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this article was first posted on the IONS "Noetic Café" public discussion board. It is reproduced here with the author's permission.
Jimmy Langkop
Prague, Czech Rep. photo from "America's Tragedy as Seen by the World" a moving photo essay of memorials erected after 9/11/2001 around the world, and European minutes of silence observed that week
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Essays: Correct use of MaHuang/Ephedra & the truth about Chinese Herbs, weight loss, and metabolism
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9-11: The Healing of Americaby Jimmy Langkop September 11, 2001, the day four commercial planes were hijacked by terrorists and converted into human missiles - two crashing into the World Trade Center twin towers in New York, one crashing into The Pentagon in Washington D.C., and the fourth never making it to its intended target because passengers rescued the plane from the hijackers and crashed it into a remote area in southwestern Pennsylvania – is the day America grew up and became conscious. As we ask the question: "Who did this, and what is the appropriate response?” we must also ask: "What have we done to create so much anger and hatred toward America, and how can we heal that?" The second question carries the seeds of wiping out terrorism completely. The first question, which addresses the outer crisis - "Who did this, and what is the appropriate response?” - will be answered perfectly and completely by President Bush and his cabinet and military advisers. Even though he was elected under very questionable circumstances, it was no accident. When he surrounded himself, before his election and after, with people and advisers whom seemed to be a throwback to his father’s administration ten years ago, neither was that an accident. He has the best of America – Dick Cheney, Colin Powell, Condoleezza Rice, Donald Rumsfeld, and others - at his side and in power to handle this first question. President Bush has met his destiny and purpose. As we watch him mature handling this crisis, so will we Americans, and America itself, begin to grow up. We all are maturing in our values, becoming conscious, and meeting our destiny, both individually and as a nation. The second question - "What have we done to create so much anger and hatred toward America, and how can we heal that?” – addresses and leads us to healing the inner problem, and will show us how to eradicate terrorism at its core. This second question must be addressed by us, the people of America, so that we can effect the great internal healing. This will set the stage for our leadership to get it and guide America to its destiny. For if the people will lead, the leaders will follow. Abraham Lincoln said the American people would always do the right thing if they were given all the facts. America’s Shadow Dance
America has quite a "shadow dance" going on right now. We need to look at
our shadow here in America, how we have misused our power abroad and at home,
before we go make an all out war on terrorism. We have promoted and sponsored
terrorism for our own political and economic gains around the world, too:
We don't have to look beyond our borders to find narrow-minded, religious fanaticism. The enemy that America must confront is more of a mindset than a person or a group of terrorists. This mindset, which seeks power over others believing their way or version of God is the highest or only true way, exists within all countries, as well as externally. While we attempt to eradicate all terrorism external to our nation and ourselves, we must also confront the matching energy that lives within us. This matching energy is a part of ourselves that we have relegated to our shadow, both nationally and individually. To heal our shadow we must acknowledge it as our own and take responsibility for it. The shadow is created through denial of qualities, positive or negative, that we choose to disown in our self and thereby project onto others, groups and/or nations. Thus, we create both heroes and villains to be what we do not want to believe we are capable of being. What we acknowledge, we can heal and no longer need to project onto others. What we don’t own and don't change owns us and creates continuous conflicts in our lives and affairs.
