THE DAYS FOLLOWING 9/11/01, PART 1 (9/11--9/14) 9/11/01 A friend in Brooklyn is looking out his window watching this whole thing go down... He is not allowed to go outside because of toxic debris. He says it looks like it is snowing outside. It looks like my family and friends are fine. Be safe. --David Wolter, Los Angeles Can not get through. City is shut down. Danica and I are ok. Just shaken. She saw the plane fly over her head in Brooklyn. I was already here, less than a mile from the twin towers. I can not possibly stress how unreal this is. We are tracking down friends as we speak. It is like a movie set here. I heard the first hit and saw the buildings burning. Cops are crying in the street. People are flooding out of Manhattan on foot. Write this script? No one would believe it. Take care. I will call when I can. --Kevin Lyons, New York Last night I had a dream about this guy named Mike down in SD, who a friend of mine rented a room from... He was incredibly prepared for Armegeddon, and he talked about the end a lot... He had tons of rations: water, dried food, guns, maps, tents, clothes etc... all of it ready to be deployed at a moments notice... I haven't thought of him in years, and last night I dream of him... what? Considering this shit, what the fuck am I supposed to do now... call him up? So lame how everything is so lame. --Tony Larson, Los Angeles 9/12/01 Subject: Why? I'm on the east coast right now. Been there ever since I pulled onto the 405 this morning to stare at a blinking freeway sign that read LAX IS CLOSED. LAX IS CLOSED? I instantly thought of the earthquake aftershock that Lori D and I got rattled by last night. How we were sitting there talking about a date I had just got back from and how I didn't get the kiss that I wish I would have. The earth shook, we both almost peed in our pants and then it stopped. The conversation plates shifted from my not getting kissed to the topic of actual danger and that there's things that happen that are so completely beyond our control. And how scary that is. I realized how tiny my problem with not getting a silly kiss really was. So as I pulled onto the freeway and read that sign, I thought that maybe I had slept through another aftershock - one that shut down the airport somehow. Then I turned on the radio and instead of my Morning Becoming Eclectic, it became horribly bad. Worse than the most horrible horribly bad. There isn't a word or a combination of words that exists that would be able to describe how bad this really is. It just shouldn't be real. I listened to the radio reports and cried my way to work. As I pulled of the freeway, three men stood on the side of the road waving an American flag and that seemed so sad, so I cried some more. I walked inside the building to see if I could get something done, but there's a TV on. I know that things will get better. --Bob Kronbauer, Santa Monica O.k. here, and, my god, is it strange. On a beautiful sunny day we stood by the river and watched the twin towers burn, collapse, and disappear. No one knows what to do but be in shock... I keep thinking, everyone must know someone who has died today. It just seems so incredible... Stay safe --Dan Estabrook, New York We're okay -- but it's pretty insane here. But I imagine the world feels like a whole different place everywhere... Thanks for being in touch. --Sean McDonald, New York Ohhhhhhhhh, I don't know about anything today... I feel like I should just be in a dark room all day trying to empty my energy into the atmosphere so that somebody will be able to retrieve it someplace who needs it more than I. I feel like I should just sit still until something happens, until some healing happens. My heart has been beating so loud all day. If I lay down, I can hear it so loud in my ears, I can't sleep. If my hands are resting on my belly, the flow through my veins is so strong it raises my hands with every beat. But i'm supposed to keep doing normal things. They had a meeting at my school today, with everyone in the school, and they told us to be with people, and keep doing normal things. Normal things. I feel embarrassed to talk about anything but what has just happened. That is why I must sit in the dark and concentrate. Okay, we'll see what tomorrow brings. (-------------) --Lori D., Santa Monica Subject: no coffee wake up I think he makes sense when there is no sense to make of all this. http://www.michaelmoore.com/2001_0912.html --Mark Lewman, Eugene, Oregon Subject: The worst gig ever Last night before our gig, these drunk guys came out of the bar we were playing at and asked us what the name of our "band" was (we just play acoustic guitars... hardly a band). We told them, "Cameltone." Immediately they spit out, "Dude, no one is coming in here with the word camel in their name or who as anything to do with word camel! Fuck that! Fuckin camel jockeys! Hahahahahahaha!" (super drunk laughing) The Middle Eastern association had never even occurred to us -- we got the name from what we called "the cigarette sound" -- Camel lights! It was weird to be playing the show in the first place, considering all this shit, but now we were tripping. Then they said, "Well, good luck, we got some 7-11's to go hit! Arab fucks! Later!" They stumbled off and got into their truck and drunk drove away. They were serious. They were going to look for "Arab" people to fuck with. This is all so fucked. People. Not that it matters, but the gig was actually good. Weird times. --TL, Los Angeles Subject: Memo from the Office of Patrick G Ryan Our offices in Tower 2 range between floors 100-107. The planes impact was around floor 75. This cold-hearted memo comes from the CEO of Aon, a 10 billion dollar a year Corporation. Fuck the needs of our clients, people are dead and I fear this is just the beginning. I hate big business. It is time for me to go... I hope you and the Bend immediate and extended family are fully intact. --Matt LeVeque, Cambridge, Massachusetts Office of Patrick G Ryan 09/11/2001 06:58 PM To: All Aon Employees (AonNA) Subject: Memo from the Office of Patrick G Ryan Our thoughts and prayers are with the families of the many people affected by Tuesday's tragedy. Approximately 1100 Aon employees worked in the World Trade Center Tower #2, and our first concern is for their safety and well being. The amount of information that we have is still limited due to the scope of this tragedy, however we will try to update you as news becomes available. While our primary focus will continue to be on our colleagues and their families, we also need to be concerned for the needs of our clients. To that point, we have agreed that, unless local authorities direct otherwise, our offices everywhere in the world except New York City will be open for business on Wednesday. As you may know, Aon has set up the following hotlines. Please share them with people whom you think might need them: NEW YORK EMPLOYEES AND THEIR FAMILIES: New York office employees and their families should call 866.256.4154, as we are collecting information on the safety of our employees. COUNSELING HOTLINE: A counseling hotline is available for Aon employees and their families who would like to talk to a professional counselor. That number is 888.437.3815. AON CLIENTS: Several numbers are available for Aon Clients to call: Aon Risk Services: 866.256.4157 or 847.953.4071 Aon Consulting: 800.438.6487 Aon Services Group: 818.227.3420 Aon is prepared to provide our employees and their families with whatever special assistance is needed. I thank you in advance for all of the support that I know you will give to your fellow employees during this trying period. Subject: saddened I just wanted to send my support and condolenscense to all those affected by this tragedy. My heart goes out to all the people of America and I only hope that the events to follow such a major trauma will not