---------------------------------------------------------------------------- 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 ----------------------------------------------------------------------------