Thoughts on criminals, middle-class and otherwise

[We encourage people who have recently witnessed 
or changed their minds regarding U.$. support for 
terrorism to step forward and give MIM 
testimonials on how they changed their minds. 

The following is a testimonial from a female 
immigrant observing the reaction of Amerikans to 
the World Trade Center/Pentagon bombings. Those 
reactions can be found in radio talk shows and 
Internet chat rooms. Major events like this have 
dialectical results, often unintended 
consequences. The question of "terrorism" has 
prompted at least this one immigrant to rethink 
the question of "crime."]

I'm a foreigner.  I came here long ago, after the 
United $tates destroyed my country. I never 
trusted Amerikans: I've seen what they are capable 
of doing. Even less did I trust Amerikan 
criminals.  I was so afraid of them. But I lived 
here a long time, and I've forgotten many things.

After a while, it became really hard to understand 
how intelligent, nice people that value so much 
freedom and democracy could support a government's 
decisions to create chaos and destruction for 
others, not less humans than they are.  I thought 
it was some kind of mistake, lack of education, 
lack of knowledge. Amerikans were so friendly to 
us when we arrived here, after all.

They were really curious, just like people who are 
curious about monkeys in the zoo, and honestly 
tried to help. Humans are supposed to help monkeys 
in their own way, aren't they? They were wondering 
sometimes, whose fault it was that we were so 
unfortunate. The thought that it could be the 
fault of their own government, never occurred to 
them.  Their conscience was crystal clear.

After a while, my conscience became clear, too. 
I've forgotten many, many things. I started to 
believe that the worst criminals in this country 
are those who are in prisons. A man who murdered 
one person to get money is criminal, but people 
who support bombing other countries for the same 
reason are not. I thought so, because I've 
forgotten how it feels to see tanks on the 
streets, action supported by normal, nice, decent 
American people.

Now Amerikans have refreshed my memory.  71 
percent of them support retaliation, without even 
contemplating the possibility that horrible things 
that happened recently could be the direct result 
of their country's international policy. That 
policy has been for a long time a policy of 
gendarme of the whole world. Playing such a role 
can never bring peace to anybody.

However, intelligent, nice people with college 
degrees don't seem to understand it for the very 
simple reason: protection of their living 
standards, their unjustly gained property and 
their sense of impunity, invincibility and 
exclusiveness. This is criminal. Worse, this could 
be fatal mistake--fatal for everybody.

I argued with MIM for long time about it's 
position on prisoners. I've never been to prison: 
I love fashion and Beethoven; my mom was a 
university professor. I thought that those who are 
in prisons are the worst criminals. I thought it 
was dangerous and destructive even to consider 
them. I thought they have to be educated first.

I know now I was wrong. When so many "normal" and 
"decent" people are likely to go for brutal 
chauvinism and fascism to protect their "stuff," 
it's not fair to prisoners to say that they are 
the worst.  MIM did a good job trying to educate 
them and draw them to the more humane side.  I 
still have some disagreements with MIM about some 
details on this issue, but do details really 
matter when we see the threat of fascism?

Prisoners are not the most guilty ones.  Many of 
them never had a chance to go to college, and this 
is a mitigating condition. What mitigating 
conditions do we have for those who had all the 
opportunities, all education available for them, 
and still prefer to make choices "normal" 
Amerikans have been making for the last 50 years? 
Like suggesting to kill all Arabs just because 
they are Arabs.

Intellectuals are guilty of closing their eyes on 
their country's policy, while they could be a 
moving, enlightening force of society. The middle 
class is guilty of caring only about its profits 
and backyards at the expense of others.

America is such a prosperous country: people here 
had all chances to become better humans than they 
are. They didn't.  Thus, they don't have any moral 
right to indict anybody. I still hope that this 
country will wake up, sooner is better. I still 
hope it won't be too late.