Questions to Ask Our "Enemies"

Today, after making berry custard ice cream and what I will call "toasty toffee," I found an issue of World Magazine and began reading it (not something I normally do with that publication, if ever, but it was there). In an article titled "Trial of the Century," I read, according to Lynn Vincent, the World contributor (I will assume her figures are accurate), there were 2,973 people involved in the event of violence and brokeness that shattered us on 11 Septemeber, 2001. 2,973! As the article continues, Vincent discusses the question of whether these individuals detained on the charge of terrorism should be entitled to the rights of habeas corpus. My question is: Are they human? Then shouldn't they be alloted what we have deemed a basic "human right"? There are, of course, exceptions and conditions applied to habeas corpus. Something to think about, I suppose.

Let us step back a little and look at that number again-- 2,973.

2,973.

My first question, as I sat in shock, was not "How could a group of people be so violent?" or "Why are Muslim fanatics so plentiful?" Rather, all I could think was "Why?" "Why would that many people hate another nation so strongly?"

I am reminded by something Wendell Berry writes in his essay "In the Presence of Fear". Berry advises that now we are in a conflict with peoples of the Middle East, that we learn their history, they culture, their arts and fears. And then we can perhaps learn why they hate us. Berry, being who he is, uses strong language by employing the term "hate us." Perhaps the people we think "hate us" don't hate us, but simply an idea of us. And I think we need to ask why. Peace is an open dialogue of questions, images, feelings, histories mingling with one another.

We ought to ask our neighbors with whom we find ourselves in conflict:


Who do you think I am?
What do you think I do, believe, value that is in such sharp contradiction to your own convictions?
What are your convictions?
Tell me about your life.
What kinds of poems do you read? Books? Plays?
Do you like your food spicy, bland, sweet?
Did your parents read to you at night before bed?
What do you want to be when you grow up, and why?
What do you mean by what you say and do?
What has brought you to this point (think personal and national history)?
What can I do to bring peace to this relationship?

And we should also ask ourselves:

Do I know this person who I supposedly hate or who supposedly hates me?
Am I acting on a belief that someone hates me who may not actually hate me?
Has something been lost in translation?
Are we even bothering to translate?
Have I confused defensive thinking with offensive thinking (I must be proactive before this person devastates me and not let them get too close)?
What is my history?
What do I truly believe and value?
Will doing what I can to bring peace conflict with any of my foundational beliefs?
If yes, are those really beliefs I ought to hold?
If no, then why am I not doing what I can to bring peace here?
What kind of world do we want live in?

And there are so many more questions to ask.

By the way, I like to read poems by Naomi Shihab Nye and Eavan Boland. What about you?