PAGE 5
NORTH COAST TIMES EAGLE, OCTEMBER 2001
KEN DEMPS
After the September 11 terrorist act in New York City
and Washington, DC., I began a preplanned vacation to the
San Francisco bay and delta area. I decided to use the vacation
to observe the area's reaction.
While driving down I-5 I saw flags on cars, trucks,
fences, barns, dogs and buildings everywhere.
In Rogue River, Oregon, the downtown area had an
American flag every ten feet or so. Quite a sight.
I met Peaceniks' who had just returned from the
Berkeley peace rallies and who spoke in low tones to not upset
any of the flagwavers.
In Marin County you usually see a VW van with a Do
A Random Act Of Kindness bumper sticker on the back bumper.
Now next to it is an American flag.
The acts of September 11 were a sick, unholy thing to
do and someone or something should pay, but I don’t want the
U.S. to go to war.
An invasion of Afghanistan would be a large mistake.
The Russians couldn't win there and they live right next door.
In 1838 the British tried to conquer the country. They invaded
with a force of 17,000 men and only one man returned.
So all I’m saying is “Give Peace A Chance."
FRANK MANGELSDORF
I think we suffered the largest attack in our history,
much more costly than Pearl Harbor.
Any nation has a right to defend itself, especially
something that big — beyond just peaceful negotiations.
But the response needs to be measured to the extent
that we have to go after the terrorist organization itself. It will
take military action — these guys aren't aren't going to walk into
our embassies and give themselves up.
We have to avoid collateral casualties, which we usually
do. The big difference between us and terrorists is they attack
women and children and we try to avoid this.
‘HIPPIE JIM’ HEDFORD
The evening of September 10 I found myself tuning in
the 11 o’clock news, waiting patiently through the whole broad
cast, yearning for some national or international news, only to be
left wanting. . . not a single mention of either. Whether a natural
inclination of‘being news-starved or a premonition of the coming
events, in hindsight I realize that a little knowledge can be a
dangerous thing.Therefore I disclaim my opinion as being biased
as a result of living within a society with no regard or interest in
history as it really happened. It is as if our educational system
has trained us to condense all the subtle nuance of delicate
negotiation down to the 3-page Cliffs Notes version of the
event...shades of gray made out to be black or white, good guys
won, bad guys lost or vice versa.
So now G.B.Jr sides us with the “good" guys and
announces we are involved in a “crusade” against the “bad"
guys. Maybe Oliver Stone could remake a movie depicting the
last ccusade we led into Palestine and perhaps Americans would
learn the Crusaders were not just an '80s vocal group.
JO LUMPKIN BROWN
The first casualty of war is the truth. On all levels by
all sides.
We as Americans wonder where all this hate could have
come from.
Wake up. Wake up America. Find your soul. Remember
yourself. There is truth in self-inventory. There is truth in world
history and universal time. Our world will never be the same.
Thank God. We still have another chance to change.
I was painting on a lift at Star of the Sea School on
September 11. As events unfolded I came off the lift and went
into the chapel to cry and pray Now what do I do? I go back to
painting, the last lettering on an old building. The phrase “For
God & Country”. As I put fresh gold paint into the last letters I
cried. As I finished all below were surprised. “Was that always
there? I never noticed that before!" New point. New resolve.
RANDY MACK BISHOP
DUTCH GREELMAN & CYNDY LEE
As terrorism experts, take it from us, the biggest terrorist
threat is in your mind.
If you want to protect yourself and your loved ones,
move on with your life and continue evolving
RON WHITE
Anyone who can get rid of New York cops is my hero.
The only persons I feel sorry for are the poor window washers,
not the day traders.
Forget the $5 million reward for Bin Lauden. I’ll talk to
the IRA and for only $5-grand we’ll go get the terrorists.
EVAN LEWIS
The real experts on how to deal with this are the Israelis
We should be talking to them. They have been dealing with
terrorism the past 50 years.
PAUL EVALT (9 EX)
It is good karma to seek justice for the God loving
people of the USA, except that I don’t believe in the death
penalty. We should trade Osama Bin Lauden’s life for terrorist
activity secrets. Instead of killing him, I think the USA will find
justice by capturing him.
PATRICIA LONGNECKER
Samuel Johnson said what is on my mind:
“Patriotism is the last refuge of a scoundrel."
MICHAEL LINK
I am totally baffled. I don’t know what to think. I don’t
expect our nation to act any differently than it is, but where my
heart is I’m pretty confused.
I think the government is using this as an opportunity to
squeeze our civil liberties. The FBI warns us about terrorists —
my daughter asks why doesn’t the FBI do something about it.
The media is making us paranoid.
We are practicing passive/aggressiveness. We’re drop
ping bombs with one hand and bread with the other.
Is capturing Osama Bin Lauden going to solve the
terrorist problem? I doubt it. On the positive side, we’re paying
attention to other cultures right now, trying to understand what
would make a 3rd world culture risk what is happening It has to
either be insanity or frustration What is revenge: what are we
retaliating for? Is that going to bring back the dead? I don’t know
anyone who got revenge to say revenge is sweet.
