QOTD -- How Terrorism Wins

 

"... Do not let terrorists who hold state power tell you how to react to terrorism.

"Do not be provoked, do not enter the mental world of the terrorist, foreign or domestic; think for yourself. And do that thinking in the future: not as a reaction to some orchestrated horror, theirs or ours or anyone’s; not amidst a cloying nostalgia in which we were always right because only others can do wrong; but in the hope that we can make this quarter century better than the last.

"Commemoration is a singular chance to reflect. Americans in power will try to use this anniversary to that everything happened exactly as it had to, and that we should bow our heads rather than use them.

"We went along twenty-five years ago. We should not do so again. Thinking about the last quarter century, we can choose to think differently.

"And what we failed to do then we can do now. We can think of our security as part of our freedom, as our education and our health and ability to realize our best selves. We can turn from sources of energy that kill to sources of power that enliven. We can love our country but recognize that our only homeland is a common one, the earth itself." -- Timothy Snyder, writing from Kiev, concluding his "Thinking About..." Substack essay, "Helping The Terrorists Win." Professor Snyder traces the response to terrorism from 9/11 to today, and all the wrong-headed ways we lashed out, often creating more problems and "helping the terrorists win."  Perhaps if we see and understand the broader implications of our past actions, we can someday learn to do what's most effective and positive for ourselves and our planet.  A typically thoughtful piece, well worth the read.