result in countless more death and suffering. I can't imagine anything worse that could have happened to anyone...and may nothing like this ever happen again. I send all my courage, hope and positive thoughts to everyone who suffered and will continue to suffer for an eternity. --Tiffany 9/13/01 I'm fine. I live near Buffalo, so NYC is 6 hours away. My family and friends are either here, out west or down south. I guess it's safe here but you never know anymore... I feel pretty crappy about the drawing I sent at this point. It hit me that I had 2 of my architecturally challegened buildings and a target, because I've been on a Jasper Johns kick as of late and just figured out I could draw circles. I was at work at the newspaper at the time. I was fixing the colors on some pictures when all hell broke loose. The paper ran a special extra feature that afternoon. My editor had me converting pictures to eps format to print them and every time I would get one ready to go, he would have another one. It was weird because the early shots were from the tv screen and didn't seem real. Hopefully, this whole event will make us stronger in the long run. --Justin Goetz, Fredonia, New York To all of our friends: Thank you for your concern. We are reeling. It goes back and forth for me. At times everything is so violent and fucked up. Fighter jet planes fly overhead as soldiers patrol the streets. ID' s are checked and there are roadblocks on every corner. There are swat teams and mysterious black vehicles and helicopters everywhere. Sirens shriek twenty-four hours a day. And then there is the silence and calmness. The afterglow as it were. The streets are empty. There are no privately owned vehicles allowed in and out of Manhattan. Like the day after a big storm. There is so much smoke and ash. The sun glows and makes everything seem orange and super clear. The air gets in your teeth like sand at a beach. It is like the last scenes in full metal jacket. There are random people sitting alone in subways crying. Zombies covered in thick ash were walking the streets aimlessly going north. Thrown away gas masks litter the streets. Thousands of people are walking over the bridges because there are no cars on the street. When I first saw the twin towers on fire a couple minutes after impact, my eyes just welled up. People were screaming and fainting. Cops were crying and breaking down. Everything inside our apartment about two miles from the towers was covered with a layer of ash. The smoke in our neighborhood is filled with peices of paper and receipts and debris. Two miles? My office is only a half mile from the world trade center, so the area has been evacuated. I was working at 8:46 and heard the whole thing muffled as it were. I thought it sounded like a plane crash, but I just let it go and left my office. It is truly a movie script thought to be too unbelievable and unreal at first rewrite. We are truly in a war zone downtown. These two massive buildings are simply gone. These events have been devastating and people are scared. I hope some of this can even begin to give you all, our friends a glimpse of what is going on here. Danica and I are doing well. It seems all of our friends are safe. We cry every once and a while when we here stories. And we have lost our view from our apartment forever. everynight for the last two and some odd years -- we have gone to sleep under the lights of the world trade center. In some way this feels so tragic to us. Thank you so much for your kind wishes and reaching out. To those of you who live specifically in LA, to help put this in some perspective, I have heard two former LA residents say "Give me a Rodney King or an earthquake over this anyday." Stunned and saddened, but together and pushing on. We will speak to you all soon. --Kevin Lyons, Brooklyn, New York We are OK. There was a lot of pandamonium but everyone is fine. Kevin was at the office with us through all the weirdness. The new issue is going to be 1 week late on the stands. Things downtown are still far from back to normal. --Adam Glickman, Tokion magazine, New York Just wanted to share with y'all what happened here in Switzerland today. It seems as if today the heavens cried out, it's raining. At 1pm all the churchbells in Zurich rang for 15 minutes in memory of the victims. In Bern, our capital, all busses and trams stopped. I never before saw the city in such a sad mood, it was like a huge funeral. Everywhere people stopped what they were doing and quietly listened to the bells, some praying, some trying to suppress the tears, some freely letting go. I have to admit i had a hard time myself to hold back, you just looked people in the eye and were mutually flushed with emotion. It seems most of the city is dressed in black today, there is an unprecedented solidarity with the United States and all the victims of this terrible act of war. And this after all gives me some comfort and hope, the civilized world making a clear and united statement today, that this aggression will not stand and will not be tolerated by the free world. Be strong, and God bless America. --Diego, Switzerland What a week... I took the dogs out to the park on tuesday and today (I was in Lassen visiting Diane Sunday-Monday) and with the NY event... lots of people stayed home, the city was so quiet and still... like nothing I have  experienced. So surreal, watching TV all day on tuesday but trying not to on Wednesday. Too sad...  The weirdest thing was the quiet of few cars and trucks -- no Fedex -- and no planes... Looking up into the sky and seeing and hearing planes this  weekend but not now...  Take care, talk with you soon,  Love, --Janice Jenkins, Portland, Oregon 9/14/01 I went to DC last week to unwind from what I thought was the sky falling [Mary was an employee of the now defunct Grand Royal --Andy], be with friends; got back Sunday night, learned I had missed the tremors [there was an earthquake in LA last week]. Monday is a blank, and then Tuesday morning I spent on the phone with my sister in Manhattan who had, against odds, gotten a line out. The urgency and truthfulness of her greeting, "I'm really freaked out right now," are still with me. I'm really freaked out right now too. A poll showed two thirds (of 600) Americans stating that they're "ok" with civilian casualties in whatever retaliation the U.S. works out... hasn't anyone learned anything from the sinking, hollow, helpless feeling this mass sacrifice of innocent human lives caused in each of us? Tuesday it was a war movie, it was buildings and planes and rumors; yesterday Arlie wrote to me about body parts in the streets. No more watching the fireballs, the smoking buildings, the former pinstripes of windows on the facades of the towers each standing for hundreds of mortally frightened and imperiled human beings... yesterday they broke out the pictures that ripped me open, the pictures of people sobbing. Tuesday night LA was a ghost town. I went out with Ian and Zoe and Julie to 'get away from the coverage,' but we spent much of the evening involuntarily returning to the topic. I missed my exit on the way home, distracted on the highway by some forgotten thought, and ended up downtown.. past those signs like Bob photographed, "LAX is closed." On to "Tonight's Madonna Concert is POSTPONED," the lettering seeming blindingly bright, perhaps because of the lack of traffic and exhaust between us. Off the highway to turn around, and it was absolutely still. No cars. No motion. Abandoned skyscrapers. Silent skies. Traffic signals dutifully directing a whole lot of no one. In the emptiness, with the windows down, I could hear the signals clicking: green, yellow, red. It was nothing like a quiet holiday, people too busy basting turkeys and playing with cousins to show signs of life. It felt like everyone was hiding, 3,000 miles from the epicenters. My boisterous