This is one of the best things I have read yet. Brilliant. We need more of this in all ways.

http://www.washtimes.com/commentary/20010919-6357240.htm
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From a friend of mine in Holland. Seems like things are reverberating over there in a bad way. I think we all need to relax and start meditating on not starting WWIII.
*******
How are you doing? Just came back from Linda’s apartment. Last night she gave a housewarming party and therefore I slept over there. Some good friends came over; it had been a while since the whole gang had been together so we all had a lot of catching up to do. Ofcourse America was still a major issue of discussion as well as the personal dramas in everyone’s life, but on the whole we had a great time. On Monday we’re getting together again. A friend is graduating and she’s throwing a party. I’m not in a party mood as such but it’s good to get your mind off things, you know?

Have you seen Bush’s speech? I have to say that I’m getting really scared. The royal Dutch Airlines will not fly as from next week, the international train to Paris (Thalys) is cancelled, and people are losing their jobs by the dozens. It his having such a big impact. Even at my work there is talk of cutting jobs, it’s just bizarre. And his whole jihad thing is just so scary. Most of the Middle East countries still support America, but how long will that last? If Afghanistan is attacked and a general jihad is announced all hell will break loose! To be a good Muslim you have to regard these 5 rules and one of them states that you have to follow the jihad, what if this turns into a Muslim vs. Non-Muslim war…very scary. People have also been arrested here in Holland in cities just 10 minutes from here. Tension here is definitely mounting. It just sucks that for all my worrying I can’t change a damn thing! I can worry my ass off but at the end of the day it won’t make a difference.

I’m just holding on to the so-called "simple things" in life, the family, my friends, you know?

I keep crying. Sadness, anger, worry about what happens next. And, I was having a hard time figuring out what it all means before this happened. It hasn't shed a lot of light on the question for me. I wish I could turn off the TV, but I am interested in the spin of it now. The unplanned moments of insight into people's thinking patterns and assumptions as they pour out in real time. The number of people missing in NY is already over 5,000. The smell is getting worse. Yes, the smell of decaying human flesh. The survivors telling their stories. The policeman (a Chinese-American I believe, Mr. Li - the multiculturalism of the country is so excellent and on display) who was rescued after 5 hours of being buried alive after watching people bouncing on the plaza. The building fell when he was on the 4th floor. He talked to his family from beneath the rubble, as did the firemen he was trapped with. He lost his canine partner in the disaster, but he saved hundreds of people. He said he would do it again. He said he was doing his job. And he was so grateful to the rescue company that saved him. And I am crying again, again. So many things crisscrossed for me on September 11th. I think things crisscrossed for all of us.

Below is an email I got, which increases my despair, but also seems extremely timely and important to read...

I do believe in America and in people. I believe there is a great chance that this will bring Americans, and the world perhaps, together in a way we have never been before. The tales of everyday heroism rising from the ashes are just the beginning of a display of bravery, solidarity, and I hope thoughtfulness that may be our generation's chance to show what fine stuff we're really made of... JB

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I never forward stuff unless it is REALLY interesting...I thought this was.
Hope you and yours are safe.

-----Original Message-----
From: Kelly
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 9:45 AM

hey everyone,

I am not a real fan of the big, "holier than thou" messages that have
been inundating my email account over the past week. But, I did
think that this one was worth passing along. Please feel free to
share with those of like minds or, better, with those who need a
little bit of ed-u-ma-ca-tin'.

Best wishes,
Kelly

PS NPR is reporting this morning that upwards of 85% of Americans
belief military action is called for in this case; 65% believe that
civilian casualties are an "appropriate risk".

>Dear Friends,
> The following was sent to me by my friend Tamim.
>Tamim is an Afghani-American writer. He is also one of the most
>brilliant
>people I know in this life. When he writes, I read. When he talks,
>I listen. Here is his take on Afghanistan and the whole mess we are
>in.
> -Gary T.
>
>
>Dear Gary and whoever else is on this email thread:
>
>I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan
>back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed
>that
>this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do
>with this atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral
>damage. What else can we do?" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit
>discussing
>whether we "have the belly to do what must be done."
>
>And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard
>because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35
>years
>I've never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell
>anyone who will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing.
>
>I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden.
>There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the
>atrocity in New York. I agree that something must be done about those
>monsters.
>
>But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're
>not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of
>ignorant
>psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is
>a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis.
>When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people
>of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps."
>
>It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this
>atrocity.
>They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult
>if someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the
>rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country.
>
>Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the
>Taliban? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated,
>
>suffering. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are
>500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy,
>no food. There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying
>
>these widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land
>mines, the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few
>of the reasons why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban.
>
>We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to
>the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of
>it already. Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level
>their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done.
>Eradicate
>their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off
>from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all
>that.
>
>New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would
>they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan,
>only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd
>slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled
>orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But
>
>flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against
>
>the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only
>be making common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people
>
>they've been raping all this time
>
>So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now
>speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is
>to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of "having the
>belly
>to do what needs to be done" they're thinking in terms of having the
>belly to kill as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral
>
>qualms about killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the
>sand.
>What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because
>some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan
>to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than that folks. Because
>to get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan.
>Would
>they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be
>first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going.
>
>We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West.
>
>And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly
>what he wants. That's why he did this. Read his speeches and
>statements.
>It's all right there. He really believes Islam would beat the
>West. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the
>world
>into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the West
>wreaks
>a holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing
>left to lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view.
>He's probably wrong, in the end the West would win, whatever that would
>mean, but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just
>theirs but ours. Who has the belly for that? Bin Laden does. Anyone
>else?
>
>Tamim

What to do? It's easy to react, but how shall we act? JB