# From The NY Times (Believe It Or Not)...Worth A Read



## GMoney (Mar 4, 2001)

This appeared last week in the op/ed pages of the NY Times:

*9/11 LESSON PLAN*
By Thomas L. Friedman
The NY Times just ran an article about the trouble teachers were having in deciding what to tell students on Sept. 11. That's a serious question. This is a moment for moral clarity, and here are the three lessons I would teach:
Lesson #1: Who are they? This lesson would emphasize that while most people in the world are good and decent, there are evil people out there who are not poor, not abused but envious. These extremists have been raised in societies that have failed to prepare them for modernity, and the most evil among them chose on Sept. 11 to lash out at the symbols of modern America. As the Egyptian playwright Ali Salem put it in Time magazine, "Beneath their claims . . . these extremists are pathologically jealous. They feel like dwarfs, which is why they search for towers and all those who tower mightily." Their grievance is rooted in psychology, not politics; their goal is to destroy America, not reform it; they can only be defeated, not negotiated with. 
Assigned reading: Larry Miller's Jan. 14, 2002, essay in The Weekly Standard: "Listen carefully: We're good, they're evil, nothing is relative. Say it with me now and free yourselves. You see, folks, saying 'We're good' doesn't mean 'We're perfect.' Okay? The only perfect being is the bearded guy on the ceiling of the Sistine Chapel. The plain fact is that our country has, with all our mistakes and blunders, always been and always will be the greatest beacon of freedom, charity, opportunity, and affection in history. If you need proof, open all the borders on Earth and see what happens. In about half a day, the entire world would be a ghost town, and the United States would look like one giant line to see 'The Producers.' . . . So here's what I resolve: To never forget our murdered brothers and sisters. To never let the relativists get away with their immoral thinking. After all, no matter what your daughter's political science professor says, we didn't start this."
Lesson #2: Who are we? We Americans are not better than any other people, but the Western democratic system we live by is the best system on earth. Unfortunately, in the Arab-Muslim world, there is no democracy, too few women's rights and too little religious tolerance. It is the values and traditions of freedom embraced by Western civilization, and the absence of those values and traditions in the Arab-Muslim world, that explain the main differences between us. 
Assigned reading: "An Autumn of War," by the military historian Victor Davis Hanson: "Our visionaries must be far clearer about the nature of our struggle. In their understandable efforts to say what we are not doing fighting Islam or provoking Arab peoples they have failed utterly to voice what we are doing: preserving Western civilization and its uniquely tolerant and human traditions of freedom, consensual government, disinterested inquiry and religious and political tolerance. . . . We must cease the apologetic tone we have developed with the Arab world, and make it clear that their ministers who hector us are not legitimate without elections, their spokesmen are not journalists without a free press, and their intellectuals are not credible without liberty. The right to admonish Americans on questions of morality is not an entitlement, but something earned only through a shared commitment to constitutional government."
Lesson #3: Why do so many foreigners reject the evil perpetrators of 9/11 but still dislike America? It's because, while we have the best system of governance, we are not always at our best in how we act toward the world. Because we want to drive big cars, we support repressive Arab dictators so they will sell us cheap oil. Because our presidents want to get votes, they readily tell the Palestinians how foolishly they are behaving, but they hesitate to tell Israelis how destructive their West Bank settlements are for the future of the Jewish state. Because we want to consume as much energy as we please, we tell the world's people they have to be with us in the war on terrorism but we don't have to be with them in the struggle against global warming and for a greener planet. 
The point, class, is that while evil people hate us for who we are, many good people dislike us for what we do. And if we want to win their respect we need to be the best, most consistent and most principled global citizens we can be.
Assigned readings: The U.S. Constitution, Woodrow Wilson's Fourteen Points speech and the Declaration of Independence.


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## ri-v-dub (Jan 28, 2002)

*Re: From The NY Times (Believe It Or Not)...Worth A Read (GMoney)*

i'm all for america and i am patriotic.... but that just sounds too elitist... stuff like that makes other countries/religions hate us more...


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## GMoney (Mar 4, 2001)

*Re: From The NY Times (ri-v-dub)*

quote:[HR][/HR]but that just sounds too elitist...[HR][/HR]​See Lesson 3...


