Death Builds Bridge for Cooperation

Symphonies, folk-rock bands and jazz groups are playing at concerts worldwide to honor the memory of Daniel Pearl, a Wall Street Journal reporter kidnapped and killed while covering the conflict in Afghanistan.

Pearl's captors tortured him and then filmed his murder, claiming that he had been selected because he was "anti-Islam and a Jew."

A Pakistani court sentenced to death the man suspected for planning the crime and gave three accomplices life in prison.

Pearl's family worked to set up the today's event, which coincides with his birthday, to honor his memory and his passion for music. Pearl was a classically trained musician who played the fiddle, mandolin and electronic violin.

The amazing display of worldwide unity -- with concerts being held from France to India, from Beijing to Karachi, Pakistan, to mark Pearl's tragic and unnecessary death -- is a rewarding display of human spirit and of cooperation.

The outpouring of global support after the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks has long since faded.

Talks of a U.S. military intervention in Iraq flood the air waves -- accompanied by other nations questioning the wisdom of such a move and urging that President Bush and other U.S. leaders exercise restraint.

But here are people from a multitude of countries all working together to honor the memory of single man, someone who most of them have never met and never even heard of until his death.

This fairy-tale story mirrors the idealistic aura and symbolism Pearl's life has taken on since his death, particularly for his fellow journalists, and explains the success of the Daniel Pearl Foundation.

The foundation was created to honor the ideals of Pearl's life and to "promote cross-cultural understanding through journalism, music and innovative communications."

The group has touched hundreds of lives across the globe since its creation less than a year ago and is working to advance cultural understanding on a variety of fronts.

The foundation is holding conferences for journalists, academics and religious leaders about the differences between the U.S. culture and Islamic life. It is also working to produce children's books and media programs that would expose youth to new cultures and lifestyles.

The foundation's goals are even more laudable given the racial, ethnic and cultural tensions pervading throughout the world, U.S. communities and the University.

With any hope, the Pearl Foundation can help ease the cultural misunderstandings so prevalent in American life and the world and show that Daniel Pearl's death was not entirely in vain.

Editorial Page Editor Lucas Fenske can be reached at fenske@email.unc.edu.