Seeds of Arab Anti-American Resentment When Russia withdrew from Afghanistan in 1989, so did we. We promised to help the Afghanis. But once the war ended, we abandoned them. They have come to resent us there for this abandonment. Their country is in shambles with no economy. A group of radical, religious patriarchs, the Taliban, came to power out of default. They have been terrorizing women there, demanding literal adherence to their version of Islam, and protecting Osama Bin Laden. Even though America was invited by Saudi Arabia into an Arab conflict, Iraq invading Kuwait and seizing its oil fields, fundamentalist Muslims resented a Western presence in the land of Mohammed. This conjured up memories of the Crusades in 1099 when Christians arrogantly waged a religious war on Muslims in the Holy Lands. We were never told the entire story about why Saddam Hussein invaded Kuwait. The Kuwaiti bankers financed Iraq’s long and protracted war against Iran. When the war was over, the Kuwaiti bankers played hardball with Hussein demanding full payment on their loans. Hussein was in no place to repay those loans immediately. Then Kuwait cut off his pipelines to the Persian Gulf that he used to sell Iraqi oil to the Western world, thereby economically strangling Iraq. So he decided to invade Kuwait, nationalize the oil fields, and cancel the loans. Another item we should remember is that the British arbitrarily carved Kuwait out of Iraq around the same time Israel was created. When the Gulf War ended in 1991, we maintained a strong military presence in Kuwait and in Saudi Arabia. This gave rise to more anti-American sentiments among Islamic fundamentalists since we remained on Muslim soil. Not so different from the Russian presence in Afghanistan a few years prior. The British, Americans, and Europeans have meddled in Arab affairs for years, primarily to establish and protect their own oil interests. From the Arab point of view, America has blindly supported and protected Israel without any regard for the original inhabitants of Palestine and Canaan, now called Israel. Palestinians were the sole occupants of this land before the United Nations, led by England and America, carved out the state of Israel. Our current policy hasn’t put enough pressure on Ariel Sharon’s government to end the counter-terrorizing of Palestinians and get Sharon to resume the peace negotiations championed by Rabin and Barak, both great Israeli military leaders who as prime ministers fought the “hawks” in Israel for peace with Palestinians. On September 8, 2001 at the World Conference on Racism in Durban, South Africa, we, America walked out with Israel because we did not want to listen to the Palestinian grievances and charges of racism by Israel toward Palestine. Instead of being an agent of healing and using our influence to listen to those we do not agree with and to change the final rhetoric and resolutions adopted, we left. What a golden opportunity we missed to show America’s greatness. This is also indicative of our denial of our own racism issues in America and our continued refusal to apologize as a nation to Native Americans for genocide, and to African-Americans for slavery. The Reverend Martin Luther King, Jr. told us that “violence is the language of the unheard.” There’s our insight. There’s how we become better agents of world peace. So if "violence is the language of the unheard," maybe we need to become better listeners! No conflict can be resolved and peace achieved without listening to everyone and finding common ground on which we can agree. Our foreign policy in all countries has been about protecting American interests abroad. However, in numerous situations it has often been to the exclusion of following our ideals and founding principles or achieving a simultaneous benefit for the other countries involved. We as a nation must live our greatness. Our foreign policies must be to benefit all involved and our ideals on which we were founded. We are too powerful to afford to misuse our power. The Symbolism of 9-11 America There are no accidents! This enormous tragedy and violation took place on 9-11, representing our national emergency telephone number. This was our great wake-up call. It is time to reprioritize our lives. No longer to be consumed with consuming, but to remember and to live what is really important – human love, support and sharing, looking out for and taking care of each other. None of us can do life alone. We must learn to include everyone in the world conversation. When the people will lead, the leaders will follow. The first two buildings bombed were the twin towers of the World Trade Center, symbols America’s economic power, multinational corporations, capitalism, and Western materialistic culture. The third civilian bomb crashed into The Pentagon, symbol of America’s military strength, which has been used by our politicians at times to protect what the World Trade Center symbolized. Are we listening yet? America has not yet achieved a real and true democracy. We are still working on it. The seeds were planted over 200 years ago, but we have to constantly tend to that garden vigilantly weeding and fertilizing it. Currently, we are more of a “corpocracy” than a democracy as evidenced by our deep