meximick's Diaryland Diary ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- 9/11 Thoughts I'd prefer it if TV would stop discussing last week, and real people started talking intellegently about what happened, and what should be done. All I really know about this whole experience is: Things Get Better. They do. They might not seem like they improve right now, but when we're hit with something so inexplicably huge like this, that it becomes too much to take in, we feel like all we can do is cry and ache inside. Powerless. We want those who did this to us to feel our pain. We want them to suffer worse than those they destroyed. And unspoken fear and sleepless nights and destructive thought brings out the sense of vengence in us all. I felt likewise last Tuesday and Wednesday and Thursday. Then enough time had passed, I think, for me to rationally think about what happened, what led up to this, and what should be done. Carpet bombing Afghanistan will provide immediate gratification. There will be camera footage of dead Afghanis, some carrying AK-47s or other weapons. And some will see that and think this "justice". I'm having a difficult time thinking on the term "justice". I can't be sure what that means in light of this disaster. But I can understand "tolerance". Tolerance was what the United States of America was founded on. Respecting other's differences, others' voices is at the heart of democracy - the same democracy that this country has preportedly fought wars over for decades. I can accept someone attributing blame for this squarely on the shoulders of the US-Middle East foreign policies. Support for Israel, through the lens of Muslim fundamentalism is inherently Anti-Islamic. The US is still enforcing a trade embargo on Iraq which is keeping Iraqi people sick, hungry, and hating the US and our allies. In the Middle East, as well as in the rest of the world, the US is seen as a bully. A tremendous military and economic force which attempts to impose itself anywhere it can affect an outcome in the name of something it calls "Freedom". That is not the America I love. Imposing your own views on people, whether it's over a cup of coffee or at gunpoint, is not something that's appreciated by whose ideas you are trying to change. -Never forget those we have lost. -Never let a wall of cynicism trap you. Things get better. They do. -Never think that what is good for America is good for the World. -Never believe that what is now happening is "A battle between Good and Evil". Based on US global policies of the last 50 years, we are not that good and those of the Islamic faith are no more evil than any population of Christians or Jews. And there are extremists in each group. -Never judge someone based on their level of nationalist support they exhibit. Some choose not to wave flags and sing songs. People mourn in their own ways. 1:31 p.m. - 2001-09-19 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------------------- |
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