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NORTH COAST TIMES E A G L E , OCTEMBER 2001
MARGARET FRIMOTH
I’m watching myself go through grief and I think about
the people in the midst of it who lost loved ones I think the grief
process is important
An old memory came back to me that I've thought about
a lot. When I was 16 years old my family was fortunate enough
to visit Hong Kong We went into a store that made custom-
made shoes. My dad wanted a pair. While we were there
another American couple came in and the store went
into chaos There were about seven to twelve attendants
scurrying anxiously; the tension was huge The American couple
was obviously demanding things. They must have carried on for
about twenty minutes.
My dad kept saying, “It's okay, we can wait.” After the
other Americans left and the attendants came to us they were
very apologetic My dad offered the explanation, “Some
Americans are ugly Americans." When he said that the
attendant who waited on us immediately started pouring out the
story of how often Americans came into the store and would
demand the finest quality for the cheapest price. That has stuck
with me, and I have thought it about it a lot since September 11.
I sincerely hope we have a sense of accountability
for the actions that took place on September 111 want us to
be accountable for how we as a nation handle our wealth and
power as well.
RICHARD JOHNSON
I’ve thought a great deal about it and I think the bottom
line is that we must do what is principled and measured in
regard to our security in the short term and long term — and
whatever that is, is what we must do, nothing less
We also need to examine what it is we might have done
or policies we might have supported that would in any way
precipitate the kind of deep hatred this event symbolizes.
TONY AUTH (PHILADELPHIA INQUIRER)
ROGER HAYES
In these few fallow weeks following the catastrophic loss
of lives I appreciate the interlude of space devoted to discussing
from whence this has arrived and the resultant approaches
which may be forecast. Let's presume that this silence could
continue to spread: what in fact would be your response after
one week more, two, three, and so on...?
Are we to yet again evoke the clandestine and dark
word “covert” in order to effectively describe an operation which
shall historically come to be called “Living Room Operation The
Nth?”
Speaking entirely on an abstract and conceptual plane,
the “wisest” thing to do would be nothing: however, we have just
entered an historic juncture where we are determined by our
actions, as subtle or gross as they may be.
You may feverishly leaf back through all of the text
books of culture and war, still without grasping any tangible
evidence of how to implement a stop to the present machinery
of preordained foreign policy and the smothering confluences of
media inundation.
I suggest that the overall effect may be to make a
personal choice, preferably of as radical a nature as you may
feel comfortable striving toward...
In a particularly american fashion you may clutch a flag
or activate a personal odyssey; or finally become swallowed in a
blitz of media brain-terrorism. Leave it to your imagination.
reserve manager and he had spent time at my house.You look
at someone who had so much to offer and did good — you just
have to realize some things don’t make sense and never will.
You just have to go on with your own life, but not be so
preoccupied with your life only
That's why I admire the people out in God's Valley who
are protesting the logging of old trees
I really believe that all the small things people can do
make a difference — by doing good.
DEBRA SEYMOUR
It’s overwhelming. There's nothing I can say in only a
few words. I’m so distraught It’s so dispiriting
I feel like a mother whose children have done something
really bad: you feel anger but you also feel compassion and a
desire to provide them with wisdom and clarity.
I feel as a woman and a mother that we must have the
wisdom to go beyond war.
John Rippi from Arch Cape designs a banner for the
Astoria Community Store every month. The one he brought for
this month (by Che Kawa Yeshe Dorje from the Root Text of the
Seven Points of Training the Mind’) says:
When the world is filled with evil, transform all mishaps
into the path of enlightenment.
I want us to pay attention to those crazy people and
their idea that Bush is a dog. They condemned the man as
'dog Bush" and burned him in effigy in their hate.
That is an example of "man s inhumanity to man" and
the destructiveness that can happen when people hate each
other as dogs.
Khadafy called Reagan an "Israeli dog Communists
call us "capitalist dogs" and "son of a bitch" is common in the
U.S. The Jews were called "Jewish dogs"and “swinehund" is
common in Germany Mexicans hate us as "gringo dogs.”
