« Hell at Once | Main | Tenable »

War

En memoria.

So the terrorists gained a victory in Spain.

In some ways the March 11th attack in Madrid shook me up more than September 11th. The World Trade Center and Pentagon attacks were so shocking and immediate that my emotions misfired. I didn't know what to think, and I still don't to some extent. However, for whatever reasons, as an outsider and a self-described lover of Spain, I responded much more immediately to last week's attack in Madrid. I studied Spanish literature in college and I was lucky to briefly visit the country last year. I love Spain for its food, art, language, and, above all, its people. Because of this love, I admit that my true understanding of Spain is skewed by my romantic notions of it.

Then again, it seems to me that many Spanish voters just allowed terrorists to skew their notions of what Spain should be. I don't necessarily fault the Spanish people for electing Zapatero in hopes of withdrawing from the war on terror; the terrorist attack was timed perfectly to galvanize popular anti-war sentiment and funnel Spain's strong aversion to war into the voting booths. No, I don't fault the voters. I'm convinced that the trauma of the Spanish Civil War continues to haunt the hearts and minds of Spaniards, and I understand why they are so quick to avoid war. Nonetheless, I deeply lament their lack of resolve in the face of such gravity.

One of the first things I did upon learning of the attack was email some friends who live in Valencia. I met M, K and A while in Argentina about a year and a half ago. We spent almost three days running around Iguazœ falls together and we all quickly became good friends. Their warmth and love for life inspired me, and I count myself blessed to have met them. I hope to visit them in Valencia someday. M responded to me yesterday. She thanked me for my condolences and wrote the following:

"It's been tough, but it's no more than we're used to, and I'm not referring to terrorist attacks in Spain, there are so many injustices in the whole world!!!!! But it seems like we usually pay attention only to those that occur in the first world. Don't you agree?"

Of course I agree. I live in the first world, and I'm determined to make sure that injustices don't occur where I live. While I love M, I am dismayed by her response. The fact that injustice exists elsewhere in the world is no reason to get used to injustice on your home turf. I refuse to get used to it, I prefer to fight it.

That's not to say that I don't respect those who have chosen pacifism (Ghandi or Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for instance), but we do not have a choice right now. Terrorists have chosen war, and those who refuse war have no choice but to let the terrorists have their way until they are no longer opposed. Of course, such an approach is entirely untenable. Personally, I refuse to let a small group of mass murderers determine how I will live.

Instead, today I align myself with those who believe that all are "created equal, that they are endowed by their Creator with certain unalienable rights, that among these are life, liberty, and the pursuit of happiness" and that "to secure these rights, governments are instituted among men, deriving their powers from the consent of the governed." Power is to be determined from the "consent of the governed," and I support anyone who is willing to fight those who believe that power is to be usurped through terror.