We are dedicating this page to the friends and families of those killed or injured during the cowardly attack on an innocent American civilian population on 9/11/01; also to the rescue workers and volunteers who have given so much of themselves to help during this tragedy - some have given all.

"Not every day of our lives is overflowing with joy and celebration. But there are moments when our hearts nearly burst within us for the sheer joy of being alive. The first sight of our newborn babies, the warmth of love in another's eyes, the fresh scent of rain on a hot summer's eve - moments like these renew in us a heartfelt appreciation for life." 

~ Gwen Weising ~

-----Original Message-----
From: Anna Davis 
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 3:49 PM
To: jazzlpsp
Subject: Home of the Brave


I found that this picture by "James Natchtwey" for "Time Magazine" and it really moved me. It just seemed so profound! The words from the "Star Spangled Banner" came to my mind. So this is what I have created.
(The font was created by http://www.katzgraphix.com )

huggggggs AnnaD

From Lady Starlite of Garden of Friendship

Note:  This is a letter/answer between two friends who disagree with each other.  I also disagree with the first letter - but, respect his right to his opinion.  I am in favor of free and open discourse and that is why his letter is on this page.

I think he is either very naive or an utter fool.  But, he has a right to feel and believe the way he does. 

September 13, 2001



Dear Friends,
This seems to be a good time to write and share my thoughts with you. There seems to be so much to say and at the same time so little, yet I am certain that healing can only begin by communicating what we think and feel, now.

Like everyone else, I seem to be on a wave, moving from terror and confusion to love and caring. I am trying to use my intellect to sort out my emotions and to chose which I want to live with now. I wish we could have a community forum where we could all say what we are thinking and feeling and, through that, begin to heal and make our way into the future again. 

It is clear that there is a response which will prove to be non productive of any improvement: "Let's go get those people and make them pay and pay for what their friends did." It is well to take a cause and effect look, so let's get as long a view here as possible. The government of this country
has played arms merchant to the world, has destabilized governments and economies, has committed acts of terrorism.

We, the people, are utterly uninformed until later, when it all comes out or when the United Nations produces a study showing who is selling how many bombs and guns to whom. We suffer with a government which has promoted international terrorism for an awfully long time now, in the guise of making the world safer for international capitalism. The smokescreen of conventional politics, pretending that we have choice, has been seen by most of us for awhile as a scam and so we say "politics as usual" and turn away, voting for the least bad of the bad choices.

Meanwhile, the whole world suffers the brunt of our government's covert operations, aimed at producing cheap labor or gaining cheap materials. So, now we have the result of the activities which our government has indulged in, the chickens have come home to roost. 

You don't produce weapons of mass destruction and send them to anybody who wants them, without them falling on your own head. Anyone who has spent forty years walking down the street hurting everybody who is different is bound to have earned a lot of enemies. At some point, even the biggest baddest dude on the street is going to meet with an unpleasant surprise. It's called cause and effect: You cause enough pain and, after awhile, someone is going to finally say stop. 

That somebody will have a whole lot of sympathy from a whole lot of people, who have also been hurt. Thus, the United States government today is hated and feared, not out of some vacuum or imagination but because of what our country has stood for and done unto others, for altogether too long. 

Delusional thinking won't change that fact. Our country isn't hated because it has broadcasted love, it is hated because it has exported hatred. Never in my lifetime have I felt a wider gap between the American people and their government. We are all victims now. Furthermore, our government, the
reigning king of nasty covert operations, has failed to protect its people from the consequences of its decisions. All of the expensive intelligence gathering has failed to protect us from the rage which has built up outside our borders and which now has entered our country. So, we pay for the covert operations with our hard earned tax dollars. 

Furthermore, we pay for any terrorism which comes from the Middle East by our addiction to petroleum products. How blind we are kept, that we don't know what Washington is up to. How ironic that we buy oil, flooding the Middle East with our money which is then used to terrorize us. We fund Washington playing bully and we also fund and receive the consequences. We can continue to export terrorism and rely on oil and require violence for violence and we will all die violently. Or, we can finally say there is another way. We can actually learn from, rather than merely react to, what has happened here.

Our government should immediately start developing green energy sources: solar, photovoltaics and wind, thus putting the oil cartel on alert that THIS is what we are going to do now. 

Secondly, we should start shutting down the arms industry, thus indicating that we realize the futility of the continuation of the arms race. To say this is foolishness is to say that we want more terror, more of the fear and confusion which you and I are experiencing today. We really don't have a choice now. However, unless the people who agree with this position make it abundantly clear, we will sink into a cycle of retribution and revenge which will prove to produce much, much worse than the tragedy at the World Trade Center.

America will never be the same. America can, however, learn and change its patterns. Too late? Would you have said too late in 1945 when we dropped that extra bomb on Japan, just to be sure it really worked? What would the world be like now if, in 1946, the people of the United States had said, "We
have to get out of this now, it will come back to haunt us someday?" It's never too late. In fact, it's really about time.

