TABLE OF CONTENTS

ARTICLES

EDITORIAL:  Naming My Fears
By Halford H. Fairchild, 3

PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS
The Globalization of Terror:  The Opportunity for Reflection Before Action
   By Mary E. Hargrow, 4

Building Coalitions for Peace
By Bob Wing, 6

Why War?
By Katina Parker, 8

Eyewitness to Terror
By Dee Newson , 10

America Attacked: The Wrong Emphasis
By Kwaku Person-Lynn, 11

The Psychological Splitting of America
By Marcelle Christian, 12

Enemies, Both Foreign and Domestic: The Limits of Revenge and Rhetoric
By Tim Wise, 14

U.S. Pride Day:  E-mail Correspondence
By Pat Canson and Tony Young, 16

Viet Nam, New York & Washington DC
By Kwaku Person-Lynn, 17

A Wake-up Call for Peace
By Halford H. Fairchild, 18

ANNOUNCEMENTS, 21
CLASSIFIED ADVERTISING, 24
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ABPsi 2001-2002 Board of Directors

Credits
 

 I fly a lot.  In the past year, I’ve traveled throughout the U.S., took three trips to Africa, one to Europe, and recently enjoyed a six-city tour of China.  ABPsi work also keeps me in the air.  But I’m always a little apprehensive about flying.  I worry about the plane crashing.  I don’t want to die just yet.

 September 11, 2001 increased my fear of flying, and it created some new ones.

 The airliner hijackings and their lethal endings in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington, D.C. was unimaginable.  Until September 11th.

 And we now can imagine what else is possible when people are so committed to their cause that the achievement of their plan results in their own deaths.  Anything is possible.  Everything goes.  War is hell.  And I’m scared.

 I’m afraid of being “collateral damage” in someone else’s conflict.

 I’m afraid of walking down the street and the guy next to me explodes.  The irony is that he thinks he’s going to heaven and I’m going to hell.  I’m afraid he’s right.

 I’m afraid of going to the Mall of America.

 I’m afraid of going to a ball game or an outdoor concert, and a small plane loaded with dynamite decides to crash into the audience.

 I’m afraid that the next plane I take will either be hijacked—or shot down by the United States Air Force.

 I’m afraid of riding a subway or going through an under-water tunnel.

 I’m afraid of riding a bus or a train.

 I’m afraid the loss of civil liberties will mean I’ll get hassled more by police.

 I’m afraid the retaliations to terror (on both sides of the Atlantic), will turn my fears—our fears—into realities.

 The only way to rid ourselves of these fears is to wage war on war.  We must seek Peace in world affairs and devote the time and resources to make this dream a reality.

 This issue of Psych Discourse is devoted to the tragic events of September 11, 2001.  Let it be a beginning in the necessary dialogue and critical analysis that is required for a new, peaceful, world order.

“The impact of the September 11th disasters on African ancestry communities is not reflected in the media coverage of the events.  As usual, we are marginalized.  How can we empower the Black press to bring our issues into the mainstream?”

On September 11, 2001 America experienced a disaster of such magnitude that virtually everyone was plunged, without warning, into a state of dis-equilibrium from the shock and sudden devastation of American icons, and along with them, thousands of lives.

The Association of Black Psychologists expresses deep regret and sympathy for those who experienced the disaster first hand and for those who lost friends and family in the disasters.  We will continue to send you unconditional love and to hope for your recovery and that of your loved ones.

Nothing of this nature or magnitude had happened on American soil for a long time.  We had, until now, only been television spectators to such violence, both real and imagined.  America has been shaken to its core as a nation, and so has each of us, for we define who and what America is and we are ultimately responsible for her actions.  Our feelings of safety and security are greatly diminished and replaced with feelings of anxiety and fear because we do not know when or where the next act of violence upon the nation (and our physical, psychological, and spiritual welfare) will occur.

The first response to the tragic events in New York City and Washington, D.C. were words of anger, outrage, and determination to retaliate swiftly alongside expressions of sympathy and condolences for those who experienced losses and/or the terror first hand.  The expression of feelings of fear and vulnerability were naturally avoided to help the nation feel a sense of power in the face of powerlessness.  Groups organized rituals/ceremonies of remembrance for those who did not survive the tragedy, and to demonstrate support and love for those directly affected.  While some cried out for swift revenge, others strongly advised caution and wisdom with action that has as its mission planetary survival and movement toward Peace.  Many youth and religious leaders are in the latter group.

With America’s destructive might and power many people could have been destroyed in a matter of minutes, most would have been innocent of any crime against the United States of America and would have, in the majority of cases, been the vulnerable and the poor.  Hopefully, future military actions will avoid the destruction of the poor and the powerless.

Following this tragedy, responses of regret and sympathy came from around the world from expected and unexpected heads of state.  A number of binding national and international agreements are being made.  They include two categories that are well known:  One is the passage of massive additions of revenue to the U.S. military budget, the bail out of the airlines, and the rehabilitation of New York City.   The other is the United Nations’ adoption of a U.S. sponsored resolution compelling all UN member countries to sever financial, political, and military ties with terrorist groups and freeze their assets.  The resolution allows the UN Security Council to have unprecedented power to determine who is a terrorist (The Washington Post, September 29, 2001).  African nations, often excluded, feel honored to be invited for inclusion among the countries supporting anti-terrorism.  It is the hope that a repeat of their cold war involvement will not be the end result – used and discarded when the welfare of America is stabilized.  At this time, Somalia has been chosen as the focus for U.S. engagement because it is probably the weakest financial and political link among nations, making it a possible location that terrorists will seek.  As during the cold war, it is seen as valuable to U.S. security.  What is the role of the UN Security Council in protecting the long-term human rights of vulnerable countries knowing, historically, what the long-term consequences can be?

The Congressional Black Caucus (CBC) chose to hold its Health Brain Trust September 26-29, 2001 in the face of a much lower attendance than usual because of the World Trade Center and Pentagon disasters.  They considered canceling, but realized that the conditions in the African ancestry communities that determine their mission remain unchanged and need to be kept in the forefront while we concurrently deal with the issues of national security.  The challenges will be even greater with increases in unemployment and decreases in funds available for health (including mental health) and social programs.  Increases in the use of drugs and alcohol as a way of coping have already begun according to front line workers who were attending the conference from the New York City area.  The impact of the September 11th disasters on African ancestry communities is not reflected in the media coverage of the events.  As usual, we are marginalized.  How can we empower the Black press to bring our issues into the mainstream?

The most astounding and unforgettable piece of comparative statistical information that I encountered while attending the CBC meetings was presented in the Ronald H. Brown African Affairs Series sponsored by the Constituency for Africa.  That information--which has not shocked either the USA or the world into action--is that: the number of people who perished in the World Trade Center is less than the number of people who die from AIDS every single day in Africa (6,000 vs. 8,000).  This alarming statistic prompted a man who came from Jamaica to attend the CBC meetings to pose the question: “Will African people be around a thousand years from now, in 3001?”  He reminded us that, historically, entire groups of people have perished from diseases and disappeared as inhabitants of the planet.  Extinction.  Will this be the case for Africans?  It is up to us to stop this pandemic.

As we face the globalization of terrorism, let us become aware of the need for us to increase our knowledge and engagement in the global arena and our connection to African ancestry people and others worldwide.  It is important that we participate in making informed decisions that reflect more than just emotions but embrace the welfare of the human family and the planet.

How Can We Adjust and Remain Focused?

Those with direct loss of a family member or close friend are likely to feel as if they will be unable to survive the loss, or for those who watched, listened, and experienced the tragedy unfold – the memory and flashbacks.  For some, the pain is immediate and expressed in strong emotions, for others it goes underground and smolders--resulting in a state of numbness.  In extreme cases they may appear as the walking dead with their emotions drained away – their bodies rigid and stone like.

Recovery from the traumatic experiences and loss is a process that takes time.  Many emotional changes can be expected – that is natural.  The length and severity of the pain during and following the recovery period may be influenced by many factors including prior life events, ongoing stressors, available support systems and beliefs.  People should become aware of community resources that are organized to assist.  If the process lasts too long or is extremely painful, individuals should seek psychological help.  Connect and remain active while taking time to grieve and heal.

The ABPsi Regional Representatives have been asked to work with the chapters in organizing crisis and critical incidence debriefing teams to assist community organizations and groups in coping with tragedies.  The National Office is making referrals to individuals based on location.

CLINICIANS:  JOIN THE REFERRAL LIST TODAY!

Mary E. Hargrow may be reached in care of the National Office (PO Box 55999, Washington, DC  20040-5999) or at MEHargrow16@aol.com.

Editor’s Note:  The following letter is a personal correspondence from ColorLines Editor Bob Wing to a friend on September 14, 2001.  It was later disseminated on the Internet, and is reprinted here with permission.

Dear _____,

 I decided to take you up on your suggestion that I put some of the opinions I expressed at last night's meeting on paper. I am by no means an authority on military or foreign affairs and these are just my personal opinions, but for what they're worth, here are some notes.

 I believe the September 11th attacks are ushering in a major rightwing offensive, both global and national. It is likely to be sustained for some time and become a historical watershed. The rightwing of the ruling class and its ultra-right allies could not have asked for a better opportunity to aggressively move to reshape the world in their image. In the absence of a major countervailing force, they have serious grounds to feel that they will be successful. Appealing to the American psyche, which sees its relatively peaceful surroundings as a birthright (when it is really a national privilege), the rightwing seeks to capture the moral high ground, whipping up patriotism and “anti-terrorist” fervor. Wielding its superior military and financial strength, Washington will seek to rally its First World allies into a worldwide “anti-terrorism campaign,” bring its erstwhile and vacillating allies into line, and destroy or mortally cripple its enemies, especially in the Middle East and South Asia.

 In some ways, this is reminiscent of the late 1940s and early 1950s. But this time there is no socialist camp, no equivalent revolutionary national liberation movements, and little domestic left opposition. This means the ruling class has much greater maneuverability. They can exert powerful military force abroad when necessary; and sugar coat the undermining of democratic rights at home under the notion of national consensus and the defense of democracy and freedom.

 Although progressives have been thrown deeply on the defensive, there are also openings to be part of the public discussion, if we are bold as well as very careful. We must be bold in building extremely broad coalitions, bold in attempting to enter the biggest media and political platforms. If we craft our messages correctly, we have many allies, and we should aggressively pursue working with them. We should not self-isolate. Peace, international solidarity, religious, anti-globalization, student, and civil rights groups should be approached. We should also use this opportunity to get labor, women's, anti-racist, and community organizations that tend to eschew international issues to get involved. This new situation will affect everyone to the core. We should actively build broad coalitions, not be content to hang on the left by holding “small but militant demonstrations” and expect others to come to us. We should try to get to the forefront of the fight for peace and basic democratic rights, spearhead large scale education campaigns, and get government bodies on record for peace and against unwarranted racist attacks on Arabs and South Asians.

