From Tragedies, Looking for Solutions

On the anniversary of 9/11, as a New Yorker and an American, I find myself at a loss for words. I will not begin to address all the range of issues that could be addressed.

What I feel 4 years later is that 9/11 started a cycle of violence that has not ended. Revenge begets revenge and the cycle becomes harder to stop without true reconciliation. And the tightening oil supplies that we will experience in the years to come will only exacerbate this cycle of violence. Our foreign policy since 9/11 has largely failed.

Katrina has now exposed that one of the major domestic responses to 9/11, the Department of Homeland Security, has failed as well.

So what can we do?

I don't have the answer, but I think we need a new mindset in thinking about what our real goals are. How do we increase our security in the world? How do we offer the next generation a better life than the current one?

Overextending our military has made us less secure at home and abroad. Basing our entire transporation system on the automobile has created our dependence on oil (foreign and domestic) has made our economy prone to price spikes and has made protecting those supplies above almost all other national interests.

There has to be a better way than our current path of unsustainability and self-destruction.