Never in my lifetime have I felt the gap to be wider between the American people and their government. By standing up and requiring that we learn and change rather than hate and kill, we, the people may actually move that government into changing. 

Look into your hearts today and see what your vision for your future is and then speak it in your home, in your workplace, with your friends. We are at a time of great change: When much is dying, much is being born. 

With love to you, Alan

Dear Alan,

This is surely one of the saddest times for our country. You have known me for over 40 years, though I don't know if you have ever pegged my politics or not. I don't even know that I have either. Never liked it. I just feel what I feel.

Though I don't disagree with you that our forefathers have done terrible wrongs during the formation of our country and culture (and it surely continues today), I have to look at my life as well as those lives around me, and evaluate this country as best I can. 

I have to count my blessings: 

I believe that the USA is the best country on the planet. (Please don't vomit. I know it's corny. I just feel it's true). Lot's of room for improvement, granted.

There is more benevolence and love here than in any other country. 

The nations (or factions) who hate us most have built their way of life around their hatred. They teach the hatred. And this is the saddest part. Their children are being taught to hate. Sadly, they cannot be un-taught. Isolationism would have only short term benefits to our country, and long term detriment to many other regions of the world. 

I truly believe that if it were not for the US intervention, this world would have millions fewer people, due to wars. I know, I know. We may have stacked the dominoes in the first place many years ago with our misguided actions, but history is history. We have what we have. What do we do now? How do we move forward? Do we just say "Never mind. You guys go about your business. We'll just sit over here and watch."? I truly believe that would result in the end of civilization in at least 3 regions of the earth. Maybe all of them. Like it or not, we are the world's peacekeepers.

Freedom is something we take for granted. But isn't freedom the best thing? Everybody should have it. But they don't. Why not? I don't understand. Those countries at the other end of the freedom spectrum are far more oppressed by their governments than we are. And they have little chance of changing that. Particularly when they are convinced that their misery is caused by others.

I can, believe it or not, identify with the struggle of a people without resources. Terrorism and guerilla warfare are the only ways such a people can battle the behemoth. They do not have the weapons to fight stronger nations. The tactics they use are successful because they have dispensed with the largest impediment: respect for life. Theirs or others. 

We all know that war means death. Search your heart to know the answer to this question: If you asked everyone in America if they would choose to spare all innocents in a war, would they? I believe the overwhelming majority would say yes. Those who are attacking us now are targeting innocents by rationalizing that all Americans are guilty. I'm sorry, but there is just no way that is right. Even when our country did the unthinkable, A-bombing Japan, there was no rejoicing at the deaths of civilians. It is an action that has been mourned by us to this day. 

This strike against US civilians is being celebrated by its perpetrators and their misguided followers. I have a lot of trouble being sympathetic towards those followers, yet still, I am. Because they are misguided, not evil. And the perpetrators will hide amongst innocents in order to force us to be like them, in order to retaliate. 

Our political system is the shits. Loaded with scum and incompetents, and outright crooks. But there is no way you are going to convince me that any nation, in the middle east in particular, has a better system. No way would I live under such governments as those. And the peoples of those countries shouldn't either. Yet they are powerless. At least we can elect a different schmuck if we don't like the one we have.

I don't know what to do. I wish I did. I don't like being hated. And I don't like to hate. But the fury I feel right now saddens me because I am beginning to lose respect for human life. These terrorists are forcing me to accept the murder of
innocents as a consequence of war. That can't be a good thing. I wish that they had a better life. They, on the other hand, wish that mine were as miserable as theirs. I like my wish better than theirs.

-Bruce

An Historical footnote for those who have no perspective on WWII and the atomic bomb.  

The bomb was NOT dropped on Japan to see if it would work.  It was dropped on Japan to END the war which Japan started.

My husband was on his way to fight in the invasion of Japan.  Had that invasion happened, he very likely would not have survived.

The Japanese people were conditioned to fight to the last man, woman, and child to protect their homeland.  Our fighting men already had years of experience fighting against this fanatical enemy.  

The people who planned the invasion of Japan figured the casualties would be in the multi-millions.  It was a horrendous thing to contemplate.

And so they dropped the two bombs on Hiroshima and Nagasaki.  Thus putting an end to the war with casualties of "only" thousands.

I, for one, am very grateful that my husband did not have to fight the invasion of Japan.  And so also, should the citizens of that nation be grateful.  Because the casualty figures in the multi-millions included the citizens of their nation. 

We have a news media which is determined to fashion history in their biased perspective.  They no longer report the news - they make the news and shape it to their own ends.

Thus, today we have people like Alan who have no idea why we dropped two atom bombs on Japan.  And think we are horrible people for having done so.  

We didn't start that war.  But, we ended it.