 But we must be extremely careful about our public messages (and our internal rhetoric), lest we isolate ourselves and even make ourselves vulnerable to physical attack. We need to demonstratively express deep grieving over the death, destruction, and loss of security felt by most Americans. Most of us genuinely feel this, but sometimes we do not express it properly. Almost everyone in the country knows someone that was somehow directly affected by the attacks, and all of us know in our hearts that life will never be as safe as it once seemed. Symbolism and emotions tend to run higher than rationality at times like this, and if we do not understand this, it will be difficult to get a hearing on other issues.

 We need to avoid leftwing rhetoric and revolutionary posturing, be concrete and address actual issues on the public agenda, and not make premature anticipations or apocalyptic predictions. Internally we need to try to see as far ahead as possible and try to go deep analytically in order to be as prepared as possible, but externally we need to speak to facts on the ground, avoid concepts or images that are adamantly rejected by even peace loving people, and avoid prematurely polarizing potential allies. We must do all of these things while still drawing firm lines against the right.

 I believe, at this time, we have two main entryways into the broad public discussion. By far the most important is by addressing the issue of why this attack happened and how to respond. Even the mainstream media is increasingly addressing this question, in its own ways. I believe our main message should be that U.S. life will become increasingly insecure and dangerous unless this country improves its international behavior. In the era of globalization, peace at home is linked to peace abroad. And increased insecurity would likely result in lost civil liberties. We need to oppose a precipitous response by the government to the September 11 attacks and urge restraint. We can no longer allow our government to make war on others without expecting retaliation, whether one thinks that retaliation is fair or not. Peace and freedom are increasingly globalized (or not). We need to oppose U.S. isolationism and aggression. Our loss of life should lead not to an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, but to the joining with others who have experienced war in the aspiration for peace.

 In taking on these issues, we should studiously avoid leftwing short hands like “chickens come home to roost” (which will be read as a justification for the mass deaths of innocent people) and “no justice, no peace” (which will be read as a justification for further attacks). Peace, No Violence, etc., are much more directly to the point. What we are talking about is a new kind of peace movement.

 The second main entry way is through opposing attacks on Arabs and South Asians in the U.S. Such attacks are already underway, and are even being widely addressed by political leaders, civil rights groups, and the mainstream media. Again, building broad coalitions and using popular language is key. We should appeal for peace, fairness, and oppose violent racial stereotyping. I actually think that the more farsighted sections of the ruling class will want to stem these attacks so that their broader offensive does not lose the moral high ground. Minimally, they must make a nod in this direction. We should take full advantage of this opening.

 While responding immediately to these huge events, we also need to embark on deep thinking about the implications for the future. Apparently, war, like capital and labor, has now been globalized. We are into a war without clear national borders. New and readily available technology means that very small groups, even individuals, can wreak mass destruction. The U.S. may be relatively invulnerable to direct assault, but it is eminently vulnerable to attack by small groups. And it has aggressively alienated millions of people, at home and abroad; some will surely take advantage of the new means at their disposal. Israel is making the assassination of opposing political leaders a central part of its war strategy--others are likely to respond in kind.

 This is not an altogether new situation. Most of us have known this for some time and expected some kind of significant attacks within the U.S. But now the genie is out of the bottle--and in a most spectacular fashion. It is no longer theoretical. What are the implications of this new situation for our attitude and strategies towards war and peace?  How do we distinguish between the government's overbroad definition of terrorism and actual terrorism?  How will the ruling class and public react and what platform can we stand on? What about the copy cat lunatic fringe and ultra-right fanatics who until now have confined themselves to comparatively small-scale shootings (except for Oklahoma City)? How do we break the fragmentation, disorganization and isolation of the left under these harsh conditions?

 Finally, we should all be prepared for events to move fast. In particular, when the U.S. mounts its counterattacks (which I believe is likely to eventually include the murder of Saddam Hussein), a wave of jingoism (and racism) is likely to sweep the country. We need to work hard ahead of this wave, prepare to weather it without getting too terribly isolated, and smartly fight our way through it. We are in for hard times, and our allies abroad even more so. We will all be struggling to find our bearings. We will make mistakes. Let's be tolerant of each other, keep our eyes on the real enemies, and seek clarity and unity. Let's think big and get organized. Maybe we can build something for the long run.

 I hope this is helpful to you in some way. Feel free to share it with others if you deem it useful.

 In peace and solidarity,

 Bob Wing

Bob Wing is editor of ColorLines, a quarterly magazine that critically examines contemporary social issues with an emphasis on race.  Information may be obtained from http://www.colorlines.com/.  Annual subscriptions are $16. Bob Wing may be reached at colorlines@topica.com.

I came of age during a time when elementary schools had bomb shelters and we didn’t just have fire drills, we regularly participated in air raid drills. My fourth grade class was told that being located in Wilmington, Delaware--and being equidistant from both the Capitol and Manhattan--made us prime targets for nuclear warfare. Every time the ear-splitting sirens reverberated, signaling us to evacuate, we scurried downstairs and sat for what seemed like hours, heads tucked into our knees. We folded our bodies until it hurt, never knowing if this time our practice was the real thing.  Those were heavy, heavy times for a 9-year-old girl. I spent recess playing dodge ball and fearing the next World War’s imminent destruction. Now, I am 27, and it is here.

These last few days I have suffered from waves of unease and extreme concern. The devastation of recent events is hard enough to comprehend. By now the tireless rescue workers in Manhattan have hauled away over 1,000,000 pounds of debris. Yet another one million tons of cinder and steel remain and somewhere beneath the rubble we still pray for the possibility of survivors. As generous and self-sacrificing as the volunteers have been, it doesn’t seem like there can be enough hands or that they can move fast enough. Wide shots of Ground Zero give us all perspective. Our heroes are ants, laboring away at a sizable mountain and the heap that once housed lives and furnished livelihoods now crushes and obscures them. It hurts. There’s no other way to put it, it hurts.

Adding to the pain, the leadership and media of the self-proclaimed “greatest country in the world” have responded without pause by promising retaliation, that is, more death. It seems that war comes easy now, when all other options remain to be considered. It seems that thinking people would choose otherwise. We have tried war before and, with rare exception, it has not worked.

As college students, most of us have no recollection of armed conflict. Those of us who have read Eric Marie Remarque’s All Quiet on the Western Front or who have seen portrayals of Vietnam in movies like Apocalypse Now and Full Metal Jacket know that the sanitized video game simulations that the news gave us during the Gulf War were just that: prettied versions of aggression and human blight.  War is no different than the destruction that we saw on September 11th; it is lives lost, bodies maimed, detached limbs, interrupted families.  There are no rules. There is no gentility. People die physically and spiritually. Those who return come back to us haunted and forever altered. The many who call for war are not the many who ship out and spend years sacrificing their physical beings for a country that years later may or may not be appreciative. The many who call for war, even after the monstrosities have begun, sit in air-conditioned offices making decisions about lives that the military permissively refers to as “allowable sacrifices.”

Let’s not lose sight. The same America that is now so self-righteous about defending freedom and democracy, just nine months ago stampeded over the voting rights of several Floridians. This same America continues to overlook its own Gulf War veterans who suffer from biological warfare symptoms. The homeless people that we step over, around, and sometimes cross the street to get away from, many of them served diligently in Vietnam. Yet we run to war again?

It seems that a populace who claim moral fiber as an identity would think a very long time about the potential fallout of a Third World War.  For the sake of our children, we cannot afford to obliterate the land or the people of any country. To do so makes us no different than the individuals who plot and sometimes succeed at taking revenge against us. Yes, I am angry, I am shocked and I am hurt by what has happened. I understand the need to defend the U.S. against further attack, but to rush in with the sense of uncurtailed hatred and nationalism running rampant throughout the country in these last weeks is to risk the future of humanity on Earth.  There is a difference between a reasonable, preventive response and overkill.

The time for our country to unite has come, and in the process of doing so, it is important to be honest about all of our deeds, good and bad.  In the midst of being so self-righteous, it seems we suddenly have amnesia about where we’ve been and what we’ve done and, most of all, who we’ve been doing it to. In everything there is cause and effect. In the same way that most of us would never pick a fight with someone two or three times our size, unless provoked, small countries don’t rare up and attack larger countries for no reason at all.

Our position as a dominant world power comes at a cost to many smaller countries, the inhabitants of which, in many cases, are people of color. The wealth that we take for granted is imported, in some instances, extorted, and even stolen.

Now we know that when we strip other people of their resources to feed our own needs, they will strike back. When we sanction a society to the point of starvation, it will strike back.  When you side with other governments and groups that have enemies, we gain enemies.  We are targets because we meddle and, sometimes, we also destroy.  We have been global bullies since the beginning and our current cry for retaliation against these most recent tragic events serves as one more example of how our inherent sense of privilege keeps us from understanding and enhancing relationships that might finally bring about world peace.

What we have seen on TV during the last week can best be described as instigated propaganda. Before the President or lawmakers even had a chance to air an official response, seasoned news anchors, the trusted advisors who shape citizen opinions, had declared war on a yet unconfirmed, unidentified culprit that they were all too eager to typify as being Middle Eastern and Muslim.  Because most of us are so under educated about world events and other cultures, it was easy to accept the repetition, that the word terrorist and Muslim are synonymous. They are not.

If you believe in freedom and equality, then you must resent the wanton vilification of any group as being inherently evil.  I loathe the undercurrent of racism that still resides in this country to the extent that its carriers and perpetrators are so easily worked upon by the media, so as to become offenders of the very liberties they trust they are protecting by slurring and threatening law-abiding citizens who are Middle Eastern. In the wake of these attacks, the subsequent half-hearted apologies of government officials who have already approved “terrorist profiling” at airports, borders and ports are not only offensive, they are hypocritical.  Instead of standing as leaders of freedom, we have joined the energy of those we perceive to be so villainous.  We have become our own enemy. We have become our own enemy! And our willingness to respond violently will be our own undoing.

I know that mine seems like a lengthy and critical assessment, but these are critical times, and even with all that I have shared, I claim America wholeheartedly simply for the promise of what it may one day be, should peace ever become the goal.

I don’t know the answers. I do know that none of them come easily. We need to defend ourselves, yes, but again, we have tried war before. It has not worked. Most of the hard-won accords have not lasted. Slowly subtracting the rights that make us a democracy seems ill advised. We are never going to be safe in the skies or on the ground, not in the fairy-tale way that we so desire. That’s just the reality of the world we have inherited.

September 11th should have taught us how quickly and completely human existence can be eradicated.  It should have tempered and informed any thoughts of a violent response and what our retaliation will beget for our children.

I am not suggesting that we live in fear. I am suggesting that we live in grace, that we seek and make peace where there is none, even when it seems most impossible and our pain is so monumental.  I echo the sentiments of many, “Our grief is not a cry for war.” Our grief should be the first step towards lasting amity. Please trust God to lead us to it and preserve life, not destroy it.

About the Author:  A graduate student at the University of Southern California, Katina Parker lives and works in the Los Angeles area as a filmmaker, writer and photographer.  She may be reached at whywar2001@yahoo.com.

