posted on September 15, 2001 08:26:53 AM new
[url]http://www.miami.com/herald/special/features/
barry/2001/docs/wtc0913.htm[/url]
Somebody sent me this today.
I want to say thank you to Dave Barry of the Miami Herald. You say it better than I can. I do not advocate that we take no military action, just that we take a measured and controlled military action.
In part he says:
"But I know this about Americans: We don't set out to kill innocent people. We don't cheer when innocent people die. A DECENT PEOPLE The people who did this to us are monsters; the people who cheered them have hate-sickened minds. One reason they can cheer is that they know we would never do to them what their heroes did to us, even though we could, a thousand times worse. They know that when we hunt down the monsters, we will try hard not to harm the innocent."
Something I say a lot is "Every day that I learn something is a good day". Sometimes these lessons consist of finding out that porcupines can climb trees.
This week I learned a lot. Thank you Dan Rather. I've listened to you day and night since Tuesday. I've learned not only massive amounts about the world around me, but that I respect Dan Rather as THE journalist of my generation, like Walter Cronkite was for my mother.
I learned that although I did not vote for George Bush, and last week I had little admiration for or trust in him, he did possess the ability to earn my trust. I trust you now Mr. Bush, please don't let me down. I'll even salute you if you come to where I live.
I've learned that we are a lot closer to the rest of the world than I would have guessed. The out-reach from other countries was truly inspiring & uplifting. I want to hug you all. You made me cry for a better reason.
I learned more than I wanted to about the people I've "talked" with here every day for a couple of years. Much more than I wanted to know. But for the opportunity, some of you would willingly murder tens of thousands. Hundreds of thousands. Maybe even millions. Decimate a large portion of a continent.
Reading some of these threads has been the mental equivalent of an acid bath for me, and I just can't take it anymore. I've put some of you on ignore, but I can still tell what you're saying, and I am so repulsed as to feel actual anguish, and I don't really need more anguish. I cannot address the issue every time it oozes out from under a rock.
So I want to just leave my proxy opinion as I go on hiatus until I recover my mental equilibrium and strength. I won't even be reading any threads, because I can't predict when one of the little rocks will be suddenly lifted.
Whewnever you have a thread, and someone writes that in that name of self-defense and national interest that we should commit genocide - Victoria writes eloquently against it.
Whenever someone writes that when a goverment is corrupt and poses a threat to the world, all the people in that nation must die - Victoria rebuts it.
If someone writes that members of an ethnic group, nationality or sect are, by their very existance in this country, {suspect} even if their citizenship or circumstance is unknown and they should be carefully watched and reported on - Victoria wonders if they slept through history class or should be taking medication for paranoia.
When someone writes that if one is guilty, all are guilty and deserve equal punishment - Victoria tells them that they are dangerously ignorant fools.
If the moderator is going to chastise me, it will have to be by e-mail.
posted on September 15, 2001 08:39:32 AM new
victoria and everyone,
If you see posts that are advocating hate or extermination of an entire group or genocide, please write to the email below. Such posts will not be allowed to stand on AW boards now, just as they were never allowed to stand before.
We could miss them as we don't read all posts so if such posts are as widespread as victoria has indicated, please point me to them.
posted on September 15, 2001 09:11:57 AM new
We'll Go Forward From This Moment
by Leonard Pitts, Jr.
The Miami Herald
It's my job to have something to say.
They pay me to provide words that help make sense of that which troubles the American soul. But in this moment of airless shock when hot tears sting disbelieving eyes, the only thing I can find to say, the only words that seem to fit, must be addressed to the unknown author of this suffering.
You monster! You beast! You unspeakable bastard!
What lesson did you hope to teach us by your coward's attack on our World Trade Center, our Pentagon, us? What was it you hoped we would learn? Whatever it was, please know that you failed.
Did you want us to respect your cause? You just damned your cause.
Did you want to make us fear? You just steeled our resolve.
Did you want to tear us apart? You just brought us together.
Let me tell you about my people. We are a vast and quarrelsome family; a family rent by racial, social, and political and class division, but a family nonetheless. We're frivolous, yes, capable of expending tremendous emotional energy on pop cultural minutiae -- a singer's revealing dress, a ball team's misfortune, a cartoon mouse. We're wealthy, too; spoiled by the ready availability of trinkets and material goods, and maybe because of that, we walk through life with a certain sense of blithe entitlement. We are fundamentally decent, though -- peace-loving and compassionate. We struggle to know the right thing and to do it. And we are, the overwhelming majority of us, people of faith, believers in a just and loving God.
Some people -- you, perhaps -- think that any or all of this makes us weak. You're mistaken. We are not weak. Indeed, we are strong in ways that cannot be measured by arsenals.
IN PAIN
Yes, we're in pain now. We are in mourning and we are in shock. We're still grappling with the unreality of the awful thing you did, still working to make ourselves understand that this isn't a special effect from some Hollywood blockbuster, isn't the plot development from a Tom Clancy novel.
Both in terms of the awful scope of their ambition and the probable final death toll, your attacks are likely to go down as the worst acts of terrorism in the history of the United States and, probably, the history of the world. You've bloodied us as we have never been bloodied before.
But there's a gulf of difference between making us bloody and making us fall. This is the lesson Japan was taught to its bitter sorrow the last time anyone hit us this hard, the last time anyone brought us such abrupt and monumental pain. When roused, we are righteous in our outrage, terrible in our force. When provoked by this level of barbarism, we will bear any suffering, pay any cost, go to any length, in the pursuit of justice.
I tell you this without fear of contradiction. I know my people, as you, I think, do not. What I know reassures me. It also causes me to tremble with dread of the future.
In the days to come, there will be recrimination and accusation; fingers pointing to determine whose failure allowed this to happen and what can be done to prevent it from happening again. There will be heightened security, misguided talk of revoking basic freedoms. We'll go forward from this moment sobered, chastened, sad. But determined, too. Unimaginably determined.
THE STEEL IN US
You see, the steel in us is not always readily apparent. That aspect of our character is seldom understood by people who don't know us well. On this day, the family's bickering is put on hold. As Americans we will weep, as Americans we will mourn, and as Americans, we will rise in defense of all that we cherish.
So I ask again: What was it you hoped to teach us? It occurs to me that maybe you just wanted us to know the depths of your hatred. If that's the case, consider the message received. And take this message in exchange:
You don't know my people.
You don't know what we're capable of.
You don't know what you just started.
But you're about to learn.
posted on September 15, 2001 09:18:11 AM new
From James Lileks, September 13, 2001, the column known as "The Bleat" from his personal website. For those who don't know, he also writes a column for the Star Tribune.
"Do people realize just what is ahead? If, indeed, we’re serious about this. We’ve wasted ten years on “calibrated” responses “designed” to have a “measured” impact; for God’s sake, even the last time we had a ground war the Allied forces barely suffered a hangnail. I don’t fall into that trap about Americans being soft and squishy when it comes to war, that we shrink when we see the body bags - not true in 91, and damn sure not true today. I’ve never sensed this level of resolve. But we’re talking about large-scale multinational operations against nations, plural. Syria. Iraq. Iran. Afghanistan. I’ve heard a few people suggest that we shouldn’t stoop to retribution, that this somehow brings us down to their level. I’ve heard the Ghandi quote a dozen times: “an eye for an eye leaves everyone blind.”
With all due respect to Ben Kingsley, this is moral imbecility. Self-defense is not retribution. The day we impose a dictatorial theocracy, strip women of the most basic human rights, dynamite the art of other religions, train our children to hate Jews, and give aid, comfort and money to a man who exults in the deaths of innocent people, then we’re down at the Taliban’s level."
