It is clear to me that what we saw Sept. 11 was not just an attack on America, but on all of humanity. I watched President Bush say, “They will hand over the terrorists or they will share in their fate.” I turned off the TV and felt patriotism and pride creep out of me to be replaced by fear and sadness.I see a lot of anger, from the American public to the American government. Do we want to be remembered for an act of war? I would rather be remembered for a lesson learned.

On Sept. 25, Guilford students woke up to some nasty messages scrawled in chalk all over campus, vicious, ignorant quotes such as: “Justice equals killing, face it!” Thankfully sophomores Clay Steinwinter, Ted Fetter, and Alla Khmeleua washed them away.

Such quotes may seem trivial, but they are the seeds to greater damage. A gas station owner in Arizona was shot dead a week after the attacks. He was a Sikh, wearing the turban of his faith. It didn’t matter that he was of Indian, not Arab descent. It didn’t matter that Sikhism is not Islam. The man arrested for the shooting claimed he was a “Patriot.”

He said, “I’m a damn American all the way.”

I think he’s a terrorist.

I cannot say our government is a good role model for peace during these turbulent times. A U.S. Congressman from Louisiana named Cooksey talked of detaining, as he put it, “anybody wearing a diaper on his head.”

President Bush declaring the actions of terrorists to be an act of war has huge implications. It could provide the basis for questionable bombing of another country. Most importantly, it could take innocent human life.

Murder is a foul thing to pack away in a human heart. There is the temptation to bitterness, a specific pain that cries out to be healed with pain. But we must remember that retaliation can never guarantee healing, and that to meet violence with more violence cultivates more rage and senseless deaths.

Nobody wants their child to live in fear with mistrust and suffering, something malice can ensure.

Americans will tell you we’re prepared to sacrifice our lives for liberty, for individuality, for the right to say what we like. Americans have died for these things; and Americans will die for them again. An America where terrorism can hide behind the mask of patriotism is not America, least not the America we say we’ll fight and die for.

We become like the terrorists when we forget to hold life sacred.