A couple of days before the terrorist strike on the World Trace Center (WTC), I had an interesting discussion with a few friends.  While we were enjoying a few games of football at a local sports bar, there was a local news flash:  another suicide bombing.  While I don’t remember the exact location of the bombing (someone near or in Israel), I remember telling my friends, “it’s a good thing we don’t have people crazy enough to do stuff like that in the US.”  Arrogance or ignorance?

Tuesday, September 11th started off as a typical workday for me.  Before leaving for work, I grabbed the book I had been reading for the past week.  (It is always nice to have a book handy for the subway ride.)  I arrived to work a little bit late, at 9:10 a.m.  When I got off the train, I quickly realized that it was not a typical workday.

I work at 1 Chase Manhattan Plaza (CMP), a short five-minute walk to the World Trade Center.  1 Chase Manhattan Plaza, while standing 60 floors high, was dwarfed by the twin towers that comprised the World Trace Center.  “There was a bomb at the World Trade Center” is the first thing I remember hearing that day.  I remember the tears and look of terror in the eyes of many people as they scattered about.  As I proceeded upstairs and outside to get a better view, I saw pieces of paper floating in the air.  As I stood between our two tall buildings (1 and 2 CMP) and looked to the west, I saw the fire spewing out of the side of tower 1.  I thought, that must be about 70 floors up.  Only last month I had business to attend to on the 106th/107th floors of the WTC.

It did not take long for me to learn that an airplane had struck the WTC.  I thought to myself, “What a terrible accident.”  But when I learned that several airplanes had been hijacked, I quickly realized that it was not an accident.  The Pentagon.  A second plane into the WTC.

A short time later, we heard a very loud noise.  Suddenly, it was pitch black.  The smell of smoke filled the air.  People (fellow co-workers) were screaming, shouting and crying, “what do we do?”  “Is our building being attacked?”  Just a few minutes before, I was sure that I was safe.  Arrogance or ignorance?  I was now wondering whether our building had just been hit.  Whether we would be the next to die.  I could hear people banging on the large windowpane that covers the front of our building.  They were suffocating in the smoke and soot.  They could not see the entrance.  Some managed to find a way in.  They entered the building screaming for water, to help clear their eyes.  Some entered the building with blood pouring from their faces.  Everyone was petrified.  I remember seeing several people banging on an emergency exit.  It could only be opened from the inside.  As I proceeded to open the door, someone in charge shouted, “leave it closed, you will let the smoke in.”  My response was, “Do you want to let them die?”  He opened the door.  As we managed to find safe-havens 4 and 5 levels underground, the smell of smoke still filled the air.  It was somewhat calming to learn that we were not being attacked.  One of the towers had just collapsed.  Then the second tower.  My thoughts went to all of those who probably died when the buildings collapsed.  I fought back tears and realized that I needed to call everyone who was probably worried about me.

Since the aftermath of the destruction of the WTC, I have often wondered how someone could harbor such anger and animosity toward the United States.  How could we allow such devastation to occur?   Was it arrogance or ignorance on our part?  We have all heard the notion of White supremacy.  The notion of North American (United States) supremacy that emanated before the attack, and continues to grow stronger, has caused us to feel invincible.  We are the one great kingdom that will never fall.  We are not threatened by the idle warnings of those who hate us.  We are both arrogant and ignorant.  Rather than trying to understand why someone could hate us to the point of wanting to destroy our nation, we are inclined to annihilate them.  I once wrote, “the failure to consider the cultural and belief systems of other individuals and groups is one of the primary reasons Western psychology has perpetuated the notion of White supremacy” (Newson, 1996).

The failure to consider the cultural and belief systems of other individuals and groups is one of the primary reasons we perpetuate the notion of American supremacy.  We are shocked and upset that someone is bold enough to attack us on our soil; that someone is brave enough to kill our civilians.  We are obviously arrogant and ignorant.  The fact that we are ready to wage war on an invisible enemy is proof enough.

Reference

Newson, D.R. (1996). Western psychology is to optimal psychology as conceptual incarceration is to mental liberation: A review of Myers' Optimal Psychology.  Psych Discourse, 27 (12), 4-6.

Dee Newson is working on his dissertation in Industrial/Organizational Psychology at the University of South Florida.  He may be reached at d2d4mate@yahoo.com.

 After watching almost 12 hours of reports on CNN, ABC, NBC, CBS and BET, it became abundantly clear that 99% percent of those commenting on the attacks on September 11, 2001 are united in support for a very violent retaliation for the tragedies that occurred in New York City and Washington, D.C. The heart of America’s financial and military symbols were utterly destroyed in one instance, and severely damaged in the other.

 The nucleus of Americanism, capitalism and the industrial/military complex, were violently confronted head on with seemingly no fear. It almost seems like the apparent message is, “you may be the most powerful nation in the world, but that doesn’t mean a thing to us.”

 And in listening to all the politicians, experts and commentaries, the general consensus was almost unanimous, “we have to strike back.” Strong, equal retaliation was the central theme. There is no effort here to judge whether that is right or wrong, it is only suggested that the root of the problem is not being addressed.

 One newscaster, on CNN, while interviewing an Israeli politician, seemed as if he was attempting to address the real problem, but the Israeli politician was skillful in not allowing what many see as the real issue to come to the surface. Another Israeli diplomat stated, “This has nothing to do with the Middle East,” which is the illegal occupation of Palestinian land, the mass destruction and takeover of Palestinian homes and businesses, the policy of open assassinations of Palestinian officials, and the wholesale denial of basic human rights of the Palestinian people.

 Retaliation may or may not be a key issue, but in order to possibly prevent future attacks, the main emphasis should be on settling the Middle East conflict between the Palestinians and their occupiers. This could be done in a week, if the Bush administration, which has virtually abandoned the issue, would put its full force behind a settlement. As difficult as it would be, the United States should threaten to withhold its aid and support to Israel, permanently, unless they resolved their issues with the Palestinians and stand out of the way of the Palestinians forming their own state.

 When America blames the Palestinians for the conflict, and openly supports the occupiers of the land of Palestinians; when the Palestinian’s holiest buildings and political offices are taken over; when America refuses to support a UN conference that would allow an open debate on this issue (using Israel as its excuse, though many speculate that it was to avoid the discussion of reparations for Africa and its descendants); and when America supplies Israel with more foreign aid than the entire continent of Africa (which has greater needs), then it is going to reap the brunt of the anger of those who do not support this. Many believe that the events in New York and Washington D.C. were a testimony to this anger.

 If the Palestinians had their own independent land, were allowed to live their lives as they saw fit, and eliminated their retaliation against those who took their land, it is highly possible that the hostilities of the Middle East would diminish substantially, if not completely. The Palestinians would be too busy building their own nation to be bothered by their Jewish neighbors, who happen to be their ancestral cousins.

 But as usual, America will ride off into the sunset, in its John Wayne, Texas fashion, putting all its energy into striking back and not focusing on the root of the problem. What this essentially sets in motion is another possible round of attacks on American soil that may already be in the planning stages.  New attacks may be even more devastating. There is a lesson here, but the student is having a mental lapse, and that could be a real tragedy.

Kwaku Person-Lynn is the author of FIRST WORD: Black Scholars Thinkers Warriors (Harlem River Press, New York, 1996). E-mail address: DrKwaku@hotmail.com

  As a Clinical Psychologist, I have been struggling to put in perspective the events of September 11.  Certainly, I, like many other Americans, have been horrified at the number of lives lost during the terrorist attacks, moved to tears by the images of individuals jumping from the World Trade Center towers, and angered by the lapses in security at our national airports.  However, in the subsequent weeks, I have discovered that what concerns me in addition to the actual events of September 11 is the national conversations about terrorism, and the resulting psychological splitting of America.

What do I mean by the psychological splitting of America?  To understand this term, derived from Melanie Klein (1932) and contemporary Kleinian theory (Mitchell & Black, 1995), think about the sudden hyper-patriotic state of America, manifested in countless country, rock, R&B, and folk re-mixes of "America the Beautiful;" a celebrity telethon raising millions of dollars; 8-hour lines at blood donation banks; and omnipresent flags in and on our supermarkets, restaurants, lapels, television screens, and cars. It feels sudden.  It feels intense. A wave of patriotism has swept our nation and has provided comfort to this author as well as to others feeling shocked and horrified by the events of September 11.  Additionally, America has portrayed itself as the all-good, omnipotent Mother-country, capable of loving and being loved by all freedom-loving nations.  We have created internal representations of America that characterize the U. S. as having a special relationship with God. America is the land of the free and the home of the brave.  We have suddenly forgotten about our own financial contributions to Afghanistan’s attempts to fight off the Soviet Union, and we have certainly long since-forgotten about whatever internal tensions existed in America before September 11.  In many ways, this is a predictable response to a national trauma, but it is no less worthy of analysis.

Whereas we have organized and mobilized our energies in support of our country, we have also been organizing our national internal representations of the Taliban and Osama bin Laden.  Naturally, as the suspect in these terrorist attacks, bin Laden is the presumed mastermind in a reprehensible crime against American citizens. However, our national conversation has characterized him and the al-Qaeda organization not only as terrorists, but as "evil-doers" and "barbaric people."  America will "smoke them out and get them running."

 Not only has America constructed an image of itself in opposition to the "evil-doers," but it has constructed a psychological universe populated by those who are for us and those who are against us. "We will make no distinction,'' President Bush said, ''between the terrorists who committed these acts and those who harbor them.'' Furthermore, in his speech to the nation, he said, "Every nation in every region now has a decision to make. Either you are with us or you are with the terrorists."  There is an inability to tolerate ambivalence or moral ambiguity.  The world has been split into two sides: those who are with us and those who are not with us.  Whereas the patriotism has been a comforting response to the trauma, dividing the world into good and evil is less productive.

 What interests me about the national rhetoric is that it sounds very familiar.  It sounds like the way some patients with personality disorders talk about the people in their lives.  A patient once told me about the one close friend he had and described this friend as "wonderful, supportive, the only person who understands me" and proceeded to describe his parents in the most hateful language.  They were unsympathetic, hated, cruel monsters who were clearly sabotaging his success in life.  Now, some parents are cruel, and certainly his were not candidates for Mother and Father of the Year, but his inability to report a nuanced perspective about people that put them in context, judiciously delivered praise with criticism, and allowed him to see people as integrated wholes, rather than as repositories for either "all good" or "all bad" feelings, was alarming. Some patients have great difficulty appreciating nuanced positions.  There was simply no room, in his psychological representation of the world around him, for a person to be neutral or to be neither helpful nor destructive.  There were two kinds of people in this world: him and his best friend, and everybody else (including his parents, classmates, co-workers, strangers whom he fervently believed avoided eye contact because they must have heard something bad about him, and occasionally me, his therapist). The discourse concerns me, whether it emanates from a client in therapy or from our national leaders.

