Fear is a root of evil, but we see it flourishing and expanding in the aftermath of the attacks on the US (and planned attacks on Britain and India not carried out). In that sense the terrorists are winning, since their aim is to propagate fear, and make us lose our democratic bearings. The American response (go it alone, have a war forever, it's good for the economy and the Buxh -Chaney (the "x" is a swastika) popularity polls and oil investments), go spend money and prop up the Dow Jones) needs instead to be part of a coordinated global police action, under the UN or NATO, which will have a definite end in sight, and we will know victory when it is achieved.
No ideology or oppression justifies the means that the attackers used. In one of the very few times I agreed with him, the Boeing CEO expressed horror that commercial airliners, which I work on and we all do, to be safe in peacetime transport of civilians, were used as weapons of armed attack on (mostly) working class Americans. Bill Caswell, from my Princeton physics class, as n the plane that was crashed into the Pentagon. You wonder why people who are sophisticated enough to plan such an attack are not also humane enough not to. But the Third Reich was like that. Intelligent, cultured people who commit mass murder from 9 to 5 every day, arranged by a State. And, yes the massive denial of human rights by the Taleban , especially of women, need a coordinate response from the community of nations. Most appalling was their wholesale destruction of the 5th century Buddhist monuments at Bamyan. The only silver lining: music was heard in the streets of Kabul, after five years, and the voices of women heard on the radio.
Fine. We should be developing world institutions like the UN and NATO, to respond to disasters like this. This was the initial response from Europe (I was in the UK during the attacks). The message from Europe was: yes, we are united in solidarity and an attack on the US is an attack on Europe, and please, Buxh, don't do anything stupid and rash. Luckily cooler heads, like Colin Powell's prevailed (he got easily three times as much air time on European TV TV as that phony resident of the White House, as he was in control, not playing with his gameboy). The European media were trying to understand the problem, and aired fact-filled and educational material about Bin Laden and his followers. In appalling contrast, Amrica's Corporate Media like CNN and MSNBC, on the other hand, beating the drums incessantly for"?America's New War!" (like "America's New Car?"), The same footage of a crying mother was shown every fifteen minutes. All tears all the time. Stay tuned. Buy more.
So now the Chinese sweatshops are working their slaves overtime to produce American Flags (show me one made in America!). Jingoism is rampant, and dissent is equated with disloyalty, just ask our white-sheeted occupant of the Attorney General's office. Buxh is making photo opportunities, and profaning the firefighters and police who gave their lives, by putting on their helmets in front of the TV cameras. Similarly the Pope profaned them when he accepted the helmet of the openly gay chaplain of the NYFD but the Vatican somehow "lost" that information in their homophobia. I hope the helmet burns their hands whenever they touch it!
I hope they don't rebuild the WTC. It was, alas, a base monument to corporate greed, and an ugliness. I remember the critics describing it when built as "a clothespin on the nose of lower Manhattan." The attack was unjustified, but rebuilding a temple of greed is unseemly. Better to make a memorial and a center for peace there instead.
Oh, and what's this about Buxh Sr.'s involvement with the Carlyle Group, who wants to steal the Caspian Sea oil and pipe it through ... Afghanistan? Oh no, there couldn?t be a connection with a sitting Resident pumping billions into his father's accounts for eventual inheritance!
"Those who prefer temporary Security to essential Liberty, deserve neither Liberty nor Security"
And at a time when going after terrorists is supposedly important, why were 30 FBI agents detailed to L.A. to arrest AIDS and cancer patients for using state-approved medical marijuana. Makes you want to puke.
Sharon's minister of tourism, Rehavam Zeevi, who was assassinated only after he stepped down, who in a an epithet that exceeds even my robust capacity for irony was called "Gandhi" (the profanation of it all!) called the Israeli Arabslice, and proposed their deportation. Has he no memory that the same words and policies were used against Jews 70 years ago? Yes, there were Jewish Nazis, in the Sharon cabinet. The best one can say about that S.O.B. is that he is probably happier being dead. Israeli soldiers defending the illegal settlements and the settlers only highways, make a game of taunting Palestinian youth, insulting their mothers, and getting them to throw rocks. In response, these soldiers murder 12-year-olds, in cold blood, with their automatic weapons, for sport. Read the report of Chris Hedges, former NY Times bureau chief, writing in Harper's. Palestinians in Gaza are forbidden to drill wells and lack basic sanitation. Meanwhile the fanatical settlers take all the water for their lawns and country clubs. See the story online.
