Eva M. Clayton: “the events of September 11 have been devastating to the country. The horrific attacks upon the World Trade Center, the…”

“the events of September 11 have been devastating to the country. The horrific attacks upon the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the subsequent anthrax attacks have shaken all of us deeply. It is both appropriate and imperative that we respond swiftly and surely to those who have perpetrated these horrific deeds. We must not allow actions of terror against American citizens to be carried out without a response. However, alongside our military response, we must implement our humanitarian and diplomatic response where it shows our compassion and care for those citizens of developing worlds who have suffered greatly at the hands of autocrats and dictators who would keep them in fear. We must exert the same kind of energy and resources against poverty, hunger, and autocracy that we are appropriately exerting against terrorism. This allows us to eradicate the scourge of terror of the threat to American citizens and our interests nationally and internationally. Fighting terror is not just a matter of eliminating military threats, as the President has appropriately said, but is also for eliminating the root of the desperation as well as the root of the fears and the misconceptions that are born out of a life without hope and a childhood without thoughts of a better tomorrow.”