neighborhood was motionless that night. While I tried to sleep, there was a sound like a jet in the sky (maybe my upstairs neighbor's television?) for several minutes, and as soon as I recognized how wrong that sound would be I found myself cowering in bed. The slightest hints of the anger that my president had ascribed to me earlier that day started prickling at the violation, but the days since then have seen them smothered by the stories of individual lives that did and didn't end through whatever combinations of coincidences and happenstance, and by thoughts of what comes next, its apparent futility, and the potential breadth of the escalation. I'm paranoid about the tap water, and I can't talk myself out of it. And I need to be looking for work. Please take care, --Mary Chen, Los Angeles [The following letter was forwarded by Thomas Campbell... "Here is some wisdom if you want it, pass it on if you feel it. Love, --t.moe"] The Deeper Wound As fate would have it, I was leaving New York on a jet flight that took off 45 minutes before the unthinkable happened. By the time we landed in Detroit, chaos had broken out. When I grasped the fact that American security had broken down so tragically, I couldn't respond at first. My wife and son were also in the air on separate flights, one to Los Angeles, one to San Diego. My body went absolutely rigid with fear. All I could think about was their safety, and it took several hours before I found out that their flights had been diverted and both were safe. Strangely, when the good news came, my body still felt that it had been hit by a truck. Of its own accord it seemed to feel a far greater trauma that reached out to the thousands who would not survive and the tens of thousands who would survive only to live through months and years of hell. And I asked myself, Why didn't I feel this way last week? Why didn't my body go stiff during the bombing of Iraq or Bosnia? Around the world my horror and worry are experienced every day. Mothers weep over horrendous loss, civilians are bombed mercilessly, refugees are ripped from any sense of home or homeland. Why did I not feel their anguish enough to call a halt to it? As we hear the calls for tightened American security and a fierce military response to terrorism, it is obvious that none of us has any answers. However, we feel compelled to ask some questions. Everything has a cause, so we have to ask, What was the root cause of this evil? We must find out not superficially but at the deepest level. There is no doubt that such evil is alive all around the world and is even celebrated. Does this evil grow from the suffering and anguish felt by people we don't know and therefore ignore? Have they lived in this condition for a long time? One assumes that whoever did this attack feels implacable hatred for America. Why were we selected to be the focus of suffering around the world? All this hatred and anguish seems to have religion at its basis. Isn't something terribly wrong when jihads and wars develop in the name of God? Isn't God invoked with hatred in Ireland, Sri Lanka, India, Pakistan, Israel, Palestine, and even among the intolerant sects of America? Can any military response make the slightest difference in the underlying cause? Is there not a deep wound at the heart of humanity? If there is a deep wound, doesn't it affect everyone? When generations of suffering respond with bombs, suicidal attacks, and biological warfare, who first developed these weapons? Who sells them? Who gave birth to the satanic technologies now being turned against us? If all of us are wounded, will revenge work? Will punishment in any form toward anyone solve the wound or aggravate it? Will an eye for an eye, a tooth for a tooth, and limb for a limb, leave us all blind, toothless and crippled? Tribal warfare has been going on for two thousand years and has now been magnified globally. Can tribal warfare be brought to an end? Is patriotism and nationalism even relevant anymore, or is this another form of tribalism? What are you and I as persons going to do about what is happening? Can we afford to let the deeper wound fester any longer? Everyone is calling this an attack on America, but is it not a rift in our collective soul? Isn't this an attack on civilization from without that is also from within? When we have secured our safety once more and cared for the wounded, after the period of shock and mourning is over, it will be time for soul searching. I only hope that these questions are confronted with the deepest spiritual intent. None of us will feel safe again behind the shield of military might and stockpiled arsenals. There can be no safety until the root cause is faced. In this moment of shock I don't think anyone of us has the answers. It is imperative that we pray and offer solace and help to each other. But if you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world. Love, Deepak [Chopra] If a friend gave this to you and you want to subscribe to Namaste, join at www.chopra.com/namaste.htm or send an e-mail to listserve@chopra.com with a blank Subject line, and the message text "subscribe namaste". (Do not include the quotation marks.) [The following was forwarded by Eric Matthies. William O. Beeman teaches anthropology at Brown University in Providence, Rhode Island. A specialist on Middle East Culture, he has written extensively on fundamentalism and terrorism. He has worked for the past four years in Tajikistan, where he has been able to monitor developments in Afghanistan.] Beeman's Angle The United States risks a severe miscalculation in dealing with the destruction of the World Trade Center and the attack on the Pentagon on Tuesday. This event is not an isolated instance of violence. This is not an "act of war." It is one symptom of a cancer that threatens to metastasize. The root cause is not terrorist activity, as has been widely stated. It is the relationship between the United States and the Islamic world. Until this central cancerous problem is treated, Americans will never be free from fear. Merely locating and hunting down a single "guilty party" in this case will not stop future violence: such an action will not destroy the organization of terrorist cells already established throughout the world. Of greater importance, it will do nothing to alleviate the residual enmity against America that will remain at large in the world, continuing to motivate violence. The perpetrators of the original attack on the World Trade Center in 1993 were caught and convicted. This did not stop the attack on Tuesday. The chief suspect is the Saudi Arabian Osama bin Laden or his surrogates. He has been mischaracterized as an anti-American terrorist. He should rather be thought of as someone who would do anything to protect Islam. Bin Laden began his career fighting the Soviet occupation of Afghanistan in 1979 when he was 22 years old. He has not only resisted the Soviets but also the Serbians in Yugoslavia. His anger was directed against the United States primarily because of the U.S. presence in the Gulf Region more particularly Saudi Arabia itself the site of the most sacred Islamic religious sites. According to bin Laden, during the Gulf War America co-opted the rulers of Saudi Arabia to establish a military presence in order to kill Muslims in Iraq. In a religious decree issued in 1998, he gave religious legitimacy to attacks on Americans in order to stop the United States from "occupying the lands of Islam in the holiest of places." His decree also extends to Jerusalem, where the second most sacred Muslim site the al-Aqsa Mosque. The depth of his historical vision is clear when, in his decree, he characterizes Americans as "crusaders" harkening back to the Medieval Crusades in which the Holy Lands, then occupied by Muslims, were captured by European Christians. He will not cease his opposition until