Da Vinci called war "the beastly madness,” and Hitler
was called "the mad dog of Europe."
No one sees the dog as the cause of the problem.
JUDITH NILAND
I think the main problem is how we deal with the issue
without destroying people who had nothing to do with it Both
issues must be addressed: you’ve got these people in the world
who think it is their sacred duty to destroy who or what they
perceive are against their religious beliefs; yet these same
people are surrounded by other people who don’t share their
viewpoints How do you sort them out?
JACK SCHARBACH
DEBBIE TWOMBLY
I think there's a lot we don't know and that scares me.
The whole thing made me feel very insecure. I am a teacher
(of 1s' and 2nd grade at Olney School) and I have to do a lot of
reassuring of my students and yet be realistic enough to make
them aware the world is not always a safe place.
I think it is also really important to instill a sense in kids
— and to all people — that there is a lot of energy that needs to
be put into doing good and that by doing good more good comes
back.
I know a man who was on the hijacked plane that
crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11.lt was awesome to
know someone who had been in Brownsmead. He was a game
R. McCARTIN
COUNTER BABEL
The original Tower of Babel was built by people who
spoke one language until God struck at them for their hubris and
they suddenly found their tongues to be incomprehensible to one
another. The World Trade Center was populated by people who
spoke a great number of native languages but who had settled
on a common language, English, in order to advance the cause
of globalization more efficiently The parallels between Babel
and the World Trade Center are so blatant that I wonder if the
attackers consciously chose their target for that reason. If so,
were they not saying, Slow down — we do not all understand
one another, and we certainly do not agree on the project you
have underway.
The language spoken in common by all is a dream,
not a reality; trade was never meant to be more than a practical
aspect of life, but globalization has been treated as a Crusade
in itself; and those wishing not to participate in this notion of
progress have been refused a voice in the matter. Religious
fundamentalism is a loud and clear, if thoroughly disturbing
way for those whose thoughts are not in sync with the flow of
'progress’ to declare that they do not trust themselves to create
a human future by acts of will and cannot possibly trust those
humans who have taken it upon themselves to do so.
I don’t see fundamentalism as being about religion at
all; it seems to me that no one of genuine spiritual insight would
defer to the literal written word in lieu of their own conscience no
matter the situation facing them, but insofar as fundamentalism
is a compelling force to millions of people around the world, the
nature of that force has to be examined in good faith and the
fears it represents treated with respect.
We have heedlessly rushed into a process that we
cannot reverse, and we do not really know what will be the
fallout of the changes that take place. We do know that a great
deal that has been of proven value for centuries, even millennia,
will probably be lost —language culture and the genuine spiritual
as well as human understanding it has served to convey, the
unbroken memory of generations past that is still a focus of
reverence in intact old societies, and the future that would have
grown out of such societies if their ways had prevailed Do we
really want to sweep all of this away with little more than a
backward glance?
The terrorists who attacked on September 11 may not
have been consciously aware of such motives, but these are
implicit in their actions, and I wish to see the victims honored by
our treating the entire incident as rife with understanding to be
gained with little further effort If the terrorists intended nothing
but mindless destruction, we can deprive their actions of nihilism
by wresting something of good from them in spite of their intent.
We may seem destined to achieve a common language
and reverse the momentum of the original fall of Babel at any
cost; if we can do so at less cost to ourselves — all of ourselves,
globally — are we not obligated to do so?
-JUDITH GRIFFIS
I have to admit from the outset that the understanding of
such an act of terror and destruction as the attack in New York is
beyond me, but this is what comes to mind We spent the first
half of the last century in two world wars to see who would run
the world Those wars ended in great hope for the future. That
hope dwindled in the second half as the richer, more powerful
countries adopted foreign policies that, whether by intent or
default, sharpened the disparity between the haves and have-
nots. until this situation in the 21s' century in which whole
continents have sunk into poverty while a small minority amass
wealth I have to wonder how long that can go on.
CONTINUED ON PAGE 4
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