Melanie Klein described individuals who think this way and classified this "all or nothing" thinking as being indicative of the paranoid-schizoid organization (Klein, 1932; Mitchell & Black, 1995).  Based on her observations of children, she wrote about the paranoid-schizoid position, which is a way that an individual might organize his or her experience of the world, particularly after a trauma.  Paranoid refers to the fear of being attacked, and the fear of invasive evil, originating from the outside. The nation is on high alert, afraid to go to work in high rise buildings, travel to visit relatives and friends, or resume a normal life.  Schizoid refers to the central defense from these persecutory feelings: splitting, which is the separation of the loving and loved object from the hating and hated object (Klein, 1932; Mitchell & Black, 1995).  The patient creates a world of good and bad and is unable to develop a more nuanced view of him or herself and external objects in the world.

Melanie Klein's reading of the paranoid-schizoid organization is that individuals develop this position by projecting a portion of the self outside the boundaries of the self.  It is less dangerous to feel that malevolence is located outside the self, in an object from which one can escape, than inside oneself.  What is important to note here is that the process of projection occurs because individuals cannot face their own destructive impulses and faults; these destructive impulses get projected onto an outside force who can now "contain" and "carry" all of them for the person. The process that I have observed in patients is the same process that I have observed in the national response to the September 11 terrorist attacks.  Faced with an inability to integrate, process, and understand our own aggressive and sometimes destructive traditions, the September 11 attacks now allow us to project all of this onto Osama bin Laden, all people in Afghanistan, any nation that does not pledge its complete support, all Muslims, all Arabs, and people who appear to be Muslim or Arab.  All that which is aggressive and destructive is located outside of self; all that which is good and holy becomes part of self.  The projection of some of our own aggressive impulses and tendencies onto bin Laden and terrorists generally helps us preserve our sense of America's superiority and goodness.

 Klein wrote that as the threat of persecution diminishes, the necessity for the vigilance of splitting is reduced (Klein, 1932; Mitchell & Black, 1995).  This is my hope for America.  As the images of exploding buildings become less ubiquitous, time will allow us to heal.  By observing children, Klein found that the infant can develop the ability to experience him or herself as more durable, less in danger of being crushed or contaminated by external or internal forces.  As the infant can experience another as neither all good nor all bad, but sometimes good and sometimes bad, paranoid anxiety diminishes. As people can do this, the paranoid-schizoid position is shattered.

 This is my hope for America.  If we can, on a national level, have a conversation about our own less-than-honorable impulses, foreign policies and practices, see ourselves as more nuanced, and see terrorism as a complex response to a complex set of problems, some of our national paranoia can abate.  If we can learn to recognize the properties in ourselves that we despise in bin Laden and talk about our own "sometimes goodness" and "sometimes badness," the need to desperately cling to the idea of a flawless America will abate, as will the paralyzing fear of danger that likely preceded it.   Some of the external fear of continuing violence and aggression is realistic. However, some of it may be a projection of our own aggressive impulses.  This interpretation will hopefully allow us to appraise realistic threats but not be paralyzed by them.  We will learn to get on airplanes again.  We will work to protect the lives of our citizens at home and abroad, and we will work to limit the power and access of terrorist organizations.  A more nuanced view of self is necessary for a nuanced view of others.  This nuanced view of others will help us reduce our fear and get on with our lives.

References

Klein, M. (1932). The psychoanalysis of children. London: Hogarth Press.
Mitchell, S. A. & Black, M. J. (1995). Freud and Beyond: A History of Modern Psychoanalytic Thought. New York: Basic Books.

Marcelle Christian is an assistant professor of psychology and Black Studies at Pomona College.  She may be reached at Marcelle.Christian@pomona.edu.

 Well, it looks as if the good people of the rural U.S. should be breathing a sigh of relief right about now. After all, with the President and most Americans itching to bomb any place where terrorists might be hiding, one can only imagine the kind of wrath that would have been brought down upon the heads of folks in Iowa, Nebraska, Wyoming or Mississippi had the guilty parties been White boys with crew-cuts, like Tim McVeigh.

 All this talk of “Kill the Arabs,” “carpet bomb ‘em back into the stone age,” or “get the ragheads” would have to have been replaced with “Kill the Crackers,” “bomb ‘em back to the ‘Dust Bowl,’“ and “get the trailer trash.”

 But the fact is, we all know that such a scenario would never have transpired, and not because White boys aren’t capable of inflicting mass death. They certainly are. McVeigh proved that, if for some folks Hitler, Stalin, Andrew Jackson, Lyndon Johnson and Dick Nixon weren’t sufficient to make the case. But rather, because the folks who are so quick to collectivize the responsibility and the payback when the perps are dark-skinned or “foreign,” are just as quick not to do so when White boys are the ones committing mass murder or engaging in terroristic activities. In the wake of Oklahoma City, none of the people who are now calling for war against Afghanistan even suggested targeting White supremacist groups and militias for destruction, let alone bombing the cornfields of “middle America” in the hopes of taking out a few anti-government types.

 Bottom line: enemies who look different, speak a different language, or practice a different religion are lots easier to view as the “other,” as somehow cutoff from the common humanity of which we consider ourselves a part. And so we speak now of killing Arabs indiscriminately, of not differentiating between the guilty and the innocent (ironically, the precise mentality of whomever carried out last week’s attacks), and winning a war, which we claim has been officially engaged. But we would have said none of these things had the perpetrators been internal extremists. We said none of these things about those who fit the descriptions of Tim McVeigh or Terry Nichols. We would never have heard columnists calling for profiling of White men, the way that reactionary crank and wanna-be pin-up girl of the right, Ann Coulter, called for the same against Arabs and Muslims this week.

 Actually, that wasn’t all she said: she also opined that it should be the role of the United States to invade “their” countries, kill “their” leaders, and “convert them to Christianity.” If these were the words of an Imam, calling for the forced conversion of Southern Baptists to Islam, we would call them the fanatical ramblings of a jihad-happy madman. But when the fashion-conscious and attractive (though clearly Snickers-deprived) Coulter says it, she finds mass support for her nuttiness, gets her call for a new round of Crusades published on the website of the National Review, and will remain a regular commentator for such paragons of journalistic virtue as Fox News.

 So too Jerry Falwell, who for some unknown reason people still take seriously despite his penchant for committing random acts of serial stupidity. His latest? Laying the blame for the attacks on New York and DC at the feet of the ACLU (for “throwing God out of the schools”), “the abortionists” (“because God will not be mocked”), as well as “pagans,” “feminists,” and “the gays and lesbians.” After offering this truly maniacal glob of pedantic crap, Falwell’s partner in fundamentalist lunacy, Pat Robertson, chimed in to blame “pornography on the internet,” abortion, and the removal of the Ten Commandments from courthouses. God, according to these twin towers of intellectual mendacity and biblically bankrupt spirituality, is “lifting his protection from us,” as our comeuppance for secular humanism.

 It makes me think back to what Barry Goldwater said about Falwell in 1981, when the rotund little preacher asked all “good Americans” to rise up in opposition to the nomination of Sandra Day O’Connor to the Supreme Court (since, after all, the Court was no place for a lady). “All good Americans,’ Goldwater intoned, ‘should rise up and give Jerry Falwell a kick in the ass.” Precisely, and now two decades overdue.

 Funny how all the discussion of religious fanaticism among certain followers of Islam has led us to overlook the fanaticism of certain Christians who are now calling for blood. One has to imagine that if Jesus was here today they would call him a pussy for all that “turn the other cheek” stuff. And while I can’t answer the question that so many self-proclaimed followers of Christ ask when they wear their “What Would Jesus Do?” armbands, I feel pretty confident that I know what he wouldn’t do. He wouldn’t be saying things like: “let’s shove a couple dozen cruise missiles up their ass,” or going out and spraypainting “Fuck Islam” on mosques, or screaming about the “sand niggers” while guzzling beer at some sports bar. And for that matter, he wouldn’t be standing around chanting “U.S.A, U.S.A.” at a memorial service, in an attempt to turn it into a jingoistic pep rally.

 The events of the past week have brought out the best in people and the worst: on the one hand, the rescue workers, diligently seeking for any signs of life amidst perhaps a million tons of rubble; yet, on the other, the cacophony of voices calling for revenge. Oh sure, they insist it isn’t about that, but rather, “justice.” They insist they want more than merely the continued spilling of blood, and that striking back has more purpose than merely proving how tough we are. But ask them what that purpose is, and how they think that massive military retaliation can actually make us more safe, to say nothing of the safety of others the world over, and their faces go blank, or become contorted with anger as they shout: “Well, we have to do something. We can’t just sit here and let them get away with it!”

 But “doing something” is not a valid pretext for unleashing war. And justice requires that we carefully consider the difference between responsible parties and innocent ones. Just as one would not think it “just” to level an entire neighborhood in search of one serial killer who might be living in the area, so too is it unjust to speak of turning much of the Arab world into a parking lot in search of the few persons actually behind the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon.

 Not only would such a disproportionate response be morally suspect, it would be irresponsible from a security perspective as well. It would leave us all less safe, as millions more in the Arab world came to see the U.S. as a bully, unconcerned about innocent lives, Muslim holy sites, or world peace. And ten years hence, or maybe less, they would understandably retaliate in kind. What is most ironic about all of this, is that such a scenario -- the West and Islam locked in mortal combat -- is exactly what the Osama bin Ladens of the world have always wanted. It is a trap. A trap rejected by the vast majority of Arabs, and of Muslims wherever they may be, but one in which they too will be caught up if we take the bait.

 It’s really quite simple: we couldn’t kill all of “them” even if doing so was ethically acceptable, which of course it isn’t. And those who don’t die, who would look around and see their nations leveled, their houses gone, their family members incinerated, would at that point most certainly feel that they had nothing to lose by getting even. And there is no more dangerous member of any society than the one who thinks he has nothing to lose. Desperation doesn’t make for very sound judgment, whether the desperation of the immiserated in the so-called Third World, or that of the most powerful, and yet often least original people on the planet.

 And so what does that leave us with? The fact is, I don’t know. And neither do you. And why we can’t just say that, admit our frailties and uncertainties and ignorance, is beyond me. That we demand quick and easy answers is indicative of our cultural attachment to instant gratification: got a headache, take an aspirin; overweight, get liposuction; upset about something, take Prozac. Don’t think, don’t analyze, just do it. It is Nike slogan as national mantra. And it is the prelude to international slaughter.

 No wonder so much of the world looks at America with contempt and at Americans as spoiled children. First, we train terrorists the world over, including bin Laden, because we had to “get the commies” at all costs, even if it meant supporting dictators, fundamentalists, and murderers. Then we support corrupt and brutal regimes that trample the rights of their citizens. Then we fund and support an illegal occupation of Palestinian land, and contribute to the deaths of a million or more in Iraq from bombing and sanctions. Then, we exhibit our arrogance by withdrawing from international treaties and forums when the going gets tough or issues get raised that we don’t want to discuss.

 This is not to say that any of these things, no matter how irresponsible or even criminal warrant an act the likes of what we saw September 11th. But there is something to be said for understanding why no one likes you. If all the other kids in the sandbox think you’re a thug and a bully, then after a while you’d best stop trying to beat them all into submission, or thinking that they are the problem, and instead, begin to turn some of that analysis inward. That’s what you would do, anyway, if you wanted to actually get to the bottom of the conflict on the playground. If, on the other hand, your main concern were showing what a badass you were, then maybe this wouldn’t matter much to you at all. And in that case, you would set out to show those other kids who was boss, who was king of the hill. You would continue to provoke them, to attack them, and then act shocked when they hit back.