the United States leaves the region. Paradoxically, his strategy for convincing the United States to do so seems drawn from the American foreign policy playbook. When the United States disapproves of the behavior of another nation, it "turns up the heat" on that nation through embargoes, economic sanctions or withdrawal of diplomatic representation. In the case of Iraq following the Gulf war, America employed military action, resulting in the loss of civilian life. The State Department has theorized that if the people of a rogue nation experience enough suffering, they will overthrow their rulers, or compel them to adopt more sensible behavior. The terrorist actions in New York and Washington are a clear and ironic implementation of this strategy against the United States. Bin Laden takes no credit for actions emanating from his training camps in Afghanistan. He has no desire for self-aggrandizement. A true ideologue, he believes that his mission is sacred, and he wants only to see clear results. For this reason, the structure of his organization is essentially tribalcellular in modern political terms. His followers are as fervent and intense in their belief as he is. They carry out their actions because they believe in the rightness of their cause, not because of bin Laden's orders or approval. Groups are trained in Afghanistan, and then establish their own centers in places as far-flung as Canada, Africa and Europe. Each cell is technologically sophisticated, and may have a different set of motivations for attacking the United States. Palestinians members of his group see Americans as supporters of Israel in the current conflict between the two nations. In the Palestinian view, Ariel Sharon's ascendancy to leadership of Israel has triggered a new era, with U.S. government officials failing to pressure the Israeli government to end violence against Palestinians. Palestinian cell members will not cease their opposition until the United States changes its relationship with the Israeli state. The Mujaheddin fighters in Lebanon also direct their hostility against Israel and the United States. They also operate against the Maronite Christian community in their own country, who were supported by the French from World War I until the end of World War II. They will not cease their operations until the region is firmly in Islamic hands. Above all, Americans need to remember that the rest of the world has an absolute right to self-determination that is as defensible as our own. A despicable act of mayhem such as those committed in New York and Washington is a measure of the revulsion that others feel at our actions that seemingly limit those rights. If we perpetuate a cycle of hate and revenge, this conflict will escalate into a war that our great-grandchildren will be fighting. --William O. Beeman I had just come back from lunch and I was a little pissed off because it was raining as it so often does here in Belgium. Suddenly one of my colleagues uttered a sound of shock/bewilderment and we went over to his desk to see what was the reason. On his laptop a webbrowser display the cnn website with the incredible header "2 planes crash into WTC". What? 1000 thoughts went through my head as we switched on the televisions and saw the replay of the second plane being guided into the building. Moaning about the rain just 20 or so minutes earlier seemed so useless now. In fact, so did most of my daily activities. It is now nearly 3 days later and it still seems so unreal. "To see is to believe" the saying goes... well I've seen the images repeated ad infinitum and it doesn't seem believable. Living in Europe you are more often confronted with the fact that terrorism exists than when you're in the States... earlier this year I decided not to go to Barcelona on holidays as the ETA had just launched another bombing campaign; every time I go to London I keep in mind the fact the IRA exists; back in the 80's Luxembourg (the quiet small country I grew up in) even knew a small wave of terrorist activity with bombs exploding only 5 minutes from my home; one of my first memories of a report on a shocking act of terrorism was back in 1980 when on holidays in Italy a train station was blown up in Bologna, about 150 miles from where we were staying... I was 7 years old and I can still recall the feeling of sickness as I saw the images. Still, no matter what you've learned to think of as being a part of life you have to deal with, what has happened in New York is so undescribably incoprehensible and lacking any sense. I can't start to think what you guys must be going through at this point. I can't start to think about how the future is going to look after this. All I can do is to offer my condolances to the families and friends of the vitims and hope that this never happens again, anywhere in the world. --Jan Doggen, Forward magazine, Belgium [The following was forwarded by Greg Mobley.] Teach Tolerance Those of us living in New York City get a taste, daily, of the cultural diversity on every inch of the city streets. We believe that NYC has representatives of every country, town, state, nation, island, religion, ethnic background, color, etc., here, living together, usually in harmony, on a daily basis. This proverbial "melting pot" is what makes NYC the place to be, the center of excitement, "the city that never sleeps" and so on. With the recent attack on America, we are asking everyone to remember and to help remind others of the following: Please avoid finger pointing, blaming and retaliating in any way against those who you "think" are to blame for this tragedy. There are already reports that innocent Muslims living in the US have already been beaten, received threats, as well as unconfirmed reports of 2 Muslim men being murdered. Attacking innocent people will only result in more division amongst us in these United States. As the media is already indicating that Osama bin Laden "might" be to blame. This could lead to the ignorant assumption that all Arabs and/or Muslims support these sorts of actions. A news report from Pennsylvania allegedly showed a bystander saying, "This is just like the Christians and the Muslims during the Crusades". Remember, it was not that long ago that certain reporters refrained from saying "Muslim or Islamic Terrorist" in the same breath. Islam is not a religion that endorses terrorism. It encourages peace and moderation. Not extremism. One should learn what Muslims believe before one begins to condemn them. We don't want to be "preachy" but we want to emphasize that one cannot simply believe second hand information passed along about Islam. Doing research for yourself by picking up the Qur'an is recommended. Muslim and non-Muslim Arabs who were born in the US are just as much of Americans as anyone else born here. Those who immigrated here to join in the melting pot and received their citizenship have also become Americans. We also remind you that the original inhabitants of this country are the tribes of the Native American Indians. They were already living here when this land was allegedly "discovered." It is a reality that those of us who are not of Native American Indian descent could be considered "foreigners." There are many people from the Middle East who practice many different religions. We know Christians from Lebanon, Catholics from Egypt, Greek Orthodox from Palestine, Jews from Morocco, etc. Many Latinos are mistaken for Arabs. I (Christie) am often mistaken for Egyptian and/or Albanian on a regular basis (and occasionally Puerto Rican) . Our point in saying this is that you really never know who comes from where or what they believe by just looking at them. Muslim and non Muslim Arabs are in the hospitals helping to treat the survivors of the WTC disaster, they drove the cabs to get survivors home safely, are organizing blood drives, etc. They pray for