OT:9/11/01

["Joe Dallarda" <jdallar@hotmail.com>]

>I love New York so much.  How could anyone be so horrible? /t

So do I, so do I. No matter how many times I saw that plane hit, and the 
tower exploding and crumbling to the street on the tv, each time I felt 
like 
I was getting punched, hard, in the gut, thinking of all the people who 
were 
dying. I was hardly able to sleep last night. But as far as how anyone can 
be so horrible, as you said,  there are are very concrete reasons for it, 
as 
some people on the list have mentioned. I hate to say, but this act is 
pretty much political karma. We can't brutalize other countries, 
developing, 
or "third world countries" either directly, as in the case of Iraq, or 
indirectly, as in the case of Iran under the Shah, or the Palestinians 
through our support (political, selling of arms, etc) of Israel  without 
the 
brutality eventually making its way back home to us. These are just a few 
examples, obviously, as there are many from Latin America also, as Andy 
pointed out in an earlier post.
America is the bully of the worlds playground, and the Americans on this 
list (and I am one of them) should be aware of this.
(By the way, I hope I dont end up sounding pedantic, or insulting to 
anyone's intelligence, if I do, sorry).
Please dont make the mistake of thinking that I'm saying I condone what 
happened- I'm just saying there are a lot of reasons why a lot of people 
in 
the developing world are taking a lot of satisfaction in our pain- based 
on 
their experience of what the American government is like, and how it has 
affected them, they see it, and quite reasonably so, as the little guy 
giving the big bad bully of the global school yard one hell of an 
unbelievable sucker punch. The Palestinians arent celebrating what 
happened  
yesterday because they are "crazy," "radical," "fundamentalist," or 
innately 
"bad" or violent somehow. We have given them, by our actions, a lot of 
reason to do so.
Who is a terrorist, and who is a nationalist/freedom-fighter? The only 
difference between the two, the only thing deciding what word you use  is 
who's side yer on. We need to find out more about why things like this 
happen- not simply exhibit knee-jerk reactions and bark jingoistic 
nonsense. 
Meanwhile the innocent suffer for the sins of the few in power.
This is totally inapropriate for a list about looping, but having spent a 
lot of time in the West Bank and also having lived in Egypt, certain posts 
have just made it too hard for me to stay in lurk mode.
I really dont want to start a politcal type flame war though, so if any 
one 
really feels the need to attack me please do it off-list, preferably not 
for 
a sustained period of time.
Peace,
j.







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