9/11 – Who Will Save the Children?

No evil exceeds the killing of children. Only 3 children under 13 years are reported 9/11 deaths; but each child of a 9/11 murdered adult is a victim of the attacks. They are orphaned by the base intent of the hijackers of the airplanes. They are intended collateral damage. As they grow into adulthood what should be their perspective on the assault that short-circuited their childhood?

My wish is that their trauma is healed by their care givers without the scarring of vengeful thoughts. This is essential for tomorrows without fear.

I wish the child victims to recognize that any wanton destruction of life and property, wherever it occurs: on Manhattan; in Afghanistan; in Chechynia; in Rwanda; in Iraq; in Occupied Palestine; or in Israel is abhorrent. I wish them to recognize that corrosive effects of injustice are lethal to the world.

Between September 2000 and January 2001, fifty-three (53) Palestinian children under 16 years of age (4 were under 10) died by violent Israeli action in the Occupied Territories. (No Israeli children died violently in the same time period.)

Will the care-givers of the orphans of 9/11 and the rest of us enfold in their loving concern these victims of another terror?.

Between January 2001 and April 2002, 101 Palestinian children under 16 died violently (24 were under 10). In this period, 28 Israeli children under 16 died violently (13 were under 10). Will the care-givers of the orphans of 9/11 and the rest of us insist on an imposed halt on this mayhem by the only nation positioned to do so, the USA?

Will they and the rest of us demand that our leaders require negotiation and not retaliation? Will we insist that revenge defeats peace-making; that aggression defeats peace-making; that dishonesty defeats peace-making; and that despair defeats peace-making.

Across our planet the tears of parents for murdered and orphaned children flow freely. This flood is a tsunami in the Middle East. The remembrance of those lost on 9/11 is a time to think to all of child victims around the world. Will we demand that our leaders make good works of healing and not violent reaction? Will we demand that they talk, not bomb? Will we insist they lay balm on the wounds, not inflict new ones? Will we save the children?

Mr. Charles A. Homsy contributed above article to Media Monitors Network (MMN) from Houston, Texas, USA.