world peace and for the lives lost and thank God for the lives saved. They are our neighbors, our friends, our co-workers, our doctors, lawyers, nurses, relatives, as much as anyone else is. Muslims died in the attacks upon the World Trade Centers as well. We have already seen gross generalizations made in papers reporting Islam as a threat to the western world and anti-Arab sentiments voiced. We wonder how many of the writers are voicing their opinions or writing in such a way as to sway readers to their biased point of view. Even more we wonder how much these writers know about Islam. Why is it only a considerate few who took the time to describe what Muslims believe in order to show that this is not in keeping with the prescribed way of life for Muslims? A simple explanation could potentially protect many innocent people on the streets from unwarranted attacks. We have seen pictures of a faction of Palestinians allegedly celebrating the attack on America. These pictures may or many not be from 2 days ago. Just something to consider. For those who read the newspapers only looking at pictures and reading the captions, forming an opinion off of these pictures alone is very dangerous. If these individuals were celebrating the attack on America, this does not mean that all Palestinians, Arabs or Muslims were celebrating. Just like when someone commits a crime here in the US it does not mean all the people of that color, race or religion are in support of that criminal. We ask those of you who were living peacefully with your fellow Americans before this disaster to resume living peacefully with them now and if you see someone/anyone being turned into a scapegoat for another's anger, please step in or call 911 before the situation escalates. Our condolences go out to everyone who has lost anyone in this tragedy and who have loved ones injured or missing. Sincerely, --Jorge "Fabel" Pabon and Christie Z-Pabon Note: Here are 2 (of the many) websites to check out for more information on where Muslims stand on these attacks and the teachings in Islam regarding suicide bombings, killing the innocent, etc. are: http://fatwa-online.com http://www.islam-online.net/english/index.shtml There is a Qur'anic verse which reads: "Who so ever kills a human being for other than manslaughter or corruption in the earth, it shall be as if he has killed all mankind, and who so ever saves the life of one, it shall be as if he had saved the life of all mankind," (Al-Ma'dah:32). A new fold has been created in our history; in the nation's history. A fold that settles more like a rough crease in a smooth, fluid piece of fabric. I look at the raped landscape of the NYC skyline and feel like I'm staring at a person who has lost an arm. But we all know we've lost much more than that. Much more than limbs, much more than lives, much more than loved ones, much more than feelings of security. As I stood today along side employees of the Alien Workshop, listening to the national prayer, I felt a new emotion that I'd never felt before. It's not just pure sadness, pure sympathy or pure anger. It's an amalgamation of all of those honest feelings and much, much more. An almost disabling feeling of being lost. A new word should be created for this feeling, which our existing vocabulary can't even come close to touching upon. Sometimes, we speak of tragic events leaving holes in our lives, our hearts. This event has left a hole in my mind. From this destruction, let us morn and then let us create. Let us use every day to create like it is our last. --D. Pendleton, Dayton, Ohio I cannot seem to hold back any tears for days now and it just seems to be getting worse... please pray for peace and hope that all mankind will unite in love and give support to all. This is the most tragic event in my lifetime and I'm hoping the only of it's nature. I don't think I can take another like it. Ever. I've been so concerned for everyone that I know and love on the East Coast and today it's almost too overwhelming to explain. I'm crying again, it's all too much... Love, --Staci G., Los Angeles It's funny, listening to the Circle Jerks' "Paid Vacation" this morning and recalling all this mess from years ago. I feel old at only 33 and have seen many tragedies due to people's fear of losing what's "theirs". It's seemed I've always been at war, surrounded by guns, drugs and violence in my own home as a child, fighting in the Chicago Public School system's gang ridden environment, myself carrying a gun to school out of fear. After getting kicked out of 2 high schools due to fighting, one in which a teacher was shot a close range by a student in class, I decided to join the Army. My mother had to sign me over to the government because I was still a minor. At 17, I was the youngest in boot camp. I was in bunked up with Vietnam vets twice my age who told me horror stories of that war. After basic training, I went to school to train as a Nuclear Biological and Chemical Specialist. I learned the horrors of nuclear war, attacks of biological warfare and chemicals that deplete the body's blood supply of oxygen. Inside, I felt there was something not right with war. The "eye for an eye" philosophy fell short-sighted in my eyes. It seemed immature. I continued my military "career" moving into permanent party at the 110th Mechanized Light Infantry Division, Fort Carson, Colorado. I was still 17 at this time. I was pretty jaded about life now. What I had lived with as a child, then the government trying to convince me it's ok to kill by turning me into a soldier. I drank incessantly trying to drown out the confusion. After 2.5 years in the Army, the Persian Gulf War was announced and we packed up. We were alerted that our status was DEFCON 2 and not to call anyone. I paused and reflected. I couldn't agree, although I had no deep ideological foundation to expound. I had just seen so much senseless suffering I couldn't agree this was the way to go. The people whom were elders, our leaders, must have a more mature answer to this. Can't we sit down? Stop and feel the earth and tell what's right? I declared I was a conscientious objector. Now, a conscientious objector is one who is opposed to serving in the armed forces and/or bearing arms on the grounds of moral or religious principles. I was black listed immediately and threatened with jail time. Everyone said I was a coward, but that wasn't true. My past deeds had overshadowed that idea. Needless to say, this was the beginning of my search for what I consider true nature in all of us. That true nature that has been cutoff by the speed of technology, the need for bigger and better to satisfy our insatiable desires. I began to believe there must be other solutions to this insanity of people's grasping for comfort and reacting on illusionary fears. I am not a religious person. I just believe we can think of unthinkable solutions to our perceived inherent suffering. We just need to stop and be still. We need to combat our enemy, self-centeredness. I really don't know what to do with our current state of affairs. But I believe there may be a solution we may be leaving out. I know I will support those who need my help. I will try to see where I can be even more helpful and self-sacrificing to those around me. I believe with this attitude a change can take place and the suffering will receive help everywhere. --Rob Abeyta, jr., Los Angeles My seven-year-old daughter prayed that the next bomb would be an "explosion of kindness into the world." Bless all, --Brad Steward, Portland, Oregon My wife and I got on M train at Union St. Tuesday am in Bklyn after voting in the primary around 8:45. She got on the W at Pacific and I stayed on to DeKalb. I crossed over to the Q. I'm deep into the book I'm reading. Conductor says there is a backup on the Manhattan bridge, I jump back over to the local platform and get on the