Are we the parent of the world now? Our leaders think
that’s our new role. Now they can create puppet governments to
stop The Evil One.’ What is this, a comic book?
A teenage girl said to me, “Good thing you’re too old to
be drafted.” Then she asked if she will be drafted. Kids seem to
perceive this is like a war movie, nation against nation. It’s not
going to be like that at all. It’s going to be slaughter, not war.
MASON MEYER
On KGO on September 11 at about 3 in the morning ---
three hours before the attack — radio host Ray Taliferio had
been discussing George Bush's low public rating and made the
statement that the only way this “selected President” was going
to get his ratings up in the polls was get us involved in a war.
I still believe he is not elected, so how can we be sure
he is following the proper course of action in this situation? I am
a patriotic American. I want to get behind my President, but I
think of Vietnam veterans and how many were killed at the
same time the country was lied to about the war. If I smell a rat,
it's because I think there is one.
I don't want to rush to judgment. I want to see the right
thing done. I just don’t want to fall for a story like Vietnam. I
don’t think America should be lied to again,
The people who perpetrated the attacks on the U.S.
should be held accountable. We should get the right people
CONTINUED ON PAGE 6
HAND OF TERROR
On September 11, America awoke to a day that much
the world is long familiar with, a day of unspeakable horror. All
the blood that was spilled on our soil that day is but a drop in a
river of blood and terror that flows around and around our fragile
blue ball. If our world has been rocked, it is not because of the
magnitude of human suffering, it is because the magnitude of
suffering has happened to us instead of someone else. It would
give me the greatest pleasure if I could rage at the clear
injustice of such a cowardly attack on our “freedom loving”
nation, but I can’t. I can feel for the victims, for their suffering,
for their losses, but as an American I cannot claim a moral
ground higher than the perpetrators of these attacks.
Our nation in its more distant past brutally enslaved
Africans, killing millions and forcing many more to live lives
denied any rights or freedoms We also waged a war to eradicate
the native peoples of this continent.
In more recent times our nation has become one of the
chief exporters of terror around the world This should come as
no surprise for we as a nation have only recently guaranteed
most freedoms to most of our own citizens. There are those
among us struggling to take some of those freedoms away and
deny us other freedoms that our modern understanding aptly
argue we should have. So yes, presently the citizens of this
nation receive some moderate protection of their rights from our
government, but millions of citizens of other nations have seen
not the protective hand of Uncle Sam but its opposite, the hand
the slave child knew, the hand the "Indian savages" knew, the
hand of brutal oppression and terror For an example of this
hand we could look most anywhere in the world, but Latin
America, specifically Guatemala, gives the clearest evidence
of our nation’s true love of freedom
In 1931 Guatemala was ruled by Jorge Ubico who
idolized Hitler and Mussolini and brutally subjugated his people,
but he was generous to U.S. corporations and U.S. military
leaders, and so our "profit” loving government repeatedly
praised Jorge Ubico In 1944 the Guatemala dictatorship was
overthrown and Jacobo Arbenz came to power Arbenz's
government quickly set in motion many social reforms aimed
at giving relief to a terribly poor people For the first time the
Guatemalan government was giving land to the indigenous
people of the country instead of murdering them and taking
it away Unfortunately, Arbenz didn’t play very well with
Washington. Strangely, his government felt the Guatemalan
people should receive the fruits of their labor and the wealth
of their nation's resources, not U.S. corporations. The CIA and
some American corporations backed a coup and Arbenz’s
government toppled.
The next four decades were the bloodiest for the
Guatemalan people. A U.S. backed Guatemalan government
(U.S. financial aid, intelligence and troops) would kill an
estimated 200,000 people. The Finca San Francisco massacre
was, according to priests, almost typical of treatment of people
all across Guatemala: 300 people were killed The women were
raped and shot or burned to death in houses put to torch. The
old people were hacked to death with machetes. The children
were disemboweled. The last child kept screaming after being
disemboweled so a Guatemalan soldier grabbed a thick stick
and bashed his head I will stop there: it gets worse, and was
worse in places all over Guatemala as late as the 1990s and
Washington did nothing but sing the praises of Guatemalan
reform. Where was the media coverage of these atrocities?
Unfortunately whole villages fled Guatemala to seek
political asylum in the U.S., where they were denied, returned
and beheaded.
Again and again and again the U.S. government has
backed and befriended practically any government that is
friendly to our corporate interest regardless of how repressive
these governments are to their own people.
I wonder how proud to be American these corporations
are? So proud they would close factory after factory and
displace hundreds of thousands of American jobs to other
countries? Do they fly the American flag on foreign soil? Indeed,
if they are so freedom loving why do these corporations so quick
to work with governments that imprison or even kill people who
try and organize labor, social or environmental reforms?
I'm not proud to be an American. I don’t even know if I
am grateful All I know is our history and our present are full of
episodes that inspire and those that cause the greatest of
distress and shame I know also that the war to stop terrorism
begins with staying informed and with holding our government
and corporations accountable for their immoral behavior "Why,"
Jesus asked, “do you complain about the speck in your brother’s
eye, when you have a board in yours?”
-MICHAEL MILLER (aka SASHA)
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