I was going to write a ‘Where were you when...?’ post today, but my friend WinterWheat has done one on hers (Triticum Turgidum), so I’ll just say this:
Just as the people who were massacred by the Nazis were innocent; just as the people who were sitting quietly on the underground and on a bus when they were blown up in London last year didn't ask for it ; just as the ordinary people who are regularly murdered by deluded fanatics in Israel and elsewhere are blameless ...
... the 2,800 people who were reduced to dust in the Twin Towers five years ago were not responsible for their horrendous fate.
There are people who take apologies, mea culpas and any goodwill gestures towards them as weakness. As we know from the preposterous ‘Peace in our time!’ comment by Chamberlain, all those years ago, there are people with whom appeasement does not work. It didn’t work then; it won’t work now.
Monday, 11 September 2006
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You are absolutely right when you say that innocent people are blameless for their horrendous fate. I am trully saddened to remember this day. This was NOT a Dies Irae and anyone who attempts to present it in such a way is delusional.
ReplyDeleteI do hope, however, after all the repercussions resulting from this day, powers that be will cease the continuing bloodshed. Or else World War IV will indeed be fought with clubs and stones...
We live in the best of times. We live in the worst of times.
ReplyDeleteI'm not very hopeful for the future. I think it's getting worse by the minute - at least in Europe.
ReplyDeleteHelg, did I miss something? When was World War III?
Helg's 'clubs and stones' comment fits in with a theory I've got. It doesn't make anything right or wrong, but you know 'Gaia theory' - that the Earth is one living organism that will do whatever it needs to to protect itself? Well, I always assumed that that meant if global warming went too far there would be massive geological upheaval and mankind would be eliminated, thus leaving the earth to recover and some other mild-mannered species (sheep? herring? bunnies? the sea mouse?) to flourish quietly for a few billennia. But perhaps instead what Gaia wants is for a return to medieval times, with no technology, no oil-burning, no global economy, no internet, no travelling - just people living in little local enclaves, farming and fighting with clubs and stones. And Gaia would not care if women were oppressed, if tribes starved and were cast out, or if hypocrisy in the name of religion ruled, as long as no one was using up her resources. I don't mean to say 'this is our punishment', Bela, because I believe it is simply in the nature of mankind to try to make life more comfortable and pleasant, and that's what's so clever about the American constitution, that it recognises that. I would in fact personally prefer all of mankind to be eliminated in a meteorite strike, like the dinosaurs, than live in Gaia's new medieval world under the rule of extremists. But I don't think Gaia has a moral viewpoint, she just wants what she wants.
ReplyDeleteI agree. Apparently it's human nature to forget the past. Fanatics of any kind are bullies. Giving in or stepping back from the confrontation will not stop them. I think we're in the middle of the last world war. When you can download the how tos for making a nuclear weapon, the end will either be freedom or oblivion. On that happy note, have a great weekend.
ReplyDeleteL, the Gaia theory is wonderful and very frightening, but, then, Nature is mindless and cruel. We, with our big brains, are an aberration.
ReplyDeleteI hope you have a great weekend too, Talented Janey! (I wouldn't want to be the Pope today - as opposed to any other day, when I would want to be he, of course. LOL!)
(Late in explaining, so please forgive me, just saw this...)
ReplyDeleteOh, Bela, I wish I could claim that thought as my own, but it actually isn't.
It was Einstein who said: "I don't know how WW III will be fought, but WW IV will be fought with clubs and stones." He meant of course that with the advances in nuclear power, another world war would bring humanity back into the prehistoric times.
I was referring to that.
Hmm... a pair of well-placed inverted commas might have helped those of us who were not - to our shame - familiar with that wonderful Einstein quote.
ReplyDeleteVous avez raison, madame. Desolée.
ReplyDeleteHave a nice evening! :-)