Letter from America

Episode of Series “Correspondent”.
This is the second part of a two-part program which explores the rift between America and the Muslim world. Playwright and critic Bonnie Greer was born in Chicago. She then spent several years working in New York before moving to London where she has spent the last 15 years working in theatre and writing. Bonnie decided to go home to America to talk to family and friends about September 11 and whether it has changed their feelings about America and being American. Through her interviews with members of her family (Black American, middle-class), her priest, university students, friends and co-workers from the past, Bonnie discovered that if Americans were arrogant, it was an arrogance born out of ignorance and that since September 11, many Americans were beginning to do some soul-searching and treating the terrorist attack as a wake-up call. The common thread appears to be a feeling of powerlessness and a lack of information being passed on to the general population by all aspects of the media and the Government. Education is so insular and parochial that young students do not even know where Pakistan or Afghanistan are on the map. Television broadcasts appear to be more for entertainment rather than providing for any analytical value. This documentary, along with “Letter to America”, certainly provides the viewer an opportunity to see and hear two differing attitudes and opinions from just everyday people at opposite ends of the spectrum - religiously and politically. But are they so different? And can people change? It seems at the end of the day that all most people want is peace and to live without fear. For more information: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/programmes/correspondent/1698317.stm