Thank you Michael, for what you have done in reminding each of us what we must do. Take comfort in the fact that you have stimulated conscience and mobilized action in our lives. For this we are grateful and stand with you in your efforts.

Anthony J. Marsella, Ph.D., D.H.C.

Emeritus Professor

"What kind of peace do I mean? What kind of peace do we seek? Not a Pax Americana enforced on the world by American weapons of war. . . .

I am talking about genuine peace, the kind of peace that makes life on earth worth living, . . .not merely peace for Americans but peace for all men and women -- not merely peace in our time but peace for all time." President John F. Kennedy, American University, June 10, 1963.