Dear Editor:
A reporter asked a rescue worker at the World Trade Center site why he was willing to risk his life looking for survivors when the situation looked so hopeless. He replied that saving one life saves a hundred lives because it saves a whole family.
We need to bring the people to justice who committed these horrors. But just as importantly, we need to avoid taking more innocent lives. Every innocent person who dies leaves behind a hundred grieving survivors. These survivors will forever look on Americans as their enemies.
UNICEF and the World Health Organization estimates that almost a million innocent people have died in Iraq as a result of the destruction of their country during the Gulf War.
The easiest and worst thing to do now is to blindly unleash our military against the people of Afghanistan. We need to take all the time necessary to bring only the guilty to justice. Of course this is very difficult. However, it is the only way to end a perpetual cycle of killing. If ever there was a time to do this, it is now. Maybe never before in history has so much of mankind been united against a common enemy.
The best service we can perform for the victims of September 11 is not to have them die in vain. Let’s use this as an opportunity to build a worldwide alliance against hatred and injustice.
John Pankowicz