American Politics Journal

WHY? HERE'S A THOUGHT
By Steve Young

Nov. 19, 2001 -- LOS ANGELES (APJP) -- Why do good people die? Why do so many children go through hell? Why September 11th?

I remember when my father died. I was 16 and nothing anyone said made sense. "Why?" I asked, my rabbi and while I don't remember his response, I do remember that it certainly didn't satisfy my query nor ease my pain.

Today, at the age of...older than 16, I find my solace by not asking "Why?" The answers for me are in the undeterminable logic of a God who I believe knows exactly what He's doing. And even if He were to explain the answer to me -- a living, breathing, human person like that 16 year old I once was -- I'd have no comprehension of what was being said. The answers are so much larger than our questions, but a rather simple, much used rationale may be found in the phrase, "Sometimes God nudges you. Sometimes He kicks you in the butt."

I just finished my book (Great Failures Of The Extremely Successful, Tallfellow Press, Fall 2002) in which I spoke with a large number of high profile, highly successful people about how adversities affected their success. They come from diverse fields and backgrounds, but they are all connected by a singular experiential belief, that adversity made them stronger. In most cases the failures of their own making, as well as the obstacles thrust upon them, played an integral part in the making of their success. A lot of one door closes another one opens events. Firings at one job led them to create their own business. Kept from what they wanted they were thrust in new directions where they found what they needed. But there were also many stories of physical heartache and disabilities first suffered, then embraced. Embraced so they were able to actually shape new methods and programs to help others with similar hardships. Loss of limbs that strengthened the mind. Loss of loved ones that strengthened the soul. Difficulties that became gifts. Mistakes, failures, losses, misses, obstacles, errors, disappointments, misfortunes, problems. All meant to teach. To learn from. For the good.

But what about the huge and horrific incidents done upon us as a people? Plagues, the Holocaust, September 11th. How do we explain those? While I still believe those explanations and understandings are privy to God alone, every so often we get a peak into how it might work.

I watched with great interest and delight, the joy of the Afghanistan people, released from the treacherous confines of the Taliban regime's unholiest captivity. Women, who had been especially violated, celebrated in the streets, throwing off their burkes. Freedom to be seen, to work without restriction, to walk without chaperone, without fear of beatings at the hand of government and religious brutality.

Would this have happened without the barbarous attacks on New York and Washington? Certainly not now, if ever. We've known for a long time of the restraints and savagery inflicted on the Afghanistan women. Mavis Leno, for one, has clamored for years for something to be done. Did it take the cacophony of the falling towers and cries of innocent bodies for Leno to be heard? She's married to one of the most powerful men in Hollywood and still, she was one of many falling trees unheard. Did it take September 11th to get our attention? Were over 5,000 Americans sacrificed so that the suffering of hundreds of thousands of non-Americans might end? Did humanity need to be sacrificed so that the spread of terrorism and far worse horrors yet to be launched would be stopped? Again, questions for God.

I'm not asking you to conclude that these were the reasons that lives were extinguished, but then again, let's just say that it was; that the loss of even a single loved one's life can serve to save thousands of others. If true might it lessen the pain of an innocent's family even a little. And do we have anything to lose to think that way? I'm not trying to be Falwellian here. I'm not talking about being punished for our sins. I'm talking about being aware of the power we have, the good we are capable of.

Here's a supposition to ponder. What if we lived our lives thinking that these disasters were only challenges to make a better world, that our difficulties and pain were meant for good? Then, at the end of our lives, we find that we were wrong and that in reality all things bad were just that...bad, with no positive purpose at all. If so, then we would have wasted our lives feeling hopeful when we could have been mired in misery. Like I said, what do we have to lose?

So there you have it. It's really up to you, to each of us, to decide. Did we need an abomination like September 11 to prod us to take action against the ills created by Bin Laden and the Taliban? Talk about wake up calls. Perhaps it's time we look beyond Al Qaeda and its ruthlessness to other oppressions and indiscretions. Perhaps we might even find injustice on our own block, in ourselves. What privileged empowerment. What glorious possibility. And it really is up to us. I mean, do you want to be nudged...or do you want to be kicked in the butt?

Steve Young, Prism Award winner and Humanitas Prize nominee for his television writing, is author of the forthcoming "Great Failures Of The Extremely Successful," Tallfellow Press, 2002. E-mail: theeothersteveyoung@juno.com