I don't know what I'm supposed to be writing today . . . I didn't work on my Dare pages either Tuesday or Wednesday. Maybe I will later on today. I have a lot of thoughts I need to get out, though, about the attacks on Tuesday and what has been happening since. This post is, as they say, OFF TOPIC. Read at your own risk; current opinions follow. These opinions may change, evolve, or whatever, but for now this is how I feel. Because I am sad. I am afraid. At this moment, I feel very little anger, though I know it will come. I was in my car when I heard my first news about the attacks. All I could think about the news cast was, you're joking right?
From various people I know, I keep hearing things that shock and scare me. Someone advocating the internment of Arabs in camps like the US did with its Japanese citizens during WWII. The willingness to give up any and all civil liberties if *someone* will promise that this will make us safe. People not caring against whom we retaliate, only that we do something and do it fast, and people not caring whether massive amounts of innocents are killed in the revenge attack. I have, like most people, heard reports of harassment, hate mail, and death threats - including the shooting up of Arab-American-owned businesses. I have also heard from people willing to shelter others from racism and hatred, of people praying for peace and justice, and praying for the souls of those who died, those of their families, and for all of us. People wondering and willing to ask the question: why would someone have perpetrated an attack like this? Why is there so much hatred directed against the United States?
Some people think that this attack has something to do with the U.S.'s support of Israel in the Middle East wars, and possibly something to do with the U.S. pulling out of the conference on racism. My opinion is that this attack took at least a year's worth of planning, and that there must've been a network of people on the ground assisting the hijackers. The television commentators and politicians keep calling the terrorists who hijacked those planes cowardly. They weren't cowards; they were willing to die for their beliefs. I think they were firmly esconced in the arms of religious fundamentalism. They became murderers. I can't pretend to understand their mentality, and I think anyone who says they do but who hasn't lived in their world is fooling themselves.
I hear Bush call the attacks acts of war against the United States, read that NATO has passed a cold war era resolution declaring that an attack against one of their members is an attack against all, see the comparisons of the attacks to Pearl Harbor, and I worry. A lot. I hope NATO will be a moderating force, working for justice.
Will we be able to find credible, conclusive evidence leading us to the person or persons who masterminded and helped in carrying out these atrocities? If we do, will we be able to strike in such a way as to prevent innocents - or at least as many as possible - from dying? If we don't, will we strike out at someone anyway because the call for blood is a rushing roar that won't be denied? Did the government make up its proverbial mind about who it was going after before the evidence had even begun to be sifted through? Will this be like the aftermath of Oklahoma City, where everyone was sure we were dealing with terrorists from the Middle East, where people of Middle Eastern descent were lynched in the Heartland - and then the perpetrator turned out to be an American citizen?
What do we as a nation do? As has been said, we cannot stand for terrorism. So . . . we retaliate. What then? Israel has been operating on the policy of retaliation for years and they are the most sophisticated and experienced country in combating terrorism - they still can't stop terrorist attacks on their own soil. In my mind, their experience has proven that retaliation doesn't work - it only fuels the fire for attacks in revenge of increased magnitude. Why would it be different for us? What other choices might there be? I pray we find some, if not now then in the long run.
Do I think we will retaliate? You bet your ass. Will we bring about justice? I don't know - I can only hope.
I don't know that the people of this country will ever know the exact reason the terrorists committed Tuesday's attacks. If what they hoped to accomplish was to show us the veracity of their hate, they succeeded. If they hoped to change anyone's minds about anything, I think they failed. Let's hope that we don't allow what happened to affect our freedoms, because then the terrorists will have won.
For all my wondering about the whys and wherefores of what has happened this week, I do want to be clear that I feel no one "deserves" to have terrorist acts perpetrated against them.
I am saddened for and proud of the scores of police men and women and firefighters who risked their lives and lost them, who ran into those buildings knowing what could happen, who were caught inside and beneath the buildings as they collapsed. I also feel proud of the passengers of the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania who, perhaps because they were aboard the last plane hijacked, were able to understand what was happening and what was probably intended for them, and chose otherwise. I pray that the souls of the dead arrive safely and gently in the arms of their Gods, whomever they may be, and that their families be comforted in their grief. I pray that whoever is responsible for these horrors is brought to justice - and I pray for their souls, and for the families they left behind. Should our military men and women be deployed overseas, I pray that they have whatever support they need.
Watching the replay of those planes hitting the twin towers continues to tear my heart out every time. I tried to get away from it all this morning by turning on VH1 to listen to music as I got ready to head for my office. Didn't work. It turns out that on the day of the attacks, Sting was scheduled to do a taping for either Storytellers or MTV Unplugged, not sure which. He showed up at the studio, and performed one song, followed by a moment of silence, in memory of those who died. That song was, of course, Fragile. Appropriate - and chilling. I started to cry all over again:
If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime's argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star
Like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star
Like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
************************************************
May Heaven and Earth grant us wisdom. For me, this is not only about America. It's about all of us in this world.
