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From: JFadiman
Date: Thu, 12 Sep 2002 18:14:26 EDT
Subject: 9/11 a reflection
Yesterday 9-- 11 I was up at 5:00 AM-- not sure why.
I decided to go to Denny's for a very early breakfast.
On route over the car radio I heard the minute of
national silence commemorating the minute the first
plane hit the first tower. A few minutes later I heard
the governor of New York, at ground Zero, read out
Lincoln's Gettysburg Address with its deeply felt
caring for humanity and its love of genuine democracy.
Then the names of those who died in the two towers
began to be read off.
Meanwhile on KPFA an all day truth--telling show with
Amy Goodman was under way. The first segment was "from
Ground Zero to Ground Zero - New York to Afghanistan."
Families of a survivors group--"Don't Use My brother
( sister, father) to wage an unjust war" spoke, but
what was most moving was hearing from a Afghan-American
woman who'd lost 19 members of her family.
Her relatives died because we had bombed her family's
village--not a single terrorist in it. The Pentagon
refused to investigate--their policy is we will admit
to civilian deaths in the abstract, but will not look
at individuals. I was chilled by her story--almost all
of the 19 were women and children. She spoke of her
current work to aid other women in Afghanistan. She
wrote Bush early on--before her own tragedy--that war
was not the answer, but that should he attack her
family's country, please to be very careful not to kill
civilians.
Just after listening to her I took a long walk on the
Baylands with a woman making a film about Rave drugs. A
fired lawyer who wants to have a new career as a
film--maker. I saw so many birds - great clump of large
white birds (geese? Swans?) and the Baylands itself--
tranquil and without sound. It helped remind me of what
keeps my soul from sorrowing.
love
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