 That kind of behavior is unbecoming enough when children engage in it. When adults with explosives do it, the immature becomes deadly. This is no game. There is no “winner” despite the blustery rhetoric of our frat-boy-in-chief. And unless we begin to fundamentally alter the way we as a nation operate around the world, we are in for many years of violence, and counterviolence, and empty platitudes, and flag waving, and body bags. And if that happens, it won’t merely be the fault of those who attack us from outside, but also the fault of those who were the enemies of justice, equality, and peace on the inside of the American empire. There will be more than enough blame to go around.

Tim Wise is a Nashville-based writer, lecturer and activist and may be reached at tjwise@mindspring.com.  This article was distributed on the Black Radical Congress listserv on September 15, 2001.  © 2001 by Tim Wise. All Rights Reserved.

Dear _____,

re: U.S. Pride Day.

Sorry ... I will not be participating.  Make no mistake:  I have lost friends in the attack, and my heart is heavy for the families of the missing.  This attack is a terrible thing.  I am an American, and I believe in democracy.  However, I will not stand behind a symbol that suggests that the American government is an innocent victim, and has been aggressed upon "for no reason."  Rather, I will provide support and service to individual victims and families.

I think it is crucial, especially for people of color, to understand that the U.S. has brought much of this upon itself by its arrogance, its refusal to listen to criticism, its theft of other's natural resources, and (on the pretext of spreading Democracy) its aggression in other nation's issues.  Although it has been sugarcoated as "making the world safe for democracy," we have raped and pillaged with the worse of them, and no, I will not fly a flag boasting my pride in that.

We, as American's and as individuals must be accountable for our part in any contentious situation.  The current situation dictates that cool and measured heads prevail in what decisions we make in our response to this terrorist act.  Flag-waving misses the mark for me!

Pat
(Iyawo Yemonja - OmiAde'Laye')

Pat Canson served six years as the National Secretary of the ABPsi. She is an Assistant Professor of Psychology at Medgar Evers College in Brooklyn, NY, and maintains a small clinical private practice in Queens, NY.  Pat is also an initiate priest in the Yoruba spiritual system.
 
 

Greetings Pat,

I share your sentiment regarding “Pride Day.”

It is highly unfortunate that many in our country, particularly the “powers that be,” will use the terrorists ‘attacks to hide behind, and avoid addressing the horrors that the American military industrial complex has perpetuated (and continue to perpetuate) against the citizens of other countries and against fellow Americans.

We all mourn the tragic loss of lives.  It is important that we keep in proper perspective our psycho-social historical reality as African Americans.  While our government walked out on the recent UN conference on racism, continues to deny African people the respect of an apology and reparations for slavery, and continues to make the agenda of White supremacists the American global agenda, we must continue to point out the responsibility that the US government has in spawning violence against innocent American citizens.

Reminders such as yours may well prevent so many of our brothers and sisters from being “caught up” in a mindless pseudo patriotic frenzy of waving American flags while still being denied the full benefits of citizenship and equal protection (and opportunity) under the American law.

Yours in the struggle,
Tony Young

Editor’s Note:  The above two essays are from e-mail correspondence.  Readers are invited to continue the dialogue on these issues within the pages of Psych Discourse.

 The most difficult, tense and dangerous time of my life is when I arrived in Viet Nam on December 28, 1967. There are no words or movies that can simulate the real experience of being in a war.

 Walking off the plane in Danang went far beyond what anyone could describe as culture shock. Everyone was armed with M-16s, grenades, bazookas, pistols and whatever else one could carry. The sound of automatic weapons, bombs and missiles were constantly going off within earshot.  One night I visited the morgue of a hospital ship. On the ceiling was a rack with hooks. Hanging on one of the hooks was a boot. I asked the officer in charge why a boot was hanging there. The officer replied, “There’s a foot in it. That’s all we have to send back.” One can only imagine what the soldier’s parents were going to feel.

 The greatest aggravation occurred during the peace talks in Paris. Everyone’s hopes were raised when there was speculation that the talks could lead towards the end of the war and we could return home. As news leaked out about the talks, disappointment flooded our minds. Weeks were spent arguing about what type of table the participants were going use and where everyone was going to sit. This was a major issue. In the meantime, American troops were dying every minute. The anxiety and pain of going through that is unexplainable.

 After more than 30 years of being away from the war, I thought the pain had disappeared until Tuesday, September 11, 2001. When I saw the World Trade Center buildings crumbling to the ground, knowing that there were thousands of people still in them, and newscasters later talking about firemen finding mangled bodies and body parts, I was taken straight back to the anguish I felt in Viet Nam.

Seeing the actual planes crash into WTC towers made me flashback to Viet Nam once again.  Hearing the stories of families who were looking for loved ones created an unspeakable agony.

 Naturally, all over the air, on every television and radio station, the majority of the discussion was on retaliation. That is the typical reaction to national anger. But cooler heads are going to have to eventually come to the surface and investigate why this happened.

 While watching Robert McNamara, former Secretary of Defense under president John Kennedy, talk about the mistakes he made during the Viet Nam War, he said, “We did not understand them and they did not understand us. The war was prolonged because we did not understand the motivation for their actions.” Can the same thing be happening again? There seems to be no discussion on why this tragedy in New York and Washington, D.C. occurred. What was the motivation?

 When I heard President Bush say, in reference to retaliating against the perpetrators, “This is the focus of my administration,” and the prime minister of Israel refusing peace talks with the Palestinians while increasing their aggression against them, that is almost as frightening as what occurred on 11 September. The simple reality is, until that situation is resolved, and while the United States continues to inequitably support Israel, the U.S. is wide open for another attack.

 What is even scarier, no one is even talking about this. It is as if the U.S. government and the media want to avoid this subject altogether. The perpetrators have already out-smarted America’s best military and security systems. They don’t know what to expect, but must expect anything and everything.  The propaganda machine against discussing the underlying causes is in full force.

 America is in pain, hurting and angry for the moment, and rightfully so. But let us not repeat the mistakes of the past. The issues between the Palestinians and Israelis are deep, long and complicated. The United States government must make settling this issue its top international priority, and not ever give up on it until it is resolved. The consequences of not doing so are far too great to have to go through another national tragedy.

Kwaku Person-Lynn is the author of FIRST WORD Black Scholars Thinkers Warriors (Harlem River Press, New York, 1996). E-mail address: DrKwaku@hotmail.com

“Instead of demonizing our enemies, we must recognize their humanity.  Instead of saying that the individuals who committed these heinous acts were filled with hate, we should recognize that they were also capable of and filled with love:  Love for their families, love for the innocents killed in their countries, love for their religion, love for their leaders.  They were filled with hope that their deaths, and the deaths of innocent Americans, would lead to a change for the better.”

I offer sincerest condolences to the families of the thousands of innocent civilians killed in the terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.  This unimaginable tragedy should serve as a wake up call to bring peace to the world that we share with billions of others.

A few days after the assassination of President John F. Kennedy, Malcolm X, the national spokesman of the Nation of Islam, said to the press that the killing was a case of the “chickens coming home to roost.”  The public and the mass media promptly excoriated him for the remark, as did Elijah Muhammad, the late leader of the Nation of Islam.

What Malcolm meant was that the violence against the icon of American society, the President, was a case of violence begetting violence.  Where Malcolm erred was in making his assertion at the wrong time, when the wrong target (a much beloved President) was assassinated.

But the retaliation against the United States on September 11, 2001, presumably by Middle East soldiers, was a much more apt case of the “chickens coming home to roost.”

For many years, now, the United States has waged a one-sided war against people of color in the Middle East.  It has supported some nation states that have used “made-in-America” weaponry to kill many thousands of civilians.  The U.S.’s own militia has struck from afar—using stealth bombers, cruise missiles, so-called smart bombs—to strike terror into the hearts and minds of people in Iran, Kuwait, Afghanistan, Sudan, and similar locales.

In this ongoing conflict, the United States has engaged in an “inversion of reality.”  The U.S. militia is seen as just, noble and courageous; the “terrorists” are seen as evil and cowardly.  But whereas the U.S. strikes with stealth technology by bombing from afar, those who attempt to fight back against the mammoth military machine of the U.S. sacrifice their lives to do so.  Who, here, is the coward?

Of course, we must decry the killing of innocent civilians for any reason.  Nothing can justify the hijacking of four U.S. commercial jetliners and crashing them into the World Trade Center, the Pentagon, and the fields of Pennsylvania.  But while we mourn the loss of American lives, let us be reminded of the lost lives of Palestinians, Iranians, Afghanis, and others, who have witnessed the terror of American “smart bombs” for several years, and who have suffered tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of casualties.

It is ironic that U.S. politicians are describing the attacks on September 11 as “acts of war.”  Yet, this country has been waging war against the rest of the world for more than 200 years.  Indeed, the settlement of North America by European malcontents was in the context of war:  against the indigenous and African populations.  The early European immigrants generated unimaginable wealth by stealing African people to work the land stolen from the First Americans.  These wars of conquest are now a fait accompli:  an accomplished fact.  The indigenous populations of North America have either been exterminated or remanded to desolate “reservations,” Africa remains under the yoke of European (neo)colonialism, and the descendants of African captives are effectively neutralized through policies of mental and physical incarceration.

The United States has accomplished this domination of the world through the doctrine of “might makes right.”  We have a military force that is unassailable.  Only the U.S. can fly from Missouri to Afghanistan, refuel in mid air, drop 20,000 pounds of high explosives, and return to Missouri unscathed, indeed, unseen.  In this context, it is laughable to see U.S. fighter planes now patrolling the skies over major metropolitan areas.  No one in the world can mount the kind of long distance attack on the U.S. as the U.S. can mount on others.  Instead, the pathetic strategy of those who seek retaliation against the U.S. is for them to sacrifice their own lives as in the hideous displays in New York, Pennsylvania and Washington.

Most worrisome is the talk of war, and the undoubtedly severe retaliation that will soon be meted out throughout the Middle East.  Already, the U.S. Embassy in Afghanistan has been called home, as have various relief agencies in that country.  These actions presage a violent and deadly use of force to punish those suspected of being responsible for the unprecedented destruction in New York and Washington.  But what the warmongers fail to realize is that the acts of “terrorism” against the U.S. were themselves retaliations for the terror being rained on Middle East populations for many years.  So as we retaliate against their retaliation, what is the likely result?  Surely, we are on the precipice of a very dangerous and deadly time in world affairs.

Instead of retaliation, the United States should see the violence of September 11, 2001 as a wake up call for peace.  Just as Japan was soberly awakened to the futility of their war against the U.S. when Hiroshima and Nagasaki were atom bombed; so too the U.S. should recognize that the suicidal tactics of committed freedom fighters cannot be prevented.  Only peace can prevent a recurrence of the terrible tragedy of September 11th.

