The shock is mostly over, although what happened still seems unimaginable. The grief remains and will continue for some time. But maybe it is time to start talking about the causes and reasons.

Sometimes I think I am not part of the same human race as most Americans. We are being cajoled into accepting a simplistic, jingoistic understanding of the events of September 11 and I couldn't disagree more. I believe this triumphant America-first attitude is part of the cause of this disaster. The search for causes is suspended before it touches America and its leaders. We are innocent victims and have no part in the deaths of all those precious people who died at the World Trade Center, the Pentagon or in that field in Western Pennsylvania.

America and its people did not deserve this attack, but rather than rushing to simple incomplete answers, we must step back and find the roots of the hatred. Many of us share a perspective on America that acknowledges our country's negative presence around the world. We feel disconnected from the popular, media-driven satisfaction with America and see America as a flawed superpower that wears its values of freedom and democracy on its sleeve, and in actuality uses the rest of the world as a sweatshop and tourist destination.

As people talked about how we have to get those bastards, I thought about the old joke that has Tonto saying to the Long Ranger as they are surrounded by Indians, "What do you mean 'we', white man?" I have no interest in identifying myself with angry people who want to answer terrorism with state-sponsored terrorism. I'm not interested in defending the American way of life because I don't know what that means these days. Does that mean enjoying the good life while ignoring all the suffering left in our wake?

The President tells us the terrorists attacked us because we are the greatest beacon of freedom in the world. Since he is the self-declared President of the Religious Right-Wing, I wonder what freedom he's talking about? Is it a woman's freedom to have a safe, accessible abortion, or the freedom of gays and lesbian to feel safe, or the freedom not to be forced to pray? Or is he talking about the freedom to live without medical insurance, or the right to remain in poverty for generations while the rich get richer?

The terrorists were fanatics and they were attacking our freedom to think differently, but primarily they were attacking the America that our politicians, corporations and power brokers present to the world. They were attacking our support for their enemies. They were attacking our comfortable detachment from worldwide injustice. The innocent dead are the victims of the terrorists, but also the victims of our collective neglect of moral issues around the world.

We have offered an opportunity for fanatical hatred to explode. Rather than stand for rational resolution of conflict, we have allowed economic interest to control our foreign policy.

When he was President, Jimmy Carter was laughed at for verbalizing a desire that America's foreign policy put morality above short-term national interest. Shortly after that we started to support the religious radicals in Afghanistan because our support made life difficult for the Soviet Union. If Jimmy was to repeat his desire today, he would probably be tarred and feathered. The sadness that accompanies this tragedy connects not only with the loss of so many special people, but with the shallowness that seems to dominate our national conversation. Our freedom has been squandered on an infinite number of television channels, on our right to bear an arsenal, and on our freedom to stay ignorant of what is happening in the world.

If we care about the future and about the innocent dead, maybe we should send our money to our schools to enhance their teaching of history and critical thinking.

Author: Richard Kiniry, Leader, Philadelphia Ethical Society and Interim Leader, Ethical Humanist Society of Long Island