pocket, special interests dictating our congressional agendas in Washington, D.C. Why else would so much talk about campaign-finance reform become so popular among the people? The fourth plane-bomb never hit its intended target because courageous Americans rallied against the hijacker-terrorists and foiled their plan by crashing the plane in a remote part of Pennsylvania to minimize further loss of life. Americans will always rise to the occasion to know what the right thing to do is and to do the right thing, regardless of the sacrifice. Americans are taking the lead and the leaders will have to follow. A deeper level understanding of the attack of 9/11/01 is what America and New York City symbolize even more than capitalism and democracy that is, pluralism and globalism. New York City and Manhattan Island in particular represent the most diverse and pluralistically functioning city in the world -- a prototype of the world to come. It is the one place in the world where all nationalities, cultures, and religions of the world live together and thrive. The deeper agenda behind these attacks is "superiority thinking," someone believing their version of God is the only true God, their way is the only true way of thinking or believing, and that all other approaches are inferior. This mindset also believes in racial, ethnic, religious, and cultural purity. It abhors pluralism, cultural diversity, racial integration, and globalism. This mindset exists and thrives within all nations and cultures. It is just not from some group over there or outside of our nation solely. This mindset sees pluralism and globalism (culturally integrated diversity) as the evil contaminating the world today. The terrorists behind these attacks in America hold this mindset and desperately want to stop the progress and natural evolution of the human race to living together as ONE. It was pluralism, globalism, and all people who care to live together in peace and harmony bringing forth this new humanity, that were attacked, and will continue to be attacked in the future around the world. It is the combination of pluralism, globalism, democracy, human freedom, and world harmony that terrorizes the terrorists. Paradoxically, these terrorist attacks and all future ones will only strengthen the cause of uniting the people of the world and their nations into a global village. America’s Soul America has been magnanimous in making its former enemies its friends and rebuilding their countries and economies. We only need to look at what the Marshall Plan did for Germany, Italy, and Japan, now our closest allies. We are doing something similar with Russia today. We have given uncountable aid to countries all over the world. After World War I, President Woodrow Wilson warned and pleaded with European nations not to punish Germany so severely, but to help Germany rebuild. Instead, the American plan was ignored and the Treaty of Versailles became a doctrine of retribution and oppression against Germany. The result was World War II, bringing a Hitler to power, as retaliation against Europe. The oppressed became the oppressors. America’s greatness is not in our military genius nor power, nor in our economic strength, nor in our technological domination. Rather, our greatness lies in our generosity, our compassion, our hearts, our spirit, our desire to help others in crisis, to protect the “little guy,” to make our enemies our friends, and to protect and promote freedom. America was founded as a system of ideals never before enacted in the history of the world that all could have equal opportunity to life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness. America's perpetual conflict has been to extend those ideals to all its citizens and to the world when confronted with its self-interests. Eventually everyone gets educated, one way or another, and our ideals win out and are manifested. That's our history. We are a nation of immigrants. Our ancestors and current immigrants all share the common bond to endure whatever the hardship, overcome whatever the obstacle, to pay whatever the price to live in personal freedom. This runs deep through every American’s psyche and soul. The Big Picture –What’s Really Going On This is a universal wake-up call for everyone affected and touched by this tragedy. Many changes will take place in all our lives. This is about intolerance – religious and cultural. This is a time for great soul searching and making even greater changes within ourselves, as well as in our nations. The world and humanity are in process of graduating from a patriarchal, declining old worldview into an egalitarian, ascending new worldview. Egalitarianism is a system of shared power and synthesis politics where neither male nor female dominate nor rule over each other, and where all views are deemed important to see the whole picture. We are in the birth canal of a great evolutionary leap, individually and collectively. The Middle East has been the holding tank of the last great vestiges of patriarchal energy, which suppresses and denigrates the feminine, on the planet. Now there is a collective patriarchal dance going on across all borders that matches up the Bush’s, the Sharon’s, the Arafat’s, the Bin Laden’s, the Sadam Hussein’s, and