MCC News
by Marla Pierson Lester
September 7, 2006

WASHINGTON - “The world changed on September 11.” Even now, five years later, this remains a commonly heard phrase.

In response, the Mennonite Central Committee (MCC) Washington Office is exploring what has been lost since the 2001 terror attacks, whether anything has been gained and how the church can be a voice of hope as people look to the future. During 2006, each issue of the bimonthly publication, the Washington Memo, has been examining these questions around themes from the war on terror to immigration, the federal budget, militarism, human rights and civil liberties.

Similar to major public polling, “we found that people are disturbed with the direction the country is headed,” said Washington Office director J. Daryl Byler. “The approach to security seems to have heavily emphasized military might and a reduction of civil liberties and freedoms.”

He said that while military spending had almost doubled, polls show that Americans don’t feel safer than they did five years ago.

“There may still be time to take an alternative course,” Byler said, “The direction we seem to be headed as a nation is not necessarily set in concrete. We’re trying to point a different way forward.”

The church can play a crucial role of holding up an alternative vision of security, said Byler, noting that the final 2006 issue of the Washington Memo will focus on hope for the future. Living with hope is the theme of the Washington Office’s 2007 Spring Seminar and that theme will be carried through the office’s work in 2007.

“We want to focus on the ways we can live out our future and be people of hope in this environment,” Byler said.

To explore the project, go to www.mcc.org/us/washington/fiveyearslater/.

To see work the MCC Washington Office has done since September 2001 in exploring alternatives to a militarized view of security, go to
www.mcc.org/us/washington/truesecurity.