Five Years, and Where Are We Now?

Five years ago, our lives were throttled by sadness, fear and rage. What made those Ides of September bearable was the slim hope that we, as individuals, communities and nation, would emerge stronger and wiser from our trials. To this day, this remains a hope unfulfilled. We remain none the wiser.

In some respects, the failure to learn from Sept. 11 is hardly surprising. Of course, our airports continue to employ octogenarians as security personnel who, instead of screening airmailed packages for altimeters or considering measures to protect the airports themselves from attack, focus all their efforts on having us remove our flip-flops before passing through the metal detector. Of course, the former Immigration and Naturalization Service, now a proud member of the ballooning Department of Homeland Security, employs every opportunity to block all the right people from entering our country but hands out visas to long-dead terrorists. Of course, the current administration leaps on every chance to strike fear into our hearts with threatening yet vague rhetoric about its war on terrorism. One would have been naïve to expect progress on those fronts.

Rather, the hope for wisdom of which I write is the hope that we would learn to transcend our emotions and political identities as we struggle with issues that involve us all I did not direct this hope towards Washington, where representatives depend on partisanship for their political survival. Nor did I direct my expectations towards the city of Berkeley, where the daily reenactment of stale 1960s-radicalism and shrill posturing around extreme positions are deemed worthy ends in themselves.

My wish was more modest. I merely wished that within the boundaries of the UC Berkeley campus, we would shed our ideological armors and think pragmatically and rationally about the future. I am not suggesting the bridging of partisan divisions or a search for the lowest common denominator among political camps, but to ignore partisan divisions altogether. I am proposing that we base our evaluation of the world around us not on our identity as Republicans or Democrats but on the merits of facts as they present themselves. I am suggesting a reliance on evidence and common sense while debating the burning concerns that have marked our lives in the last five years and continue to do so.

I mean understanding that a responsible citizen can support the domestic agenda of a political party while at the same time rejecting as flawed its foreign policy and embracing the environmental agenda of a third party altogether. I mean understanding that one's position on the causes of the war in Iraq is entirely independent from one's judgement of the ongoing campaign in Iraq which, in turn, is entirely independent from one's position on our obligations towards Iraq in the future.

I mean knowing the difference between our emotions regarding the current administration and their policies , and the results as spun by the media, our friends and these actors themselves. I mean distinguishing between the world as it is and as the world as we would like it to be.

Understanding that one can demand the extension and enhancement of all social privileges to every resident of this country while, at the same time, supporting the death penalty for the fiercest criminals. That one can insist on universal healthcare and a school system to rival the best in the world and at the same time support a hawkish foreign policy. That it is legitimate to require every American to speak English while at the same time rejecting the notion that every American has the right to own an automatic weapon.

That one can defend gay marriage, endorse stem cell research and decry the teaching of creationism in schools without trampling on religious sensibilities. That one can disparage religious fundamentalism without relegating all evils of the current administration to Christian revivalism or dismissing the unique ability of religious organizations to provide grassroots social services.

That embracing multilateralism and working intensely to bolster the United Nations does not require asking other states, especially those that have acted irresponsibly in the past, for permission before embarking on a war. That one can strive to moderate American foreign policy without expecting weaker states to replace their anger or jealousy with worship of U.S. hegemony. That one can empathize with the plight of the Palestinian people while recognizing that suffering does not absolve them from responsibility-and that the same is true of Israelis.

That one can worry about the nuclear capabilities of the harebrained regime in Iran while also realizing that an invasion of Iran is ridiculous. And at the same time recognize that this threat, or that of North Korea, are entirely irrelevant when questioning the logic of invading Iraq. That one can seriously investigate the flaws behind the decision to go to war in Iraq without subscribing to zany conspiracy theories about blood and oil that can neither be proved not disproved.

That was my hope, nursed over images of cataclysm, five years ago. It doesn't take much. It involves espousing positions, like the ones I listed above or their complete opposites, irrespective of whether or not they match the formal party line. It obliges you to read the news from across the political spectrum and from around the world.

It entails enrolling in classes that offer intelligent criticism, rather than blind support, of political opinions that you are comfortable with. It involves ditching "preach-ins," at which panellists congratulate themselves for holding the same opinion, only to proceed in regurgitating that belief into the gaping mouths of attendees.

It obliges you to dodge professors who advertise their political allegiance on their sleeves or office doors and instead to seek out their many colleagues who strive to learn while they teach. It requires you to boycott the bumper stickers sold for a premium by the peacemonger on Telegraph Avenue and instead formulate an informed position on current affairs that does not, because it cannot, fit on the bumper of a single car. Of this I dream.

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