LETTER FROM BERKELEY
Excerpts from a June Jordan essay, “Do You Do Well to Be Angry?” (September 25, 2001):

“More than three thousand have perished here. And, in turn, tens of thousands will perish elsewhere. And, in turn, there will be more and more thousands perishing from the universal arrogance of our universal propensities to judge, and to identify, other human beings as the ones to be ‘eradicated.’
“I am an American.”

*

“I do not believe I am good. Or that we share a national legacy of innocence to protect and perpetuate.
“Who is more violent than we?”

*

“Who is not a terrorist?”

*

“We, Americans, must not allow ourselves to become what we abhor: a terrorist force, furiously striking out at the known and the unknown poor peoples of Central Asia and the Middle East.
“We must not permit ourselves to act as a terrorist people!”

*

“As of September 11, 2001, the world we thought we knew went down.
“And how shall we rebuild?
“And should we reconstruct, or should we dare ourselves into an unforseen millennial recovery, a millennial upholding of our best ambitions, a millennial declaration of a slow kiss dedication to equality and justice?”

*

“It is not bin Laden’s jihad but the greater jihad that we should embrace: the interior struggle against egotism and supremacist notions of every kind.
“Ours is a struggle to fathom and assume responsibility--for justice, and for the rapid demise of double standards of all degrees, all forms.”

*

“Sometimes I am the terrorist I must disarm.”