the Taliban’s of the world. While breakdown might seem apparent on the surface, there will be a great breakthrough for many in world leadership. This can be seen as a dance in the changing of the guard from patriarchy (domination) to egalitarianism (partnership). The world is uniting for the first time in response to this crisis. There will be breakups of old, no longer functional ways of thinking and being that cannot shift to be in alignment with the newer and higher organizing principles. Marriages, partnerships, businesses, groups, religions, economies, and nations will all be subject to this. Everything will be in a constant state of transformation. We are about to make an evolutionary leap forward. The old, solely physically focused ways based on fear, separation, exclusion, superiority thinking, duality, and domination are being challenged and will be transformed. A new humanity is emerging that will be organized around trust, partnership, love, inclusion, wholeness, interconnectedness, oneness, and being soul conscious. America will lead the way for the world. How Do We Respond to 9-11 America? Listen, listen, listen. Abraham Lincoln told us, “Do I not destroy my enemy when I make him my friend?” There is no greater recipe for peace than that. Just how do we do that? Reverend King knew that answer when he said, "violence is the language of the unheard." So obviously we need to become better listeners with everyone who enters our space, physically or electronically. Maybe it’s time to dialogue with everyone so that they may be heard, no matter what, no matter whom – even terrorists! It’s impossible not to love someone if we just take enough time to get to know him or her. So dialogue with everyone, and listen to their truth and view. Find the common ground. It always exists if we only are willing to open our eyes and our hearts enough. “Be kind, for everyone you meet is fighting a hard battle.” New Yorkers have magnificently modeled this for everyone around the world. America instantly became a kinder and gentler nation upon seeing the devastation in New York. It softened us. It humbled us. All of a sudden we no longer had any real problems. The people in New York, Washington D.C., and the families of the victims, they had real problems. Kindness should become a way of life for all of us now. Not only in this country, but even more so when traveling abroad. America’s worst foreign policy has been “the ugly American,” the rude, arrogant American tourist. Apologize. America has not learned this lesson yet. Our arrogance has gotten in the way of this one. Saying “I’m sorry” carries so much profound healing energy that goes far beyond the immediate act or circumstance. It immediately breaks down the barriers of misunderstanding and unforgiveness and retaliation. It opens an avenue of dialogue so that we can listen, so that we and others can be heard, or so that someone else’s pain can be acknowledged and their healing can begin. We who currently live in America may not be responsible for what happened in our history. But, because we have inherited that legacy, we are 100% responsible for the healing of all old injustices and wounds. We, America, owe a deep apology to the Native Americans for the genocide perpetuated against them, the stealing of their lands, and the over 600 treaties we broke with them while they never broke one. We, America, owe a deep apology to African-Americans for supporting and expanding the horrible European institution of slavery, for the cruelty and inhumanity perpetrated against their ancestors, and for the continued racism that exists in our country today. We can apologize for the misguided and unconscious actions of ourselves, our families, our religions, our gender, and our nation to all who have been deeply hurt. We all must live as ambassadors of light and truth and love. We all can be agents of healing and transformation. Be Inclusive. Think Inclusive. Act Inclusive. We can no longer leave anyone out of the dialogue. Every viewpoint is valuable. Everyone deserves a place at the table. Wholeness is what we are all trying to achieve individually. As we heal we are actually becoming whole. We live in a new digital world where national boundaries no longer exist. There is only one race – the Human Race. There is only one color of blood – red. We are all much more alike than we could ever be different. Medical science has proved this through our latest DNA discoveries that all humans are 99.9% the same. So we can be amazed to know that only 00.1% of our DNA creates such magnificent diversity in human cultures and individuality. Our deepest yearning is to love, more than to be loved. We all want to feel connected to something bigger than ourselves. We must be inclusive, think inclusive, and act inclusive.
"Be the change you want to see in the world." On 9/11/01 in America there were more than 6,500 souls (and still counting) from 62 different countries who loved us so much as to sacrifice their continued lives with their beloved families in order that we might wake up and become active agents of healing and transformation in our own lives and in our world. May we never forget their love and their sacrifice!
Jimmy Langkop
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