Re: Digest Number 1699

Bless you, James, for both your help to the survivors at the Pentagon 
and your thoughts re. peace and humility.

Patricia Brooks
Whidbey Island, WA



--- In iris-talk@y..., majorcanis@a... wrote:
>        Since 9/15 and for one more week,  I will be working as a 
Red Cross 
> volunteer, using my clinical psychology skills to assist with the 
human 
> devastation resulting from the attacks on the Pentagon. For the 
first four 
> days I worked with AA personnel at Dulles--it was their flight 77 
with their 
> staff friends who met their end at the Pentagon. Now I am on the 
grounds of 
> the pentagon working with the multifaceted clean up staff.
>        I have not been able to get on line every day, but let's get 
back to 
> IRIS. This is not a political forum.
>        But since it has become so, let me suggest that we remind 
ourselves 
> that we cannot make anyone do anything, and if we delude ourselves 
into 
> thinking we can we will discover we reap the consequences of anger 
an 
> resentment. Are we strong enough to recoginize that we have 
contributed to 
> some of the frustration in that part of the world. Who sent the 
Taliban the 
> weapons they are using to oppross their own people?
>        My proposal is that we bomb Afganistan with bread and 
butter, with 
> audio and video tape recorders, and historical documentaries; with 
pens and 
> paper, with books in their language -- not bibles to manipulate 
them, but 
> classics in their own cultural tradition. Is my memory wrong that 
Islam has 
> been more tolerant of difference over the last 14 C than the 
European 
> religious tradition. If we really believed in our Western tradition 
we would 
> not send a shirt, a cloak, and bread. Whatever we do, let's not 
cloak it in 
> self righteousness  and pretend that we are holier than they.
>        Of couse what has happened is dreadful. I am happy to say 
that many of 
> our military personnel are grieving for their lost friends at the 
Pentagon 
> but are wise enough to know that raw re-talion-ation is not a 
solution.
>        Can we as a culture set an example?
>        Some of my year 2000 SIgna seedlings very much need 
transplanting so 
> they can get well established before winter, but they will have to 
wait till 
> I get back to Asheville. Nay your gardens grow well, and may we all 
work for 
> peace and international and intercultural understandings.
> 
> James Harrison
> Arlington, Virginia
> 
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> [Non-text portions of this message have been removed]


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