R. Our conductor mentions that we're skipping Cortlandt. I don't think anything of it. Skipped stops happen all the time. I look up from my book at Rector. Maybe it's 9 or 9:05? We skip Cortlandt. At City Hall people get on and they are loud. I am pissed because I am being distracted from my reading. I almost get up to move my seat. People are yakking, yakking, I'm reading. I get out at 23rd St, oblivious. Up the steps. See the people standing in the street. It's like 50 people maybe, all looking up. I haven't looked back yet. I clear the guardrail and turn around in the street. I'm looking straight down 5th ave. Both towers are burning. I see one first and my head can't even comprehend what's going on. So much black smoke. I'm thinking it's simply a fire. I pan over. The other tower is burning. We are all dead silent. Not a damn word is spoken. I keep staring at the holes cut in the buildings. I wonder how the fires started. Milleniums go by. Minutes go by. I keep thinking I'm almost late for work. I wonder how both fires could have started. The holes look like teeth. It's more black smoke than orange flame. I keep sizing up the holes. I'm dreaming. I turn for my door and I'm narrating to myself. "are you really going to work? you are actually turning away from this?" I turn around again, see the towers burning, turn around again, walk a block up to 26th, hook a right. See Lain. He tells me airplanes hit the building. Not both. He heard walking up from Union Square. Airplanes hit the Trade Center? I work with 16 people. Some are listening to 1010 radio, some have gotten on cnn.com, msnbc.com. My connection is slow, pages timing out. Phones busy. Why aren't my parents at home. Where is my wife. I send emails around. I'm on yahoo from the minute I sit down til I hear that a tower fell. People are running, yelling. I keep saying to myself, "you will be the calm one in all this, just be calm". Takes a half hour for me to realize that I can see the trade center out my window. I open the window. We are on the 15th floor. There is a man welding on the roof of the bldg next door. He raises his hands in a shrug to his co-worker. I get thru to my wife. She was stalled on the W train on the Manhattan Bridge when the 2nd plane went thru the south tower. She describes the fireball. While we speak the north tower collapses. I've got my head out the window. The top of the building is lost within the cloud of smoke. I want to replay it. It went too fast. Words will not ever explain the ghosts that took over my head. Life is now as slow as a Jarmusch film. I can hear the air in my head. Takes a few minutes for us to leave. A walk to 54th and 7th to meet my wife. I go up 6th ave thinking I'll avoid Times Square and the Empire State. I keep telling myself to stay calm. A guy behind me is saying all he needs is a ".380, an AK, and a 9 mill under his bed" and laughs and laughs. At 6th and 28th street I see a man selling whistles on colored strings. He has a handful. He's standing in the street. "For your safety and well-being ladies and gentlemen," he repeats; monotone. I meet up with Bridget and Tara and we retreats to Tara's apt on 74th street where we eat Spanish rice, turkey sandwiches and seltzer mixed with orange juice. We watch 5 news channels until 4:30 pm. We see all the footage. Every angle of the 2nd plane hitting. Eyewitness accounts. Vast speculation. The Pentagon, Pennsylvania. Tara's father worked at the Trade Center and on the trading floor of the Amex. He went back to help and was on Broad and Wall when he had to run from the 1st bldg when it fell. Tara is crying. I am flipping channels, dazed. We make it back to Bklyn on the A and F trains by 6:45. I buy another sandwich at the deli. We watch the news 'til I fall asleep in front of the TV at 11pm. Drained. Dumbstruck. Still have not made contact with my parents in FL to let them know we're ok. Spoke to Ben and Karuna in LA. At sunset I sneak onto the roof of my bldg up the fire escape with my camera. We had an amazing view of Lower Manhattan from our apt. It's a morbid exercise. I snap off like 6 shots. It's a gorgeous sunset. The smoke from the Trade Center now stretches right above my apartment. It's perfectly still and I just can't remember where the buildings fit into the skyline. I can't remember. I don't know what has happened since then. I've been back at work since yesterday. I've recieved the Dalai Lama letter. I've read viewpoints on Slate and andrewsullivan.com, I've seen so much news I don't know what to do. I've yelled at tv news anchors from my couch. I suspect the woman on channel 2 is totally insincere. I am shocked that the firemen are all crying. I have always been able to cry, but I can't believe that the toughest men in new york city are crying. So many of them are crying. Friends are emailing me saying how angry they are. I have retreated inside my brain. I am scared. I am sad. I am sad for the familes and friends of these innocents. I am sad that I can't be a spolied and innocent as I was on Monday. there, now I'm being honest. I don't understand what has happened. I have people sending me stop the violence petition notes to forward along to George W. I am getting extrememly pissed at the journalists. They are all asking leading questions. Ernie Anastos tries to get one of his producers to tag along with a man when the man finds out his brother has been found in the rubble last nite. Ernie wants CBS to get the story. The fact is that I am lost. The fact is that people have already decided their viewpoint regarding retaliation and I have not been able to. That is where I am stuck. I wonder to myself: Since these groups planned and executed this atrocity, do they feel justified? Did this make them feel the way they thought they would when this was all just a sketch on an underground blackboard? Who are we going to bomb? I feel so torn. For years I rallied against defense spending, the military, the old boy pentagon regimes that keep the violence machine in place. Are we going to bomb Qsama bin Laden? Yeah right. Are we all fucking dreaming? How might we find the guy? Or are we just going to have to fucking flatten Syria, Israel, Lebanon, Turkey, Afghanistatn, Pakistan, Iran, and Iraq? Cause that's what it's gonna take -- this is just the tip of the fundamentalist/extremist iceberg. This act on Tuesday represents the manifest hatred of all these countries' most evil souls. Part of me wants this. Wants the leveling of the whole fucking area I mention above. Shut it down. Shut it down. Shut it down. But what am I really saying? "I want it all gone daddy, make the monsters go away cause I'm scared". That's what it boils down to. Then I've got the anti-violence camp knocking on my door... the "please use restraint Mr. President types". I am starting to get really pissed off by this fluff and I am "in" this camp. Exercise restraint. My fucking ass! We are dealing with EVIL. GOD-POWERED-FUCKING-EVIL and these fuckers LOVE TO DIE. Either way it's a no win. Don't kill 'em and they think we're pushovers. And they will strike again to build the Islamic rule the fundamentalist fringes so desire. Kill 'em all and then they're pissed and we go back and forth in the "cycle of violence" you scared people want nothing to do with. So maybe I sound mixed up. But I am positive I am right where I'm supposed to be as a US citizen in that I am having a very difficult time sussing this out. This issue has no black and white. We are at war (label it what you will) with what Andrew Sullivan called "an evil that will only grow unless it is opposed with all the might at our command". Don't fool yourself kids, all the love in the world, all the restraint in the world, all the good fucking vibes in the world, matters NOT ONE IOTA to these nutcases. They want a spiritual utopia built on top of dead bodies and nothing is going to stop that. So