911 Families Say Lashing Out Is Not the Answer |
Habib Battah and Adam Porter
When her 37-year-old nephew was killed during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, Valerie Lucznikowska was broken with despair. When President George W. Bush began to speak about America's response, her trauma was amplified.
Lucznikowska is now on tour speaking out against the bombing of Iraq, with the often-overlooked group, 'September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow.'
"I just can't understand the motivation of President Bush," she said. Born and raised in New York, Lucznikowska never felt the desire to avenge her nephew's death.
"What would it be for. Why would I want the anguish visited on other people? What for? I know how it felt, I know what the anguish feels like, I searched for my nephew when the World Trade went down."
She was particularly disturbed by a speech given by her president days after the attacks. It invoked the name of Abe Zelmanowitz, a man who was killed because he refused to leave the side of his quadriplegic colleague.
According to the Bush speech, such "eloquent acts of sacrifice" showed "an abiding love for our country."
"I realised that my country was going to use my brother's act as justification for going to war in Afghanistan. I absolutely disagreed with it," wrote Rita Lasar--the man's sister--in an article that appeared in the Jewish Week last year.
Lasar later travelled to Afghanistan with a group of people who lost relatives on September 11. When she returned she founded September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow.
911 has been exploited
Lucznikowska fully agreed with her sentiments, claiming her brother's tragedy was manipulated to bolster the cause of violence.
"President Bush used that case of humanity to make a case for revenge."
"That person," she explained, "the man who stayed behind to look after his colleague, he was an orthodox Jewish man, and a man of peace."
"What President Bush did not know, and what gave us the energy to start the group, was that that man would have hated to see a response like that of the administration."
"I know because his sister Rita Lazar was the founder of our group. Another of our founders was Kelly Campbell who lost a brother in the Pentagon, yet so often the attack on the Pentagon was used to make a case for more wars. It is the wrong response."
"Now I speak all over the world, telling people about our group, telling people about the need for international law and respect for life. We have to break the cycle of violence."
She says she's received many warm welcomes throughout her travels, and claims that in Italy alone, 400 municipalities have signed a motion against the war.
Lucznikowska and September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow are making the case for the rule of international law.
Civil society, she said, is founded on laws that apply to everyone equally. Such a system has been created for the sake of the young, "to show them the value of reasoned debate and laws," she added.
"Lashing out will not help anyone."
She says her group does not receive much attention from US media. But When she does get a chance to provide a sound bite, she usually quotes Martin Luther King Jr.:
" 'Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows'."
"When I tell them that they usually understand."
Thursday 03, April, 2003
When her 37-year-old nephew was killed during the September 11 attacks on the World Trade Centre, Valerie Lucznikowska was broken with despair. When President George W. Bush began to speak about America's response, her trauma was amplified.
Lucznikowska is now on tour speaking out against the bombing of Iraq, with the often-overlooked group, 'September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow.'
"I just can't understand the motivation of President Bush," she said. Born and raised in New York, Lucznikowska never felt the desire to avenge her nephew's death.
"What would it be for. Why would I want the anguish visited on other people? What for? I know how it felt, I know what the anguish feels like, I searched for my nephew when the World Trade went down."
She was particularly disturbed by a speech given by her president days after the attacks. It invoked the name of Abe Zelmanowitz, a man who was killed because he refused to leave the side of his quadriplegic colleague.
According to the Bush speech, such "eloquent acts of sacrifice" showed "an abiding love for our country."
"I realised that my country was going to use my brother's act as justification for going to war in Afghanistan. I absolutely disagreed with it," wrote Rita Lasar--the man's sister--in an article that appeared in the Jewish Week last year.
Lasar later travelled to Afghanistan with a group of people who lost relatives on September 11. When she returned she founded September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow.
911 has been exploited
Lucznikowska fully agreed with her sentiments, claiming her brother's tragedy was manipulated to bolster the cause of violence.
"President Bush used that case of humanity to make a case for revenge."
"That person," she explained, "the man who stayed behind to look after his colleague, he was an orthodox Jewish man, and a man of peace."
"What President Bush did not know, and what gave us the energy to start the group, was that that man would have hated to see a response like that of the administration."
"I know because his sister Rita Lazar was the founder of our group. Another of our founders was Kelly Campbell who lost a brother in the Pentagon, yet so often the attack on the Pentagon was used to make a case for more wars. It is the wrong response."
"Now I speak all over the world, telling people about our group, telling people about the need for international law and respect for life. We have to break the cycle of violence."
She says she's received many warm welcomes throughout her travels, and claims that in Italy alone, 400 municipalities have signed a motion against the war.
Lucznikowska and September 11th Families For A Peaceful Tomorrow are making the case for the rule of international law.
Civil society, she said, is founded on laws that apply to everyone equally. Such a system has been created for the sake of the young, "to show them the value of reasoned debate and laws," she added.
"Lashing out will not help anyone."
She says her group does not receive much attention from US media. But When she does get a chance to provide a sound bite, she usually quotes Martin Luther King Jr.:
" 'Wars are poor chisels for carving out peaceful tomorrows'."
"When I tell them that they usually understand."
Thursday 03, April, 2003