Suicide bombings are not the answer, and they are never justified. They are the work of people who have given in to despair of a political solution to their dispossession. The suffering region needs an emergent Gandhi or M.L. King. Rabbi Lerner, of the liberal anti-occupation Jewish magazine Tikkun, hopes that this will happen. It is hard to maintain such hopes in the present situation. Perhaps it is the only way out of the conflict, but I am near despair about ever seeing it happen. It does not help to have another violent male religion that promises free sex in Heaven if they will only commit murder in this life. The right-wing fanatic Israeli settlers are the equals of the Taleban. Both of them believe that their religion justifies the violent dispossession of others, their property and even their lives, so that a superior race, chosen by God, can take over.
Other than that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the play?
We had an earthquake in February. Anybody remember? No damage to my house, save some water sloshed out of housemate?s aquarium. I finally got some double-glazed windows, purchased in February, into the dining room in time for a Thanksgiving potluck. Not to say that reliable contractors are as rare as hen?s teeth, but? Travel was mostly up and down the W Coast, with multiple trips to Portland, Vancouver, San Francisco, also to Wolf Creek for the ?two-spirit Naraya? a traditional Plains Indian dance that has been opened up to gay, Lesbian, bisexual, transgendered folk. I felt more like a visitor than a participant, since I was exhausted, and altering mental staes through exhaustion was part of the plan. Had to pass on that, but emerged with great respect. Even the victims of genocide come back again someday.
Sympathetic magic gone awry! For my birthday I went with some environmentalists on a raft trip down Hell's Canyon, Ore-Ida. It was stunning, but also sobering to see the damage by those "all-terrain" pigmobiles. Especially bad are the propagation of invasive seeds in their tires. During the trip I had my toenails painted, a tradition on those trips. A livid purple. Then the last morning I trip on a rain-slicked tent, and the next morning several toes are that color. Broken, trip aborted, albeit after the rafting.
So I ended up with vacation to spare, I took a trip to London, Wales, and Belgium, visiting friends, and seeing the kitschy Portmeirion Village (form the old TV series ?the Prisoner?, and some windy castles. I was at Carnarvon Castle, when the 9/11 events news hit. At the entry to the castle are fifty-some opportunities to murder visitors. Some things about humanity haven?t changed.
The big arts Valhallapalooza was the Wagner Ring at Seattle Opera. Singes like Jane Eaglen come around a few times in a century, and it was great to see her in here prime. On another occasion, I got to see one of her master classes. Very remarkable individual!
Saw a great meteor display on 18 November, the Leonids flaming entry into the atmosphere, over 7 a minute at 3 AM viewed from Wallace Falls State Park, near Gold Bar.
I enjoyed a day of tree planting in the Seattle watershed. Now if we can talk the govt out of building a transmission line through it to avoid the wrath of wealthy developers who want to make a billion making non-watershed lands into strip malls. Naturally, their concers are heard, those of Seattle citizens are not.
Work has been rather sketchy. It seems that Boeing really isn't interested in Scientific Visualization, so I?ll have to go back to my technical roots and take up physics and fluid dynamics again. Oh, well, it?s a living, and retirement at 55 looks like a goal realistically attainable.
Really no love life at all. I had a pleasant visit with the
folks I met in London in ?99, and that was fine, but alas, nothing
local. It looks more and more likely that I'll end my days alone,
but I've learned to live with that probability, but still, .like
Tevye in Fiddler on the Roof? wonder: would it upset some great
eternal pla ? if I found ? a MAN?"
I?ll be in Sharpsville at the family home from 21 to 29 Dec, then back for more of the same. Best till next year. May we live to see it in peace! Great happiness! Jeff the cat sends his regards.
David Kerlick
Your dissident correspondent in West Seattle, Washington.