as you can see, I'm having trouble choosing my camp. I hope you are all thinking as hard as Deepak C. There are extrememly big issues here to chew on as it's a completely new spiritual and social paradigm. I can't believe that it took these horrendous losses to bring this issue into the social discourse. What's most troubling is that my heart is telling me two things: 1) Violence or 2) In the words of Mr. Chopra, "There can be no safety until the root cause is faced. In this moment of shock I don't think anyone of us has the answers. It is imperative that we pray and offer solace and help to each other. But if you and I are having a single thought of violence or hatred against anyone in the world at this moment, we are contributing to the wounding of the world." I hope you are all surrounded by love and compassion in this time of pain. Thanks for letting me vent, I really needed to. In hopes that I will get the clarity I need from my heart alone, --Ed Looram, Brooklyn, NY The world is a little bit better place thanks to people like you providing forums like Bend. The perspectives from Europe are particularly moving. Here are some other links about Jihad form some friends in London and Munich. By the way, the Beeman piece (above) came via Wing Ko. This link is a transcript of the '97 CNN interview with bin Laden. This is one I can't make into a link, so it's just cut'n'paste. --Eric Matthies My roommate slammed the door open at 9:30 on tuesday morning. I had class late so I was still sleeping. "THE TWIN TOWERS AT THE WORLD TRADE CENTER HAVE COLLAPSED!" I wasn't ready... I don't think anyone is ready. So we flipped on CNN and pretty much camped out there all day. And to be blunt, the first thing that occured to me was "I need to move to Canada." The last 8 months have been incredibly frustrating. I feel like I'm fighting against this huge wave that i'm never going to be able to stop. I live in a country with a president who walks out of summits on the environment and racism, practically castrates research that could save people from being like my alzheimer'ed grandfather, drills in one of the last wild places to delay an energy crisis for 3 months (maybe)... the list goes on and on. And after I had spent the day feeling crushed by the meaningless loss of life, I started wondering about all the growth of patriotism I was seeing around me. I don't think there's any question that something needs to happen in response to this mass murder, but I am greatly alarmed that no one wants to think about what led up to this: - In order to preserve oil interests, the CIA usurps a popular and fair leader in Iran and inserts a puppet shah. This was stupid enough, except the shah turned out to be the cruelest bastard possible. This is what led to the revolution and America being known as the "great satan." - We trained Osama bin Laden to fight communists and his companies still build military bases for us in the Middle East to this day. - We have a long standing embargo on Iraq that manages to starve and harm everyone EXCEPT saddam hussein. - The fact that we gave Hussein the serran (sic) gas that he used to massacre thousands of kurds. These are facts that add up to a lot of people hating us. The worst is that mass murder and insanity only becomes terrible when it happens in our borders. We need to punish the people who did this, but we will make no progress at all unless we're willing to take a good long look at ourselves. Oh yeah, I just had to weep again because I saw the skyline without the towers. I stayed in that Marriot. We are forever changed. Soon (maybe) broadcasting from Vancouver, --Zack Bastian "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that. Hate multiplies hate, violence multiplies violence, and toughness multiplies toughness in a descending spiral of destruction...The chain reaction of evil -- hate begetting hate, wars producing more wars -- must be broken, or we shall be plunged into the dark abyss of annihilation." --Martin Luther King, Jr. My heart goes out to those lost in the ignorance. My heart breaks for the families and loved ones of those lost. I prey for peace and compassion. May some small piece of good come from all this evil. --Sean Cassidy, Los Angeles September 12, 2001 Anouck, an ex-girlfriend of mine, lives in New York right now. So immediately after I heard the news, I emailed her to see if she was okay and here's her reply that I got the day after: "What has happened goes beyond your imagination. This morning it all seemed unreal again. I hope this city gets going again real soon. It's too weird to see the city that never sleeps in a deep coma." September 14, 2001 Today, all over the country (Belgium) a three minute period of silence was held in memory of the victims of the events in the US. It might have been done all over Europe, or maybe even the world, because I caught a bit of some German news, and from what I had gathered, these people did the exact same thing. At the same time isn't it a bit sad how this kind of transglobal unity can only happen after something this tragic has happened? --kev*apetown, Belguim Tom Bradley Flew First Class I began to write this September 12th, 2001 and it's important to note this because it is one day after four jetliners from the United States were hijacked and used to bring down the World Trade Center twin towers in New York City and destroy a section of the Pentagon in Washington D.C. The fourth plane crashed in a grassy field (under mysterious circumstances) in Pennsylvania, apparently a blemished mission to destroy either the White House or Camp David. Who knows? Thousands of people will be reported as dead when it is all said and done. An unimaginable tragedy. I wish I could hold everyone in the world and tell them everythings going to be ok. Eulogies laced with poisonous spite will surface for years. Movies will be made. Books will be written, conspiracy and "us against them" theories serving as the fodder of choice. And someone will make a joke. Someday. I look forward with great anticipation to the day when a trace of good can be extracted from this heap. When a saddened thought is forced to turn upwards, reaching higher than this, clambering upon weaked shoulders, until finally embracing the warm hand of a smile or swirling laughter. Whether it's a heightened state of denial or chronic optimism, in times like these I almost always immediately try to look for something good in it all. It's probably denial. I've felt it many times. Eleven years ago I took a trip to Indonesia on a clear blue Christmas day. I was twenty one years old, the love of travel and adventure much earlier planted in me as a result of a heinously boring suburban upbringing that reeked of canyon sage and bad heavy metal. Anywhere but here was my motto. One day, four weeks into my trip, which was everything I had hoped it would be up to that point, I was having my usual lunch of avocado halves filled with baby shrimp. I was in Java, in the city of Jakarta, eating in a tiny exhaust-choked roadside cafe, watching a scratchy TV, content knowing that I still had nearly two weeks in this fine country. In between bites, a weird murmur went thru the cafe, and the cafe owner turned up the volume on the tube. It was a news report and the report was very simple in it's delivery: The United States had invaded Iraq. It was war. What? Strange looks darted across and back and around the cafe. At that moment my whole trip changed, although I didn't know it then. I knew that Java and most of the Indonesian archipalaego was Muslim. I also knew that, for the most part, the Indonesian people along with millions of other Muslims worldwide did not support the policies and actions of Saddam Hussein. But there were fundamentalist pockets. As I left the cafe and began walking thru the bustling streets of Jakarta, I thought of my family. I thought of the