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THE WORLD TURNED UPSIDE-DOWN
INTERVIEWS BY
michael M c C usker
‘You don’t have to be Irish to know the world is going
to break your heart. ’
-Daniel Patrick Monyhan responding to
the assassination of John F. Kennedy,
November 22, 1963
The September 11 catastrophe has prompted
the question:
How has the attack on the USA affected
you and what do you think the nation’s response
should be?
The question was asked primarily of Oregon
coastal folk — although not entirely — most of whom
are Astoria residents, but not all.
A number of those asked had mixed feelings
and admitted they were too confused to answer
concisely and declined. A few others also declined
because they thought their responses might be too
unpopular or be considered “unpatriotic.”
Most who were asked responded before the air
assault on Afghanistan began on Sunday, October 7.
JACK ÖHMAN (THE OREGONIAN)
RICHARD GOOSEY
Of course terrorism doesn’t make sense or there
wouldn’t be terrorism There is no terror in what you can
understand
As far as what to do about it — you can’t invade
people's countries to get rogues I think some of these terrorists
are our very own
I suppose ultimately the answer to defeat terrorism is
intelligence, in all senses of that word.
JESS/ DUNKIN
SHARON KLAUSER
First thing I thought (when the terrorists struck the World
Trade Center) was, “We are going to war."
This is a wakeup call for the country. We're not
invincible, much as we like to think we are.
It's going to be a long war
If we didn't realize before that this was going to happen,
we’ve closed our eyes to what’s been going on the better part of
forever.
How we come off to other countries is that we are
arrogant and unfeeling. If you’ve been to other countries
you feel ashamed as to how we treat them.We feel we're
ascendant and it's hard for people in other countries to see
us as individuals with feelings, warmth and intelligence
when we've done things so shameful and embarrassing as
a group
What’s going to happen, I don’t know. It's pretty scary.
It feels like an internal enemy where before it seemed external.
Now it's from our very heart and our own people as the weapon.
I think we will feel more suspicion and have less
freedom because of it. I feel it could be used as a way to take
more of our rights away Where do you draw the line between
rights? We were built on the concept of individual rights; now
it looks like we're going to be herded around like a bunch of
sheep
I don’t know what's going to happen to our children and
grandchildren. I hope they are smarter than we've been.
JOHN WEDELL
Terrorism is an irrational and destructive act.
Nonetheless, such destruction might suit the cause of nihilism,
or deemed an act of revenge. It is still destructive, but it suits a
cause, revenge — or it’s causeless, which is nihilism. It’s not to
excuse, but it has its own justification
Nihilism has no justification. Revenge has a cause — an
eye for an eye. In Islam you are allowed to ask for an eye for an
eye. Such an act is Koranic doctrine and can be forgiven. A life
for a life can be forgiven with communal service.
It’s not something you want to encourage or condone,
but it is a defacto fact of life.
BRANDON HERNANDEZ
I thought this is really going to stink. I would hate to just
become President and have this happen. I thought there would
be a serious racial backlash, which has happened, but not as
much as I thought.
I think if they hadn’t broadcast caution against discrim
ination it would have been horrible.
I don’t think there will be a draft Bush said there won't
be. It's either going to be a small war like the Persian Gulf War
or it will be World War 3 and our faces will all melt off.
DANCING WITH DEA TH
Perpetual war for perpetual peace
-GEORGE ORWELL (‘1984 )
Mornings are the best time for those of us who relish
awakenings. Billy Collins, America’s Poet Laureate, describes
his mornings in a new book of poems called Sailing Alone
Around The Room Espresso Music. Thoughts. Dawn sky.
Energy A time to read a bit before getting ready for the day
ahead
My morning of September 11,2001 was quite like that. I
opened, as I drank my cup of tea, KMUN classical music floating
about, Kurt Vonnegut’s Slaughterhouse Five, which somehow in
life I'd missed The complete title is Slaughterhouse Five Or
The Children’s Crusade. A Duty Dance With Death The subtitle
under Kurt Vonnegut Jr.’s name reads: “A fourth-generation
German-American now living in easy circumstances on Cape
Cod (and smoking too much), who as an American Infantry
Scout Hors de Combat, as a prisoner of war, witnessed the
fire-bombings of Dresden, Germany, ‘The Florence of the Elbe’,
a long time ago, and survived to tell the tale. This is a novel
somewhat in the telegraphic schitzophrenic manner of tales of
the planet Tralfamadore, where the flying saucers come from
Peace.”