It is natural and perhaps normal to seek retribution for the taking of thousands of American lives in New York, and hundreds more in Washington, D.C.  But it is pure insanity to strike back at shadows, killing unknown scores of innocent civilians.  Each civilian killed by made-in-America weapons creates scores of committed individuals who will seek retribution in the spirit of “Death to America!”  Violence begets violence.  We should also have the courage to say, “I have seen the enemy, and he is us!”

The only rational solution to this crisis is for the U.S. to stop the violence and negotiate with those who have grievances against this country.  This is not to say that the U.S. must surrender, as Japan did after the atomic bombings of two of its cities.  But it is to say that we must do everything in our power to ensure that such violence does not recur.

We must recognize that the only lasting solution to international conflict is at the table of earnest and committed diplomacy.

This country spends $300 billion every year on military preparedness.  That is an awesome number.  But one way to understand it is to recognize that $300 billion a year is $800 million a day, $30 million an hour, $500,000 a minute, close to $10,000 a second.  The Bush administration asked congress for an emergency appropriation of $20 billion to respond to the crisis; Congress awarded $40 billion.  And while much of that appropriation will be devoted to rebuilding the devastation wrought by the suicide attacks on September 11th, much of it will pay for the effort to rid the world of terrorists in Afghanistan and perhaps a dozen other countries.

The solution is to appropriate monies for peace.  Even an allocation of one billion dollars, a paltry sum in comparison to military spending, could lead to world peace.  The money should be spent by bringing divergent factions to the diplomatic table.  It can bring leaders and common citizens to forums designed to articulate and iron out differences in ideology.  A larger allocation, transforming military spending into spending for peace, could go a long way toward eradicating the underlying sources of un-ease in our world:  hunger, poverty, ignorance, and preventable illnesses.  Solving the problem of terrorism—by nation states and individuals—is as simple as allocating the funds to pursue the peaceful resolution of conflicts.

Instead of demonizing our enemies, we must recognize their humanity.  Instead of saying that the individuals who committed these heinous acts were filled with hate, we should recognize that they were also capable of and filled with love:  Love for their families, love for the innocents killed in their countries, love for their religion, love for their leaders.  They were filled with hope that their deaths, and the deaths of innocent Americans, would lead to a change for the better.  Let us not let their deaths, and the deaths of victims on both sides of the Atlantic, be in vain.  Let us commit ourselves to peace, to dialogue, and to the abolition of war.

Halford H. Fairchild is National Secretary of The Association of Black Psychologists and Editor of Psych Discourse, the monthly newsjournal published by The Association.  He teaches psychology and Black Studies at the Claremont Colleges and may be reached at HalFairchild@aol.com.

 For at least the last 15 years, our annual fund raising drive has ensured the financial health of The ABPsi.  Because last year’s Convention in Ghana posed a number of logistical problems, a fund raising effort was not conducted at the Installation Banquet.  The result is that we are more in need of contributions today than we have been for several years.
 This year, we seek funds to shore up our Future Fund (ABPsi’s Endowment), and to add to a Building Fund as ABPsi makes plans to move into a new facility within the next two years.  We also recognize a need to provide more financial support for the travel of our National President.
 Your tax-deductible gifts are urgently needed and sincerely appreciated.  The Presidents’ Council asks that you match their recommended gifts of $1,000.00, although any amount is very much appreciated.  (At the annual banquet, eight Past Presidents pledged $8,000.00.)
Yes!  I support The ABPsi!  Here is my pledge of:
(   )  $2,000.00
(   )  $1,000.00
(   )  $   500.00        (   ) Payment Enclosed
(   )  $   250.00        (   ) Please bill me
(   )  $   100.00        (   ) Credit Card (see below)
(   )  $  Other:  Please specify:  _________

Name: ________________________________________________________________
Address:  ______________________________________________________________
City/State/Zip:  ___________________________________________________________________
Credit:  AMEX   MC    DIS   VISA   # ___________________________________________________
Expiration:  _____________ Signature: __________________________________________________

You may also mail your gifts to:  2001 New Millennium Pledge, The ABPsi, P.O. Box 55999, Washington, D.C.  20040-5999.
Thank you!

One Week Delayed
Attention: Due to the recent tragedy in New York City, the debut of One Week has been pushed back to October 19, 2001 (see Psych Discourse September 2001).  The movie will open in New York City, Chicago, Atlanta, and New Jersey. Theater information is as follows:
New York City
Manhattan: Empire 25, 234 W. 42nd Street
Brooklyn:  BAM Rose Cinemas, 30 Lafayette Avenue
Bronx: Bay Plaza Shopping Center
Chicago
Hyde Park: 5238 S. Harper Avenue
Ford City: 7601 S. Cicero Avenue
City North: 5230  N. Western Avenue
Lawndale: 3330 W. Roosevelt Avenue
Atlanta
Morrow: Southlake 24,  Southlake Pavilion Mall (7065 Mt. Zion Circle)
Decatur: N. Dekalb 16, North Dekalb Mall (2042 Lawrencevill Hwy)
Atlanta: Parkway Pointe, 3101 Cobb Parkway
New Jersey
West Orange: Essex Green 9, Essex Green Shopping Center
Clifton: Clifton Commons, 405 Route 3 East

Please check the movie website because it is being updated for new information frequently. For more info about these cities or upcoming cities, go to:
 http://www.oneweekthemovie.com/
Eleanor Seaton
 

Events
Thursday, October 25, 2001, 10:00 am – 6:00 pm.  2001 Psychology Conference: Psychological Empowerment.  Speakers include  Dr. Roulette Smith, Dr. Michael Laurent, Dr. Connie White-Betz, Dr. L. Mark Carrier, Dr. Stan Danis, Dr. Gregory Canillas.  Cal State Dominguez.  For more information, Matthew Brown, Program Coordinator 310-243-3585.

Grant Writers Wanted!
GRANT WRITERS!  THE ASSOCIATION OF BLACK PSYCHOLOGISTS is in need of Grant writers to write grants for the Association.  We invite you to commit to assist our Association in remaining fiscally stable.  You would work closely with the Grants Committee of the National Board of Directors.  Grants are available to organizations such as ours but we often receive notices with turn around times of only two months.  Grant money is available but must be applied for promptly.  ABPsi could benefit if we had a core of grant writers in place.  The Black community needs the research and services of Black psychologists.  We encourage you to help us move to our rightful place as leaders!  If you are interested in becoming more involved with the heart and soul of ABPsi, please let us know.  Please send letters of intent with a copy of your resume to: Ms. Judy Ross, National Treasurer, The ABPsi, P.O. Box 55999, Washington, D.C., 20040-5999.

Student Circle Contact Information
The current members of the Central Committee of the Student Circle are as follows:

Satira Streeter, Virginia Consortium
Chairperson
satira@juno.com

Erica Lewis, Teacher’s College, Columbia
Chairperson Elect
El117@columbia.edu

Eleanor Seaton, Temple University
Secretary
eseaton@astro.temple.edu

Tanika Brew, Loyola College, Maryland
Eastern Regional Representative
msbrew@hotmail.com

Tima Smith, The Wright Institute
Western Regional Representative
FUNMI5@hotmail.com

Tani Breckenridge, Fisk University
Midwestern Regional Representative
tlbrecken@hotmail.com

Nneka Onyezia, Yale University
Eastern Undergraduate Regional Representative
Nneka.onyezia@yale.edu

Yaa Bandele, Spelman College
Southern Undergraduate Regional Representative
Mamayaya1@aol.com

Keteku Yaw
University of Ghana Representative
yawktk@hotmail.com

Funding!
The Ford Foundation has postdoctoral, predoctoral, and dissertation fellowships for "minorities."  For more information, contact:  Fellowship Office, National Research Council, 2101 Constitution Avenue, Washington, DC  20418.  Phone:  (202) 334-2872; Fax: (202) 334-3419; E-mail: infofell@nas.edu; Website:  http://national-academies.org/osep/fo.  Applications may be downloaded from our Website or filled out on-line.

To join this listing or for an electronic copy, send an e-mail to PsychDiscourse@aol.com (Hal Fairchild).  If you think you have sent a note to join the list before, and don't see your name, please send it again!  Nonworking addresses are periodically removed.
Authors Wanted
1.  Psych Discourse wishes to publish biographical articles on elders and other members of The Association.  Articles should be between 1000-3000 words and submitted to the Psych Discourse editor.

2.  Articles are requested that focus on clinical issues, including guidelines for operating a successful private practice, to be published in an upcoming issue of Psych Discourse.  Submit articles to the editor at PsychDiscourse@aol.com.
Send Announcements and other items to PsychDiscourse@aol.com.

California

CLAREMONT GRADUATE UNIVERSITY – THREE FACULTY POSITIONS AVAILABLE CGU announces a search for three full time faculty positions.  The first is for a psychologist who specializes in ORGANIZATIONAL BEHAVIOR.  This is a tenure-track graduate faculty position, rank open.  The successful candidate will be expected to teach graduate students and supervise research in the Ph.D. program in Organizational Behavior.  The second position is for a psychologist who specializes in DEVELOPMENTAL PSYCHOLOGY.  This is a tenure-track graduate faculty position, rank open.  The successful candidate will be expected to teach graduate students and supervise research in the Ph.D. program in Applied Developmental Psychology.  The third position is for a scholar who specializes in PROGRAM EVALUATION.  This non-tenure track appointment is of three years' duration, with the potential to convert to tenure-track. Outstanding candidates at any rank will be considered.  The successful candidate will teach graduate students, supervise research, and assume a leadership role in the Department's new master's concentration in Program Evaluation.  CGU is an independent institution devoted entirely to graduate study.  The Carnegie Corporation has classified CGU as a Doctoral Research University – Extensive, the highest rating for a university.  The city of Claremont is a charming small town located 35 miles east of downtown Los Angeles and less than 50 miles from Southern California beaches.  In addition to meeting fully its obligations under federal and state law, CGU is committed to creating a community in which a diverse population can live and work in an atmosphere of tolerance, civility, and respect for the rights and sensibilities of each individual, without regard to economic status, ethnic background, political views, sexual orientation, or other personal characteristics or beliefs.  Candidates should have completed the Ph.D., demonstrate a strong record of research publications, and possess outstanding teaching skills.  Further information on CGU can be found at http://www.cgu.edu.  Evaluation of candidates will begin October 15, 2001 and continue until the positions are filled.  Submit a vita, personal statement, preprints/reprints, and 3 letters of recommendation to:  Search Chairperson, (Specify one of the three positions), Department of Psychology, Claremont Graduate University, 123 E. Eighth Street, Claremont, California, 91711.  [CA1]

OCCIDENTAL COLLEGE seeks to fill a tenure-track position, beginning August 2002. Ph.D. in psychology required; postdoctoral or Preparing Future Faculty experience desirable. The successful candidate will have scholarly and teaching interests in at least two areas (from among emotion, personality, gender studies, health psychology, individual differences, motivation, organizational behavior, psychophysiology), and can develop an empirical research program involving students, contribute to introductory courses, and further the mission of the College. Occidental College is an Equal Opportunity Employer and women and minority applicants are encouraged to apply.  Review of files will begin on December 17, 2001, and will continue until the position is filled. Candidates should forward a letter of application, vita, and three letters of reference to: Search Committee Chair, Psychology Department, Occidental College, 1600 Campus Rd., Los Angeles, CA 90041.  [CA2]