possibilities of being drafted, however distant that probably was. I thought of a lot of things, and most of those thoughts were selfish and self preservational. How is this going to affect me? What will people think of me in this foreign place? And that's what it had become. Foreign. Peoples faces looked different. I had never noticed that Indonesian eyes were as red as the mildly narcotic bean the old people chewed on. As red as the spit it produced. That taxi driver wasn't nice to me. He was nice to my money. He talked with puffy nostrils and vehement tones to his friends back at the taxi circle about the stupid American and his arrogant tipping. As I was walking, my sense of adventure blew past my ears and coiled into a dirty styrofoam cup, waiting in a gutter be to trampled upon by a million brown feet. I was walking faster and I was walking home. Or at least to the place I was staying. Over the next week and a half I would barely roam outside of a three block radius of my host's comfortable home. In fact I had never noticed how comfortable it really was. Air conditioning, big couches, great meals, video games. Comfort. That's what I needed and that's what I was going to have. Hell, isn't that what vacations are for? What was once a sort of home base, to come back to and re-group after a jungle trek, was now my hotel. However grossly distorted my new found paranoia was, there were isolated incidents that were just enough for me to rationalize it at the time. There were a couple of bomb threats at the American embassy and minor anti-American protests. When I did venture from my cozy compound, it was often to find the least crowded money exchange place. I still needed a little rupiah (local currency) to pick up small gifts or whatever. On one of these trips I walked into a local bank and went to the money exchange counter. I pulled out a fifty dollar bill and placed it under the security window. The teller took the money, scrutinized it as if maybe he thought it was counterfeit and then called over another worker. They both looked at the money, constantly talking between themselves, occasionally both looking at me. The first teller then put it back under the window and in broken English basically said it was too dirty. The bill was actually brand new, because I had received it from my parents for Christmas, and they always gave me fresh bills when it was gift money. But I understood what was happening, and I quietly said thank you and eased out of the bank. It was one of those pockets. I finished my stay in Indonesia very safely and air-condtioned, confirming my departure with the airlines a good week before I left. My hosts took me to the airport leaving me with hugs and beautiful gifts, and of course I was there three hours before the flight left. I checked my bags, grabbed a coke and went to my gate. Since that first news report of the invasion of Iraq, all of the t.v. stations constantly showed war updates. Battle footage, night shots of streaming missles, aftermath reports and images, Iraqi protestors in the street, in their flowing white attire. There was a television at the gate and I split my time between watching it and the people arriving with their bags etc... As the departure time drew near the gate began to fill, and I had a pretty good inventory on who was boarding. No bad guys. And then I saw him. Gazing past two plump German women, I saw a tall man wearing a huge turban and a chest length beard approaching the gate check-in counter. He said something to the woman working there and she handed him a telephone. As he talked he became visibly irate and his eyes dashed around the room. The counter workers smiled nervously. Holy shit. All he had was an ominous looking briefcase. I could not believe it. It's a bad guy. My paranoia was real, and it landed right in my pounding chest. Just as I was contemplating an escape route, something distracted me. A flurry of voices, flashes and laughter was nearing the gate. In the center of it all was a very tall man, as tall as the bad guy actually. When I realized who it was I was filled with both intrigue and hollow fear. It was Los Angeles mayor Tom Bradley and we was with his entourage. I do not believe this. I'm flying back to Los Angeles with one of the country's most recognized and popular mayors. And a bad guy. During a war. Mayor Bradley was whisked past the gate and boarded the plane immediately. The rest of us had to wait for our rows to be called. Once allowed to board we were guided to the back entrance of the airplane, entering from the rear, as opposed to the standard entry thru first class, where Mayor Bradley was most certainly sitting. I got to my seat, backed into it, and held my bag to my chest. I watched every person walk past me, studying their profiles and their backs. Damn it, why couldn't we board thru the front. I need to see faces. The process took forever. Finally, it seemed that everyone was on board. And no one was sitting next to me. Perfect. I began to go over and over in my mind my possible reactions to any sort of trouble that may arise. I was truly scared. "Excuse me." I looked up to my right and I was staring at a belt buckle, standard issue. I continued up the body of this person and it was him. The turban man. "I believe this is my seat," he pointed across me to the window seat. Here we go. I stood and allowed him to move past me, the briefcase grazing my shoulder. It was all I could do to contain my fear. I didn't look at him at all. We sat there for a few minutes and the plane began to taxi. Once up in the air we both sat in silence for nearly an hour, neither of us reading the on-flight magazine, staring at the seats in front of us. Eventually the flight attendant brought the drink cart and we both ordered cokes. Silence. "Where are you from? " he asked. My head got hot. I wasn't really even sure where I was from at that moment. That probably explains the answer I gave him. "Canada." I grew up in San Diego, for chrissakes. Self preservation again. I was ashamed to sit next to myself. "Oh, I travel thru Canada quite a bit." He then opened his briefcase and pulled out various golf club literature. "I sell golfing equipment ." He then proceeded to tell me about his job, how he ended up in America from Iran, his thoughts on the war, and why he was irate in the airport -- "The people lost my luggage!" He shared most peoples views about conflict. He liked to golf. He knew who Mayor Bradley was. He knew that he was sitting in first class, and that made him a little mad, which I thought was funny. I've thought about that trip many times and I've shuddered at the rationalization I had assumed and utilized. What are these mechanisms that begin to purr and heave when their cranky gears shake into rhythm. Is it primal? Are destruction and hate related to these mechanisms and have they replaced what may have one time been an instinct to flee? I am no one and I am everyone, and in this I should find my solace, refusing to buy into any sort of "go, team, go" mentality, but yet I still pick my team and defend it, and make sure it rises above. Us against them. Afraid. With this note, I'm in no way trying to make light of this weeks tragic days, or the tragic days that may lie up the road. I'm not trying to find the good in it, because it isn't there. What is there is a potential. Potential is tricky because it contains the "non" factor, the snake lying in the peaceful meadow. It's beautiful in the things we don't yet know about it. Just like life. I can't wait to see you smile. --Tony Larson, Los Angeles THE DAYS FOLLOWING 9/11/01, PART 2 : 9/17--9/18 THE DAYS FOLLOWING 9/11/01, PART 3 : 9/19--9/14 Please send Bend your thoughts or forwards or links, if you are so inclined. Be safe. Spread love. LINKS ------------ American Red Cross CNN Frontline (PBS) Michael Moore NPR Salon Slate Working for Change