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A Letter to Senator Wellstone

...Parish Administrator Peter Eichten asks for a visionary response.

Editors Note: Much has already and will be written about the events of September 11th, 2001. Sometimes the writing is as much for the writer's soul as for the reader. If any parishioners would like to submit their thoughts to the webmaster for publication, they will be seen on these pages. Submit to rhollj@bitstream.net.

Dear Senator Wellstone,

I have been extremely disappointed in the comments you have made over the past few days in response to the "Attack on America" by terrorists. You have always been the conscience of the country, and I am one of your biggest supporters. However, the comments you have made so far are "party-line" comments of retaliation and getting the bad-guys. I know that you believe strongly in the principles of non-violence as put forth by Gandhi and Martin Luther King, now is the time that those principles need to be implemented. Fighting violence with violence just creates more violence and continues the spiral of violence that knows no end. Instead of spending energy on revenge we are much better served as a nation and as a world to be asking the difficult questions of why do these terrible things continue to happen? Why does much of the world hate the US? (It is clearly not because we love freedom as President Bush suggests.) We need to be looking at the root causes of such horrendous actions. To write it off as "extremists" doesn't solve anything. There are deep rooted issues most of which are economic in nature that cause this type of extremism.

The "wake-up call" we've heard so much about these past couple of days is really about America waking up and seeing how our consumerism and our wealth deprives others, especially the developing world. As you know, our consumerist demands for cheap goods is the cause of the many "sweatshops" around the world.

Please be more visionary in your response to this terrible terrorist action. We need to have extraordinary compassion for the victims and their families and friends. That part is easy, the difficult part is having extraordinary compassion for the perpetrators.

Peter Eichten is St. Joan of Arc's Parish Administrator.

Sincerely, Peter J. Eichten