PSYCHOLINGUIST.  THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF SOUTHERN CALIFORNIA is searching for an individual for an open rank position in Psycholinguistics.  We are particularly interested in someone at the Full or Associate Professor level, who can contribute to a nationally recognized program in Psycholinguistics that involves individuals in Psychology, Linguistics, Neuroscience and Computer Science.  The primary appointment will be in the Psychology Department, but it will likely involve a joint appointment in Linguistics and possible affiliation with the Program in Neural, Informational, and Behavioral Sciences.  Applicants should forward a curriculum vitae, representative reprints and a cover letter describing research interests to:  Frank Manis, Chair, Psycholinguistics Search Committee, Department of Psychology, University of Southern California, Los Angeles, CA 90089-1061.  For maximum consideration, apply by November 15, 2001.   The University of Southern California is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer. [CA3]

UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, BERKELEY: Pending budgetary approval, the Department of Psychology is seeking to fill two (2) positions at the tenure-track Assistant Professor level, effective July 1, 2002.  We are interested in these areas: (1) socio-cultural bases of behavior, with an emphasis on ethnicity and American cultures, including but not limited to minority mental health, social development, social cognition,, and cultural psychology; and (2) developmental psychology broadly construed, including, but not limited to socio-emotional development, development in the context of social and cultural factors, biological aspects of development, development throughout the life span, and applied developmental psychology.  For both positions, candidates whose research spans across the areas of the department  (behavioral neuroscience, clinical, cognitive, developmental, and personality/social) are particularly desirable.  Applications for either position must be postmarked by October 15, 2001, and are to include a curriculum vitae, a description of research interests and selected reprints sent to: Search Committee, Department of Psychology, 3210 Tolman Hall #1650, University of California, Berkeley, CA 94720-1650.  Candidates are to arrange to have at least three letters of recommendation sent to the same address, and to request that referees read the University's statement on confidentiality (http://www.chance/berkeley.edu/ apo/evalltr.html) prior to submitting their letters.  Candidates are asked to specify the position for which they are applying, and to submit an application for each position should they wish to be considered for both.  Applications postmarked after October 15, 2001, cannot be considered.  The University of California is an Equal Opportunity/ Affirmative Action Employer.  [CA4]

PSYCHOLINGUIST--THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, DAVIS, invites applications for a tenure-track position at the Assistant Professor level, in the area of language processing. The position begins July 2002, pending administrative approval. Specialties of interest include, but are not limited to, syntax or sentence processing, language acquisition (lexical or grammatical), or discourse processing using behavioral, developmental, neurological, and/or computational methods. The application of multiple paradigms is preferred. Candidates will be expected to exhibit broad teaching ability in cognitive science and/or linguistics at both the undergraduate and graduate levels. Requirements for the position include: a Ph.D., an active research program, a strong commitment to quality teaching, and the potential to attract extramural funds. Interested applicants should submit curriculum vitae, a statement of research and teaching interests, representative reprints or preprints, and three letters of reference. Where possible, e-mail addresses of referees should be supplied. Review of applications will commence on November 1, 2001, and will continue until the position is filled. Send applications to: Psycholinguistics Search Committee, Department of Psychology, University of California, One Shields Avenue, Davis, CA 95616-8686. For information, contact the Search Committee Chair, Debra Long, at the above address or via the Internet: dllong@ucdavis.edu. The University of California, Davis, and the Department of Psychology are interested in candidates who are committed to the highest standards of scholarship and professional activities, and to the development of a campus climate that supports equality and diversity. The University of California is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer.  [CA5]

DIRECTOR OF EDUCATIONAL RESEARCH:  THE DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN AND COMMUNITY DEVELOPMENT, AND THE M.I.N.D. INSTITUTE, UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA, Davis announce an opening for a fiscal (11-month), tenured position at the Associate or Full Professor level to participate actively in a newly emerging, state-of-the-art research center:  The UC Davis M.I.N.D. Institute. The successful candidate will be expected to develop a core research program in the UC Davis Department of Human and Community Development and M.I.N.D. Institute that promotes an understanding of mechanisms related to the development of learning, memory, and information processing in children with neurodevelopmental disorders.  The position includes some teaching responsibilities in Human Development or Education. The position requires a mid-level or senior investigator with a demonstrated record of scholarship and independent funding in areas related to educational intervention, cognitive processing, and/or affective (social) development in children with autism spectrum and other neurodevelopmental disorders.  Candidates should have a Doctorate or equivalent in Education, Psychology, Human Development, Educational Psychology, Neuroscience, Cognitive Science, or related area, or hold a Ed.D. with special emphasis in neurodevelopmental disorders, and a record of research and educational innovation reflected by grants, publications and national prominence in areas of educational processes, cognitive neuroscience and/or innovative educational leadership.  Appointment expected on or before September 1, 2002.  Applicants should submit a letter or interest, curriculum vita, representative reprints, and the names and addresses of five references to Dr. B.A. Ober, Co-Chair, Search Committee, c/o Search Committee Coordinator, Department of Human and Community Development, University of California, Davis, CA 95616, by 11/15/01.  Applications will be accepted, however, until the position is filled.  The University of California is an affirmative action/equal opportunity employer. [CA6]

DEPARTMENT OF COUNSELING – SAN FRANCISCO STATE UNIVERSITY: 1) Assistant professor, Coordinator of School Counseling program, 2) Assistant professor, School Counseling program and 3) Assistant professor, Rehabilitation Counseling program.  All positions are permanent, tenure track.  Complete job descriptions are available at: www.sfsu.edu/~counsel in the “news” section.  SFSU, a CA state university, services a diverse student body w/ a mission to promote scholarship, diversity, instructional excellence & intellectual accomplishment.  Faculty are expected to be effective teachers, demonstrating professional achievement and growth through research, publications and creative activities, and service to the campus and community.   Salaries commensurate with experience.  Start date August 2002.  Application deadline, January 2, 2002.  Send letter of application, vitae, 3 letters of recommendation, teaching evaluations & reprints to:  Peggy Smith, Hiring Committee, Dept. of Counseling, CHHS, SFSU, 1600 Holloway Ave., San Francisco, CA 94132-4161.  [CA7]
 

Colorado

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR – THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER is seeking a half-time faculty member specializing in forensic psychology.  Hiring at the Assistant Professor level.  Salary will be dependent on experience.  Duties include teaching, advising, supervising and participating as a core member for the Masters in Forensic Psychology program.  Applicant should hold a doctorate in clinical psychology, be licensed or license eligible, and have forensic experience.  Minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.  Preferred starting date is September 2002.  Mail cover letter and resume to Lavita Nadkarni at lnadkarn@du.edu or Graduate School of Professional Psychology, 2450 S. Vine St., Denver, CO 80208 by December 15, 2001.  You must refer to position #3363.  The University of Denver is an EEO/AA Employer.  www.du.edu.  [CO1]

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR – THE GRADUATE SCHOOL OF PROFESSIONAL PSYCHOLOGY AT THE UNIVERSITY OF DENVER is seeking a ½-time core faculty member who exhibits excellence in teaching and clinical supervision.  Expertise in one or more of the following areas is desirable:  geropsychology, neuropsychology, assessment, substance abuse, health psychology or GLBT studies.  Hiring at the Assistant Professor non-tenure track level.  Salary will be dependent on experience.  Duties include teaching, advising, supervision, doctoral paper advising, and curriculum development.  Being actively engaged in clinical work is important.  Applicant should hold a doctorate in clinical psychology and be licensed or license eligible.  Minorities are strongly encouraged to apply.  Preferred starting date is September 2002.  Mail cover letter and resume to Peter Buirski, Ph.D., Dean, Graduate School of Professional Psychology, 2450 S. Vine St., Denver, CO 80208-3626 by December 15, 2001.  You must refer to Position #454.  The University of Denver is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  www.du.edu.  [CO1]
 

Connecticut

NIMH POSTDOCTORAL RESEARCH FELLOWSHIPS - YALE UNIVERSITY SCHOOL OF MEDICINE - YALE CHILD STUDY CENTER:  THE YALE CHILD STUDY CENTER invites applications for three positions in the NIMH sponsored, multidisciplinary postdoctoral research training program in Childhood Neurobiological Disorders.  Active areas of research include: genetic, neurophysiological and MR spectroscopy studies of Tourette’s and pervasive developmental disorders; neuroimmunology and the development of animal models of Tourette’s syndrome; and the role of growth factors in CNS development. Positions are available for 24 months, beginning July 2002.  Applications should be submitted by November 30, 2001.  Applicants will be notified of decision by January 31, 2002.  Send curriculum vitae, any published research papers, three letters of reference and a brief statement of research goals to: James F. Leckman, M.D., Director of Research, Yale University Child Study Center, 230 So. Frontage Road, SHM, I-267, P.O. Box 207900, New Haven, CT  06520-7900.  Please note that this is an U.S. Government sponsored fellowship and is only open to citizens or permanent residents of the United States.  Yale University is an Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer and Welcomes applications from women and minority candidates. [C T1]

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR:  HUMAN ABILITIES AND EXPERTISE:  THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AT YALE UNIVERSITY seeks to make an appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor in the broadly defined area of human abilities, competencies, and expertise effective July 1, 2002.  The candidate’s research should span at least two approaches to these areas, such as cognitive, psychometric, developmental, personality-social, and biological.  Relating core topics of psychology to the study of human abilities and disabilities, competencies, and/or expertise would be desirable.  We also seek in this candidate someone who can contribute effectively to undergraduate and graduate teaching programs of the University.  Yale University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action employer and applications from women and minority group members are especially encouraged.  All applicants should send a letter of application, a curriculum vita, one copy of selected publications and arrange for three letters of recommendation to be sent to:  Chair, Abilities and Expertise Search Committee, Department of Psychology, Yale University, 2 Hillhouse Avenue, P.O. Box 208205, New Haven, CT 06520-8205.  Deadline for completed applications:  December 1, 2001.  [CT2a]

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR, CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGY:  THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY AT YALE UNIVERSITY expects to make an appointment at the rank of Assistant Professor in clinical psychology effective July 1, 2002.  Applications representing any area of specialization are welcome.  Applicants are expected to provide high-quality teaching at both undergraduate and graduate levels and to have exhibited (or show very clear promise of) excellence in research.  Yale is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer, and applications from women and minority groups are especially welcome.  Please send a letter of application, a curriculum vita, papers or reprints, and arrange for three letters of recommendation to be sent to:  Chair, Clinical Search Committee, Department of Psychology, Yale University, 2 Hillhouse Avenue, P.O. Box 208205, New Haven, CT  06520-8205.  Deadline for completed applications is December 1, 2001.  [CT2b]
 