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## ri-v-dub (Jan 28, 2002)

*Re: From The NY Times (GMoney)*

"It's because, while we have the best system of governance"
still doesn't do it... as least right... 
how can we say we have the "best" system of governance"?
if it was best we would all have free health care, crime would be much lower, divorce rates would be low, americans wouldn't be killing each other the amount that we do... etc... etc... 
while there are a lot of points to our democracy that are great and valid... there are some things that just still don't work.. and i know nothing is perfect... but that whole article makes it out to be "perfect" 
it defends our government and makes the american people look to be greedy and not caring... in most street interviews that i have seen done by the american media in the middle east (and i mean in parts like iran, afghanistan, pakistan, etc...) and even from interviews with some of the afgan prisoners, the people say they don't have as much of grudge against the people of america as they do against the government and it's policy in the middle east...


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## Bjaardker (Nov 22, 2001)

*Re: From The NY Times (ri-v-dub)*

I dont believe we have the right to say our system of governance is best in the world, but I do believe that the bottom line is what rings so very true.
quote:[HR][/HR]The point, class, is that while evil people hate us for who we are, many good people dislike us for what we do. And if we want to win their respect we need to be the best, most consistent and most principled global citizens we can be.[HR][/HR]​Amen my brother.


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## Reflex5.5 (Jul 28, 2001)

*Re: From The NY Times (ri-v-dub)*

quote:[HR][/HR]the people say they don't have as much of grudge against the people of america as they do against the government and it's policy in the middle east... [HR][/HR]​Oh, I'm sure this consols the families of the those who died on 9/11.


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## ri-v-dub (Jan 28, 2002)

*Re: From The NY Times (Reflex5.5)*

i wasn't looking to console the people of america who have lost loved ones... 
all my views in this thread relate to that article... our war and our anger should be pointed towards the extremists and terrorists of the world not the common people of the world....
we are also forgetting that there we people from all over the world that lost loved ones... not just america... 
edit: and don't use that first line against me... because i think everyday of what happened... and how many people it has affected... people i know and love will never be the same and i have great sympathy for them and everyone around the world... 


[Modified by ri-v-dub, 6:29 PM 9-11-2002]


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## Reflex5.5 (Jul 28, 2001)

*Re: From The NY Times (ri-v-dub)*

I wasn't using this against you but I do feel that there are a lot of people who are obsessed with trying to search for reason behind those attacks, while reason has nothing to do with what happened. It was madness. Pure madness.


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## Peter (Sep 19, 1999)

*Re: From The NY Times (ri-v-dub)*

quote:[HR][/HR]"how can we say we have the "best" system of governance"?
if it was best we would all have free health care, crime would be much lower, divorce rates would be low, americans wouldn't be killing each other the amount that we do... etc... etc... [HR][/HR]​No man, you're missing the big picture. Don't focus on the fact that we don't have these things, pull the microscope back a bit.
Our system provides us with the *ability* to have these things should we desire. Democracy only requires the will of the people, nothing more, but usually a lot less.
Just because we don't, doesn't mean we can't. Our "system" is simply, us. *We the people.*


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## LangsamKafer (Jul 17, 2001)

*Re: From The NY Times (ri-v-dub)*

A reminder to all... This forum is for a remembrance of what happened last year, the loved ones lost and not about revenge, going to war, what could have been done differently. 
Thanks.


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## ri-v-dub (Jan 28, 2002)

*Re: From The NY Times (LangsamKafer)*

quote:[HR][/HR]A reminder to all... This forum is for a remembrance of what happened last year, the loved ones lost and not about revenge, going to war, what could have been done differently. 
Thanks.[HR][/HR]​point taken...








sorry about all that... 
peace...


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## VW-BMW (Dec 18, 2001)

*Re: From The NY Times (LangsamKafer)*

If I was a teacher I wouldn't have to teach a thing. I'd put in the tape of the first West Wing after 9-11.


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## Peter (Sep 19, 1999)

*Re: From The NY Times (VW-BMW)*

Paraphrase:
"I don't remember having to explain to the Italians why we got rid of Musolini. Why is it that we have to take every Middle Eastern Nation out for an ice cream cone to explain that what we are doing is right?!
They'll like us when we win."
I liked that show.


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