From various people I know, I keep hearing things that shock and scare me. Someone advocating the internment of Arabs in camps like the US did with its Japanese citizens during WWII. The willingness to give up any and all civil liberties if *someone* will promise that this will make us safe. People not caring against whom we retaliate, only that we do something and do it fast, and people not caring whether massive amounts of innocents are killed in the revenge attack. I have, like most people, heard reports of harassment, hate mail, and death threats - including the shooting up of Arab-American-owned businesses. I have also heard from people willing to shelter others from racism and hatred, of people praying for peace and justice, and praying for the souls of those who died, those of their families, and for all of us. People wondering and willing to ask the question: why would someone have perpetrated an attack like this? Why is there so much hatred directed against the United States?
Some people think that this attack has something to do with the U.S.'s support of Israel in the Middle East wars, and possibly something to do with the U.S. pulling out of the conference on racism. My opinion is that this attack took at least a year's worth of planning, and that there must've been a network of people on the ground assisting the hijackers. The television commentators and politicians keep calling the terrorists who hijacked those planes cowardly. They weren't cowards; they were willing to die for their beliefs. I think they were firmly esconced in the arms of religious fundamentalism. They became murderers. I can't pretend to understand their mentality, and I think anyone who says they do but who hasn't lived in their world is fooling themselves.
I hear Bush call the attacks acts of war against the United States, read that NATO has passed a cold war era resolution declaring that an attack against one of their members is an attack against all, see the comparisons of the attacks to Pearl Harbor, and I worry. A lot. I hope NATO will be a moderating force, working for justice.
Will we be able to find credible, conclusive evidence leading us to the person or persons who masterminded and helped in carrying out these atrocities? If we do, will we be able to strike in such a way as to prevent innocents - or at least as many as possible - from dying? If we don't, will we strike out at someone anyway because the call for blood is a rushing roar that won't be denied? Did the government make up its proverbial mind about who it was going after before the evidence had even begun to be sifted through? Will this be like the aftermath of Oklahoma City, where everyone was sure we were dealing with terrorists from the Middle East, where people of Middle Eastern descent were lynched in the Heartland - and then the perpetrator turned out to be an American citizen?
What do we as a nation do? As has been said, we cannot stand for terrorism. So . . . we retaliate. What then? Israel has been operating on the policy of retaliation for years and they are the most sophisticated and experienced country in combating terrorism - they still can't stop terrorist attacks on their own soil. In my mind, their experience has proven that retaliation doesn't work - it only fuels the fire for attacks in revenge of increased magnitude. Why would it be different for us? What other choices might there be? I pray we find some, if not now then in the long run.
Do I think we will retaliate? You bet your ass. Will we bring about justice? I don't know - I can only hope.
I don't know that the people of this country will ever know the exact reason the terrorists committed Tuesday's attacks. If what they hoped to accomplish was to show us the veracity of their hate, they succeeded. If they hoped to change anyone's minds about anything, I think they failed. Let's hope that we don't allow what happened to affect our freedoms, because then the terrorists will have won.
For all my wondering about the whys and wherefores of what has happened this week, I do want to be clear that I feel no one "deserves" to have terrorist acts perpetrated against them.
I am saddened for and proud of the scores of police men and women and firefighters who risked their lives and lost them, who ran into those buildings knowing what could happen, who were caught inside and beneath the buildings as they collapsed. I also feel proud of the passengers of the plane which crashed in Pennsylvania who, perhaps because they were aboard the last plane hijacked, were able to understand what was happening and what was probably intended for them, and chose otherwise. I pray that the souls of the dead arrive safely and gently in the arms of their Gods, whomever they may be, and that their families be comforted in their grief. I pray that whoever is responsible for these horrors is brought to justice - and I pray for their souls, and for the families they left behind. Should our military men and women be deployed overseas, I pray that they have whatever support they need.
Watching the replay of those planes hitting the twin towers continues to tear my heart out every time. I tried to get away from it all this morning by turning on VH1 to listen to music as I got ready to head for my office. Didn't work. It turns out that on the day of the attacks, Sting was scheduled to do a taping for either Storytellers or MTV Unplugged, not sure which. He showed up at the studio, and performed one song, followed by a moment of silence, in memory of those who died. That song was, of course, Fragile. Appropriate - and chilling. I started to cry all over again:
If blood will flow when flesh and steel are one
Drying in the colour of the evening sun
Tomorrow's rain will wash the stains away
But something in our minds will always stay
Perhaps this final act was meant
To clinch a lifetime's argument
That nothing comes from violence and nothing ever could
For all those born beneath an angry star
Lest we forget how fragile we are
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star
Like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
On and on the rain will fall
Like tears from a star
Like tears from a star
On and on the rain will say
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
How fragile we are
************************************************
May Heaven and Earth grant us wisdom. For me, this is not only about America. It's about all of us in this world.
posted by Leslie Claire at
12:08 PM