Florida

THE STUDENT COUNSELING CENTER invites applications for three full-time pre-doctoral internships starting August 16, 2002.  Students must be from an APA accredited program in Clinical or Counseling Psychology and participate in the APPIC Internship Match Program.  Stipend:  $17,500 plus professional travel allowance.  Deadline for completed applications is December 1, 2001.  Send vita, three letters of recommendation, AAPI, transcripts and letter of interest to:  James Hennessey, Ph.D., Intern Training Coordinator, Student Counseling Center, Florida State University, Tallahassee, FL  32306-4175.  An Affirmative Action/Equal Opportunity Employer.  [FL1]
 

Georgia

PREDOCTORAL INTERNSHIP:  THE EMORY UNIVERSITY COUNSELING CENTER is accepting applications for its predoctoral internship training program in Professional Psychology.  The internship is fully accredited by the American Psychological Association (APA).  Three full-time intern positions will be available for the 2002-03 internship year, which begins on August 1st.  Supervised training experiences include individual, couples and group therapy with adults and adolescents.  Rotations available in family therapy and systems-oriented consultation.  Stipend: $18,500 plus health insurance and fringe benefits.  Application deadline is November 15, 2001.  Members of under-represented groups are encouraged to apply.  For application materials contact: Pamela J. Epps, Ph.D., Training Director, Emory University Counseling Center, Cox Hall, Suite 217, Atlanta, GA 30322, (404) 727-1920.  [GA1]
 

Illinois

IRVING B. HARRIS FELLOWSHIP IN CHILD DEVELOPMENT  -  THE HARRIS SCHOOL AT THE UNIVERSITY OF CHICAGO seeks applicants for a one-year A.M. training program in childhood development and policy research and analysis. Full tuition plus $10,000 stipend available.  Applicants must hold graduate degree in early childhood development or related field. Deadline January 15.  Contact Ellen Cohen at (773) 834-2576 or eb-cohen@uchicago.edu.   [IL1]

RESEARCH FELLOW- AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION - (CHICAGO):  THE AMERICAN BAR FOUNDATION invites applications from highly qualified scholars to join its community of resident research fellows. ABF Research Fellowships are continuing, not visiting, appointments.  Both rank and field are open.  Part-time appointments undertaken in cooperation with area institutions, as well as full-time appointments, can be considered.  Candidates must have completed a law degree or a Ph.D. in a relevant discipline.   Senior candidates must be able to demonstrate outstanding scholarship; junior candidates must demonstrate outstanding potential.  Salaries and fringe benefits (including TIAA-CREF) are competitive with those at leading research universities.  Applications from minorities and women are especially encouraged.  The American Bar Foundation is an independent research institute pursuing empirical study of law and legal institutions.  ABF research fellows initiate, develop, conduct and publish their own and collaborative scholarly research funded through the ABF's own financial resources or through grants made to individual projects by government agencies and private foundations.  The Foundation also provides extensive support services, including research assistance and technical support.  Research fellows have full use of the libraries and computer facilities at Northwestern University and the University of Chicago.  Research currently underway includes both basic and applied empirical research, undertaken from a variety of disciplinary and interdisciplinary perspectives:  anthropology, criminology, economics, history, law, political science, psychology, and sociology.  All applications must include:   (1) a cover letter, (2) a 400-word statement of current research activities and future plans, (3) a resume/cv, and (4) copies of the applicant=s three leading publications (senior applicants) or other evidence of scholarship (junior applicants).  All applicants should also request two referees to forward confidential letters of support directly to the Foundation.  Screening of applications will commence immediately and continue until an appointment is made.  Applications received before October 15, 2001, will receive full consideration.  All application materials and administrative questions should be sent to:  Renee Brown, American Bar Foundation, 750 North Lake Shore Drive, Chicago, Illinois 60611.  Email: rjbrown@abfn.org.  Inquiries about the research positions should be directed to: Terry Halliday, Chair, Appointments Committee, at halliday@abfn.org.  This announcement may also be found on the ABF website http://www.abf-sociolegal.org.  [IL2]

CLINICAL PSYCHOLOGIST POSITIONS: THE ILLINOIS DEPARTMENT OF HUMAN SERVICES (DHS) is recruiting to fill Clinical Psychologist positions for Chester Mental Health Center (CMHC) in Chester, Illinois.  A Ph.D. in Psychology is required: Illinois license or eligible preferred.  CMHC is a 280 bed maximum security forensic center, located near Carbondale and approximately one hour from St. Louis.  One of the most modern maximum security facilities in the country, CMHC was the second forensic facility in the United States to receive Joint Commission Accreditation.  The positions offer superb opportunities for professionals skilled in multidisciplinary team approaches.  Competitive salary with excellent fringe benefits.  Salary Range: $46,452 - $68,256. Qualified mental health supervision and excellent growth potential.  Send resume or direct inquiries to Patricia Kelley, L.C.S.W., Chester Mental Health Center, P. O. Box 31, Chester, Illinois 62233-0031.  An Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer.  [IL3]

DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, SOUTHERN ILLINOIS UNIVERSITY EDWARDSVILLE: seeks applicants for three tenure-track positions at the Assistant Professor rank to begin August 2002. Applicants must have a promise for high quality research and a strong commitment to undergraduate and graduate teaching. The individuals filling these positions will teach courses in the graduate and undergraduate programs, conduct research, supervise theses, and advise students. Applications should include a vita, statements of teaching and research interests, three letters of recommendation, and reprints or preprints. Clinical Psychology-Adult: Applicants should have a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from an APA-accredited program, and preference will be given to applicants who are qualified to teach biopsychology. Applications will be accepted until the position is filled and review will begin immediately. Material should be sent to Dr. Andy Pomerantz, Chair, Search Committee, Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, 62026-1121. For more information contact Dr. Pomerantz at (618) 650-3661 or apomera@siue.edu. Clinical Psychology-Child: Applicants should have a Ph.D. in clinical psychology from an APA-accredited program, and preference will be given to applicants with an emphasis in children, adolescents, or families. Applicants with a cognitive behavioral orientation and/or ecological perspective as well as expertise in assessment, prevention programs, and interventions are preferred. Applications received by November 15 will receive priority consideration; however, applications will be accepted until position is filled. Material should be sent to Dr. Emily Krohn, Chair, Search Committee, Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, 62026-1121. For more information contact Dr. Krohn at (618) 650-3646 or ekrohn@siue.edu. Cognitive, Quantitative, or Social: Applicants should have a Ph.D. in psychology with expertise in Cognitive, Quantitative, or Social Psychology. Primary teaching responsibilities will include a two-semester graduate statistics sequence, undergraduate research methods, and classes in the candidate’s area of expertise. Applications received by November 1 will receive priority consideration; however, applications will be accepted until position is filled. Material should be sent to Dr. Stephen Tuholski, Chair, Search Committee, Department of Psychology, Southern Illinois University Edwardsville, Edwardsville, IL, 62026-1121. For more information contact Dr. Tuholski at stuhols@siue.edu. The University currently has over 12,000 students and is situated in a park-like campus only 20 miles from downtown St. Louis, MO. The Department is one of the largest in the University and features high quality undergraduate, master's, and specialist degree programs. For further information, visit www.siue.edu/PSYCHOLOGY. Salary for each position is commensurate with qualifications and experience. Southern Illinois University is an Equal Opportunity/Affirmative Action Employer. The Department is particularly interested in individuals who will enhance the ethnic and cultural diversity of the department.  [IL4]

ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN FAMILIES AND COMMUNITIES - SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL POLICY:  NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY: THE SCHOOL OF EDUCATION AND SOCIAL POLICY AT NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY is conducting a search for a tenure-track Assistant Professor with a specialty in families and family-community linkages.  We seek candidates with interests in how families and communities interact to influence the health and development of children and adults and the role of family and community-based interventions in improving child and adult well-being.  Specific interests might include family involvement with schools, families’ decisions regarding neighborhood location, influence of household structure or parental work on children and adolescents, the role of culture in families, and the influence of policies and programs on family life and child and adult well-being.  Interests in cultural diversity and in programmatic and policy implications are especially desired.  Candidates with backgrounds in anthropology, economics, education, psychology or sociology are encouraged to apply. Responsibilities will include teaching and advising in the Human Development and Social Policy doctoral program as well as teaching in the School’s undergraduate program. Northwestern is located in an attractive lakefront community adjacent to Chicago.  Applicants should submit a statement of research and training interests, vita, representative reprints, and three letters of recommendation to Greg J. Duncan, c/o Mary Lou Manning, School of Education and Social Policy, Northwestern University, 2115 North Campus Drive, Evanston, IL 60208.  In order to receive full consideration, applications must be received by November 16, 2001.  Starting date for the position is September 1, 2002.  Women and minorities are strongly encouraged to apply. Northwestern University is an Equal Opportunity, Affirmative Action employer. Hiring is contingent upon eligibility to work in the United States.  More information on the Human Development and Social Policy Program is available at http://www.sesp.nwu.edu/grad/hdsp-homepage.html.  [IL5]

DEPUAL UNIVERSITY, DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, ASSISTANT PROFESSOR IN INDUSTRIAL/ORGANIZATIONAL PSYCHOLOGY.  Tenure track position beginning fall 2002.  Ph.D. required.  DePaul offers an I/O Ph.D. and I/O undergraduate concentration.  Responsibilities include:  teaching undergraduate courses, graduate courses (Leadership, Org Theory), developing and maintaining an active research program in I/O, and supervising graduate student research.  A willingness to participate in the university’s general education is a plus.  Applicants should have an Organizational emphasis and a willingness to demonstrate productivity.  Opportunities exist to develop contacts for research and consulting.  DePaul’s faculty value diversity and serve a diverse student body.  Candidates from underrepresented groups are especially encouraged to apply.  Send vita, three letters of reference, recent publications and manuscripts, and statement of research and teaching interests to:  I/O Search Committee, Department of Psychology, DePaul University, 2219 North Kenmore, Chicago, IL 60614.  Review of applicants begins November 15 and continues until position is filled.  DePaul is an Equal Opportunity Employer.  [IL6]

THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, invites applications for a faculty position in the area of Clinical Psychology, to begin as early as September 2002.  The search is approved for a tenure-track assistant professor.  Qualifications include outstanding research and teaching ability. Although we are interested in outstanding applicants from all areas of clinical psychology, we especially encourage applications from those in the following areas of research: depression, addictive disorders, schizophrenia, personality disorders, and child psychopathology.  Qualifications include outstanding research and teaching ability, as well as being licensed or license-eligible.  Interested candidates should send a statement of research interests, curriculum vitae, copies of recent publications, and at least three letters of recommendation to the Clinical Psychology Search Committee, Department of Psychology, Northwestern University, Evanston, IL 60208-2710, USA.  Applications received before November 15 will receive higher priority.  AA/EOE.  Applications from women and members of minority groups are especially welcome. [IL7a]

THE DEPARTMENT OF PSYCHOLOGY, NORTHWESTERN UNIVERSITY, invites applications for an anticipated faculty position in Social Psychology, to begin as early as September 2002.  The search is approved for a tenure-track ass