SCN: Fwd: On behalf of all who died today (fwd)

[David Barts]

Forwarded from a friend.  I'm not a complete pacifist who believes in
turning the other cheek, but still I see a lot in this I agree with,
especially given the current mood in favor of retaliation (as opposed
to defensive and preventative measures, which would have to include a
good deal of asking unpleasant "why would someone feel motivated to do
this?" type questions) I sense in the nation.

> Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 02:56:26 -0600
> To: (Recipient list suppressed)
> From: Damian Nash <damian at lasal.net>
> Subject: On behalf of all who died today
> 
> Dear friends:
> 
> On behalf of all who died today
> I would like to make a difference:
> I want to make the world a better place
> For their loved ones and their children.
> 
> Tonight we lie restless in our beds
> Our hearts and souls ache
> As they try to stretch around
> The incomprehensibly huge tragedy
> That just crashed down on all of us
> Delivered in passenger jets.
> 
> All of us are driven to know "why?"
> Watching news reports, scanning Internet headlines
> Looking for any clue that will make sense
> Out of something so senseless
> That will satisfy a deep, disturbing yearning
> And fill a numb, empty place in our minds
> Where the Trade Towers used to stand.
> 
> Here is one little part of the answer,
> Please hear it, add to it, pass it along.
> 
> I send this with the kind of compassion
> That appears briefly after a tragedy
> As we all work together, as we give blood, food
> Whatever we can offer
> For others we have never met.
> 
> I mail this to you with the hope
> That you will make something with these words
> For the children and the loved ones
> Of all the beautiful human beings
> That perished today in the rubble and the flames.
> 
> As we sit in front of our television screens
> Or newspapers, radio, the internet
> Numbed, sickened, enraged, grieving
> We have every reason as a nation
> To strike back
> To find those responsible,
> To punish and destroy.
> 
> No one in the world would blame the United States
> For avenging such a heinous act:
> It is our right to revenge
> And we certainly have the power.
> The world is waiting and watching for our response.
> We are the most powerful nation on earth
> We are about to set an example
> Of international relations in the new millenium.
> 
> In this moment
> We face an opportunity
> As never before in history
> To change the way of the world
> And put an end to this kind of tragedy
> Forever.
> 
> To do this we must all open our eyes together
> We must wake up from the nightmare
> And bravely face our true enemy
> The Beast who wants us to keep sleeping.
> 
> Our enemy is not a millionaire oil tycoon
> A military dictator,  a country, a religion, an ideology
> Or this month's political scapegoat.
> 
> Our true enemy is the Cycle of Pain and Suffering
> And all of us in America
> Are facing the enemy today
> In a way we have never faced it before.
> 
> Many of us are eager to avenge our suffering
> By inflicting more pain on anyone presumed guilty
> By feeding the flames, following carnage with carnage
> Taking an eye for an eye, a head for a head.
> 
> In this way we win a battle and lose a war
> While the true enemy of humanity,
> The Beast that feeds on our pain and suffering,
> Grows larger and stronger.
> 
> The people who carried out this incomprehensible act of
> terrorism
> Must have already endured a level of suffering incomprehensible
> to us
> A kind of pain that twisted the humanity out of their souls
> And left them unable to resist a hideous, twisted plot.
> 
> Suffering loves to create more Suffering
> And these men wanted us to glimpse the hell they lived in
> In their neighborhoods, in their countries,
> In the privacy of their tortured souls and minds.
> So they passed the Beast from their shoulders to ours
> By sacrificing their lives
> And the lives of our loved ones
> 
> If we decide to hit the suffering back into their court
> Do we win a battle and lose the war?
> 
> By temporarily satisfying our need for vengeance
> By dealing out our own version of justice
> Do we really restore the balance or just push the pendulum
> harder?
> Do we improve the world for our children?
> Or do we put them in line for the next retaliation?
> The next escalation?
> The next, larger, more hideous act of terrorism?
> Do we expose those we love to the risk of something even worse?
> 
> When I look for any kind of solution, the only way I can see
> That we can ever be truly victorious over terrorism
> Is to discover and destroy the sources of terrorism:
> Poverty, ignorance, oppression, injustice, disease and the
> absence of hope.
> Let us work together to destroy its roots everywhere on the
> planet.
> Starting in our own backyards.
> 
> On behalf of all who died today
> So that they will not die in vain
> I ask my friends and the leaders of the US
> To ask a deeper kind of "why?"
> To move beyond the posture of victim and outraged reaction
> To adopt a conscious response that will banish this kind of
> horror
>  From the face of the planet
> Forever.
> 
> Instead of asking "why?" to satisfy our hunger for answers
> Let us ask that same question to mend what is broken in the
> world.
> Instead of asking "who were these men?" to scapegoat and punish
> Let us ask that same question to learn about the
> incomprehensible pain that 
> destroyed them.
> Instead of looking for causes that we ultimately can't control
> and must fear
> Let us look for the ways we contribute to the Cycle of Pain and
> Suffering
> And have the courage to change what we can.
> 
> Why did these men blaming the US for their suffering?
> Why did they target these buildings?  What did they hope to
> accomplish?
> Were they attempting to ease their own suffering, or the
> suffering of others
> By taking such extreme, merciless methods?
> Are they all completely insane,
> or is there some morsel of truth that gave birth to their
> insane plot?
> 
> Only by asking these questions
> And facing the answers with strength and humility
> Can we ever escape the nightmare of suffering
> That has haunted human history.
> 
> By seeing how our way of life promotes suffering elsewhere on
> the planet
> And by choosing to act differently for our sake and theirs --
> This is the way we can make sure that the children of these
> terrorists
> Are freed from the nightmarish kind of world that produced
> their parents
> And that drove them to such unthinkable levels of desperation.
> 
> When that happens,
> When the US stands humbly among the other nations of the world
> Committed to making life better for everyone, everywhere,
> Using our freedom, knowledge and power for everyone's benefit,
> Only then can the war on terrorism be won.
> 
> If we ever to evolve as a human race
> We must learn to see our only real war as the war on suffering
> And realize it can never be won with bombs, guns
> Tighter security measures or hijacked airplanes --
> With violence and a tighter fist suffering can only be
> perpetuated.
> 
> The only way to win this war,
> The only way to stop the madness,
> Is by listening, truly listening to others,
> And especially those we see as enemies,
> Asking how we are contributing to their suffering
> And doing whatever we can do to alleviate each other's pain.
> 
> To win this war
> Individuals must choose to fight suffering, not other people --
> And so must and nations and corporations.
> 
> On behalf of all who died today
> I would like to make a difference:
> I want to make the world a better place
> For their loved ones and their children.
> 
> ----------------------------------------------
> 
> Please forward this message to all you love
> (Amend it as you feel compelled)
> And do whatever you can do, today
> To ease the suffering on this planet
> For yourself and everyone around you.
> 



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-- 
         David W. Barts (davidb at scn.org) / http://www.scn.org/~davidb
      "Rats and roaches live by competition under the laws of supply and
     demand; it is the privilege of human beings to live under the laws of
                     justice and mercy." -- Wendell Berry
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