To: Educators
From: NECA/Teaching for Change
We send this e-mail in case you or your colleagues are looking for resources to help students address the tragic events of September 11 and the U.S. government’s response. To avoid overloading you with e-mail attachments, we have placed the resources on the Teaching for Change  web site. (http://www.teachingforchange.org/Sept11.htm)
Teachers are helping children deal with the personal and collective emotions generated by such a visible and massive tragedy. Since school districts across the country have provided useful guidelines and recommendations, we have only posted one resource on the topic, a guide prepared by the Educators for Social Responsibility in New York.
But there are additional roles for which we need more information. These include:
-- How to challenge the racial profiling of Arabs, Arab-Americans and anyone from the Middle East or of the Muslim faith. As journalist Reshma Memon Yaqub said, “unlike when an act of terrorism is committed by a Christian or a Jew, when it is a Muslim, it’s not considered an isolated act perpetrated by an isolated group of madmen. The entire faith is characterized as barbaric, as inhuman” The Black Radical Congress points out the responsibility we all have “to be especially vigilant at this time in making sure that in the aftermath of this tragedy, another tragedy born of pain, anger, and hatred does not occur.”
-- How to place the current events in historic and contemporary context.
This was a horrendous, senseless, inexcusable tragedy, but it is not, as many headlines are blaring, the worst tragedy in US history, nor in recent global events. U.S. history is full of large-scale tragedies with horrific loss of life; brutal senseless attacks; and wrenching losses to family members including the Trail of Tears and the enslavement of people from Africa. In recent years there have been numerous atrocities throughout the world where this scale of life has been lost, but the United States media has not put a face on the tragedies. The limited coverage of global news, particularly of the Third World, has made most Americans unaware of the pain and loss families and nations have suffered in the face of attacks launched by U.S. and other governments.
Terrorism is not about “the mighty, righteous U.S. vs. foreign, evil empires.” The U.S. government has been directly involved in terrorist acts of its own for decades. An example is provided in the article called “September 11: A Day That Will Live in Infamy in the US and Chile,” noting that September 11 is the day (1973) of the CIA supported coup and murder of democratically elected President Allende in Chile. General Pinochet was installed as president, leading to the torture and death of thousands of Chilean citizens. In the case of Osama bin Laden, as with many dictators and terrorists that the U.S. government claims as enemies, the CIA trained him and helped clear the road for the influence he has today. This reality does not excuse terrorism, but it demonstrates that to achieve real global peace and security, we must look beyond the behavior of just a few individuals.  
-- How to encourage students to think critically about the next steps. Defense Secretary Donald Rumsfeld was quoted as saying, “If a problem cannot be solved, enlarge it.” Is this the kind of thinking that we want to determine our future? Michael Moore points out, “Will we ever get to the point that we realize we will be more secure when the rest of the world isn’t living in poverty [just] so [that] we can have nice running shoes?”
To address the issues listed above, we have posted key articles and provided links to Web sites which provide alternatives to the mainstream press. The mainstream press has inundated us with news, but has provided very little information. Although some of the articles can be shared with students, they were not selected for their reading level, but more for the critical background information they provide for teachers. Encourage your students to use these Web sites to learn about the history or current impact of the September 11 tragedies.
Please note that we have not had time to check out every Web site. If there are links that do not work or material that is inappropriate, let us know. We have tried to limit the articles to those we believe best fill the gaps left by our nation’s mainstream media. Also, in some cases we have posted articles even though we disagreed with one or two points. Posting does not reflect a 100% endorsement.
Please share with us lessons you develop, articles you find or useful Web sites which we can consider posting.