MommieD,
I sympathize. This morning I listened to NPR and heard a woman who is still waiting for news from her husband, who worked on the 96th floor of building one. She wailed, "What if he's in pain? What if he's dying and I can't be there to hold his hand? I wish I could go there myself and search and dig."
My son is away on a camping trip with his class. They asked us not to call, but who expected this? I thought he'd be missing me, but I find myself needing him. I broke down this morning and called the school. There are no televisions or radios at the camp, so the children have been shielded from the full impact of what has happened.
My father still believes JW dogma and suffers from panic attacks. I worried about him Tuesday morning, thinking he would be alone when he heard the news and would have an attack, sure that Armageddon was on the way. I threw on some clothes and hurried over. As it turned out, my mom was home, and we all watched the news together, over and over. Dad was more calm about it than I was. When I wondered aloud if the towers would be rebuilt, Dad answered, "There won't be any time for rebuilding, Ginny."
I'm sickened when I read and hear so much about revenge, retaliation, punishment, etc. When will humans learn that violence and retaliation only perpetuate hatred and misunderstanding?
When they show the people in Palestine celebrating in the streets, I ask myself, "Wasn't it supposed to be just like that when the walls of Jericho came tumbling down?"
What is the solution? How do we cope with people who try to manipulate with fear and terror? What can one person do?
For me, the principles are the same whether we're talking about child abuse, spouse abuse, organizations that abuse people, or terrorists. Abusers must be restrained from further abuse. Then we must get at the root of the problem--the thinking and feelings that lead to violent behavior.
I've posted this a few times before, but I keep coming back to it. I thought I'd share it one more time.
Ginny
THE ENEMY MAKER
Sam Keen
TO CREATE AN ENEMY
Start with an empty canvas
Sketch in broad outline the forms of
men, women, and children.
Dip into the unconscious well of your own
disowned darkness
with a wide brush and
stain the strangers with the sinister hue
of the shadow.
Trace onto the face of the enemy the greed,
hatred, carelessness you dare not claim as
your own.
Obscure the sweet individuality of each face.
Erase all hints of the myriad loves, hopes,
fears that play through the kaleidoscope of
every finite heart.
Twist the smile until it forms the downward
arc of cruelty.
Strip flesh from bone until only the
abstract skeleton of death remains.
Exaggerate each feature until man is
metamorphosized into beast, vermin, insect.
Fill in the background with malignant
figures from ancient nightmares--devils,
demons, myrmidons of evil.
When your icon of the enemy is complete
you will be able to kill without guilt,
slaughter without shame.
The thing you destroy will have become
merely an enemy of God, an impediment
to the sacred dialectic of history.
