Author: Kathleen Dannemiller,
Dannemiller Tyson Associates
No one in our country or around
the world will ever forget the horror of September 11. I am
retired now and therefore I had time to sit in front of the
television without ceasing…day and night, listening to
every interview, and attempting to understand what this meant
to me. What I kept saying to myself and to anyone who called
was "All I know for sure at this moment is that the world
I live in will never be the same again."
As all of us moved past the
shock, I joined many others around the world in asking, "What
should we do? How do we "get ours back" -- what
is an appropriate response to this kind of brutality? We don't
even know who to bomb!" 'That journey led me to an email
from Arun Ghandi, grandson of Mohandas K. Ghandi in in which
he says "We need to appreciate that we are in a position
to play a powerful role in helping the 'other half' of the
world attain a better standard of living….For too long
our foreign policy has been based on 'what is good for the
United States'. It smacks of selfishness. Our foreign policy
needs to be based on what is good for the world and how can
we do the right things to help the world become more peaceful.
(Footnote for Steve: Arun Gandhi, Director of the Ghandi Institute
for Non-Violence, Memphis, TN…email of Oct. 5, 2001)
His words rang in my ears and spoke to my yearnings. How could
we respond to this attack in a way that would help build peace?
How could we do it in a way that truly expressed the basic
American human values…our r espoused values, not necessarily
those we have used in retaliation the past few years? I was
obsession with every waking breath, looking for what I could
see as an answer. A dear friend called me one night and after
I obsessed for awhile, she said, "Kathie, are you aware
that if you did come up with the answer, you have no power
to make it happen?" That caused me to pause and think.
My realization was that I do believe that if I have an appropriate
answer, I do have the power…and I am driven by that old
saying "If it is to be, it's up to me"…I realized
that was the belief of an empowered person, someone who lives
passionately and strives to find the answers that express
our values as a nation. And that person is me.
Shortly after this step in my
obsessive journey, another old friend called from California.
He listened to me and said "Kathie, you're old enough
to remember George Marshall and the Marshall Plan. How about
a global Marshall plan as part of the response?" I got
very excited and went to the Web to look up the Marshall Plan.
George Marshall (for those of you who may not even have been
born then) was a military man who had served in World War
I and had been a leading general in World War II. He became
Truman's Secretary of State in the years after the war ended.
He somehow convinced Congress and the country that the only
way to ensure peace in the future was to learn from our WWI
experiences. We left Germany in economic and personal disaster…we
didn't feel we owed them anything. After all, they had started
the war and deserved to suffer. By doing that, Marshall believed
that we created the "have-not" culture that was
open to Hitler's empowering words. Marshall said: Let's not
make the same mistake here. Let's pour money into Europe,
and particularly into Germany, to help bring about economic
recovery.
Marshall gave a famous speech at Harvard in 1947, in which
he said:
"Our policy is directed
not against any country or doctrine but against hunger, poverty,
desperation, and chaos…..Such assistance, I am convinced,
must not be on a piecemeal basis….It should provide a
cure rather than a mere palliative."
I found out, from reading the
documents on the Marshall Foundation website, that Marshall
carried out his plan, fighting for it for two years in public
and in Congress. And when the Marshall Plan had become a living
reality, Marshall stepped back for a few years before he came
back in 1950 as Secretary of Defense for a few more years.
That was it..I got my answer.
And here it is:
Obviously we need to find and
remove Osama bin Laden; take him to the World Court. We need
to help Afghanistan get good leadership again by somehow getting
rid of the Taliban.
And then let's create the Global Marshall Plan: the US could
contribute a percentage of the large amount of money Congress
has allocated to President Bush for defensive actions to a
world fund for rebuilding the pockets of poverty and hopelessness
now existing: in East Africa, in Afghanistan, in Palestine
areas, in Colombia, Vietnam…wherever powerlessness exists
it will be a breeding ground for terrorists. They have nothing
to lose…they feel as if an act of terrorism will give
them meaning in a barren life.
Then when we have, by example, spoken to our beliefs and values
by creating the foundation for the Plan, we invite all of
our allies, the countries who are as appalled as we are about
the killing and destruction in New York, to join us by putting
their "money where their mouth is" and contributing
a proportion of their defense money…we ask the UN (or
maybe even the Marshall Foundation!) to oversee the use of
the money to rebuild areas in profound need of hope. I don't
have the answer to how to do this, of course, but let's get
the idea out there. I believe, in spite of the fact that I
fought against his election and scoffed at his presidency,
that he has grown into the President we need, helped by Colin
Powell…and probably George I. They want to express our
values, and their language tells me that...but they have a
group in Washington, and in America, who just want to bomb
Arabs into submission. We must be the voices that speak to
another way.