I'm not really a fan of science fiction, so the Tralfama-
dorian flying saucers sort of put me off (I have better stuff than
this to read, I thought). Nevertheless, I delved in, and had just
arrived at the part where Vonnegut tells Harrison Starr, a movie
maker, that he is writing an antiwar book Harrison’s response
was, “Why don’t you write an anti-glacier book instead?"
Vonnegut says that what he meant, of course, was that there
would always be wars, that they are as easy to stop as glaciers.
“And even if wars didn’t keep coming like glaciers, there would
still be plain old death."
As I say, I was just reading that part when the music was
interrupted by the broadcast that will never be forgotten in our
lifetimes. Suddenly, it seemed the whole world was blowing up
as sheer horror beyond imagination was being described over
the airwaves On CNN the sight of those airliners packed with
people smashing into the Twin Towers was so horrific, it could
only be compared to the complete destruction of the city of
Dresden, Germany in 1945 by the Allied Forces (us) just as
the war was winding down
I hadn’t even reached the part in Vonnegut where
Dresden became one huge flame from the furious blast of
the high-explosive bombs our Air Force dropped We fried the
place About 130,000 people died that night It was the most
despicable destruction of a city in modern warfare so far, and
it was of no strategic value to America. Exquisite as a painted
porcelain teacup, it must have offended someone in command,
because our forces totally leveled the city The only survivors
were Vonnegut and a few other POWs who were kept in the
basement of a slaughterhouse that served as a prison during
the last days of World War 2 Though that bombing has largely
LEE MILLER
been forgotten or never known about by younger generations,
Vonnegut expresses his outrage at the senseless destruction of
life and property decades after the event.
We had beaten the Germans. We bombed them back to
the Stone Age Europe was one great ruin and what population
was left was starving and shelterless. Ragtag groups of POWs
were being exchanged. The “mopping up” had begun. We had
won the war after years of brutal fighting and we were victorious
Did we bomb Dresden for revenge? Did we hate them
for their elegant lifestyle, their wealth and maybe consequent
smugness? Perhaps their sense of security in not being touched
by the violence that had been a condition of life throughout
Europe the first half of the 20th century? Did we, that night,
establish the model by which warfare would be conducted for the
rest of the 20th and into the 21st century? We certainly didn't
stop with Dresden. It wasn’t enough for us, obviously. From our
safe haven here in America we have waged acts of war against
others, the likes of which would make God roll over in his grave.
There isn't a country in the world that has guaranteed safety
from our firepower when our mind is set on destruction. We
have demonstrated time and time again that we are entitled to
call the shots, that we are the rulers of the New World Order,
and that we will decide, under our own conditions, who will be
favored and who will be destroyed. Starr’s statement that war
is inevitable, and therefore futile to protest against, looks like
a hard cold fact. Other than the commodities and comforts this
century brings us, we are still, nevertheless, primitives who
practice ritual sacrifice of our young males periodically in order
to maintain a psychic safety level. Hence the “Children's
Crusades" subtitle of Slaughterhouse Five The Tralfamadorians
in Vonnegut's book were fascinated with the humans of Planet
Earth and abducted them occasionally to put in their museums.
They also took really good care of the humans, giving them all
they needed Their planet was peaceful and everyone had
enough
When I faced a classroom of High School students on
the morning of September 11,1 had no words to express what I
saw happening; once again Sacrificial lambs. Just awakening
Then the voice of Astoria High School Principal Larry Lockett
came over the intercom with a promise to make a statement
within the hour True to his word he gave a response that I wish
the President could have given He spoke eloquently of our
need now to make this a better world through the elimination of
hate for anyone, for to hate is to be a terrorist He said, “In our
free society where so much is taken for granted and where we
have so many gifts it is hard for us to comprehend how some
could hate so much to take their own lives and the lives of
others at the same time In many places around the world this
is the way life is lived every day For us the feeling is almost
incomprehensible " As he spoke I almost wondered if he had
been to Tralfamadore, but I hadn't got to that part of the book
yet.
-KAREN MELLIN
I
I am concerned about going to war without a declaration
of war from Congress.
I am concerned about knowing our enemy. I want
to know exactly who they are. I want to know their histories.
I want to know what they think. And I think it should be made
public to whoever wants to know it.
If we are going to pursue this public action we must
know our enemy.
If we ever conclude this violence, I am concerned that
our civil rights go back to what they were before September 11,
although they’ve gone to hell since the 1960s. Probable cause is
whatever the police say it is and they don’t have to prove
anything.
NORTH COAST
TIMES EAGLE
A JOURNAL OF ART & OPINION
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