NEWS & VIEWS

In silence, and with humble respect for the lamps that were their lives, and with sympathy for those who miss and mourn them still, I pause to honor the almost 2,800 individuals who died one year ago this Wednesday in the World Trade Center devastation, and those others who were slain at the Pentagon or disclosed their courage over Pennsylvania fields on that selfsame morning.

On this anniversary, I think it better to remember what many of us have spent a dozen months endeavoring to forget. There was, a year ago, a rawness that drove us awake to a degree that rarely happens in modern life, disturbs us in its honesty, and is never long sustained. In recollection of this stark clarity, I offer the two Special Issues of The E-List that I published on September 13 and 18, 2001. The first contains my thoughts on the day after the attacks. Other than a minor factual error or two, I believe it stands the test of time. The second, which still moves me each time I reread it, is filled primarily with a sampling of letters I had received from all over the world — from every inhabited continent. I received literally hundreds of emails in those first few days. Their generosity of spirit astounded me.

In contrast, my invitation for readers of The E-List News to submit their thoughts and feelings for inclusion in this anniversary Special Issue was met with nearly no responses at all. Furthermore, each of the few people who offered something for publication actually sent me something someone else had created. No one offered their own words. Perhaps nobody had any left. The contrast to this time last year is stunning.

E-List News reader Ed Redman did send a powerful visual image that I want to share with you. Reportedly, it is an aerial photograph of the “ground zero” former World Trade Center site taken from an aircraft filled with members of the 101st Airborne Division — the famed “Screaming Eagles” — who were en route to Afghanistan. Until this occasion, I am told, no aircraft had been allowed to fly over the area since September 11. The captain wanted to give these soldiers a reminder of why they were going into battle. I think it can serve as a reminder to us of many things:

So much honoring in silence. So much feeling in the vaccuum of words. But we must find our words as well.

This week, as we conclude our nation’s year of mourning, we must, with unshakable resolve, concentrate our attention, our passion, our intelligence, and our bravery to our highest duty in the defense of freedom and democracy. By this I do not mean the proposed military actions of which we shall surely hear so much in the days ahead. No, by our highest duty in the defense of freedom and democracy, I mean the dialogue and debate which must precede the “midterm” congressional elections that are less than two months away. In our season of sorrow we have foregone the passionate battles of the really substantive issues that sit, cold and stiffening, on our national plate. Today, too many are hungry for us to permit such left-overs to remain unwarmed.

Debate and the noble standing of a loyal opposition have been stiffled for months by the fear of those presently in the minority even to appear in any way at odds with the sad, sickened, and horrified feelings of the masses. My own politics do not particularly matter to the point I am making (though you’ll hear plenty about them shortly anyway). You don’t necessarily need to hear my real feelings about the thieving clown prince who presently presides over the Executive Committee managing this country in the four-year interregnum between legally elected Presidents. Ah, but I bet that last sentence got a response from most of you — of one kind or another! Good. Because neither my views alone, nor yours alone, probably matter to either of us so much as does the fact that we can, in this country, hold utterly opposed views and raise our voices freely in their expression! Sanity and decency demand, in times like these, that we all claim and grant to each other our common birthright: to care, with all our hearts and souls, what happens next.

Let us raise our voices, then! Let things be said that people have been either too afraid or too polite to say for the last year! It is the scope and diversity of opinion from which come the choices we make collectively, but which can only truly be our collective choice when every voice is offered and heard.

Seeking a soap box may be grand-standing; but having a soap box and refusing to stand on it and speak in times such as these is simply irresponsible and, to me, unconscionable.

I primarily vote as a Democrat because my values and choices are most closely reflected by a majority of the candidates of the Democratic party. Yet I must express my shame at their timid silence this year, their seemingly fearful refusal to appear to challenge or to be truly a force of opposition. Can this change in the next two months? Politicial expediency is the toxin tolerated in the blood of politics. Fortunately, the same window of expedient opportunity has enabled figures in the Republican leadership, such as Trent Lott, to raise their own voices of dissent.

We must not be motivated by hatred or fear, nor use them to justify the invasion of a sovereign nation and the deposition of its leader, no matter how good the excuse sounds. Dubya wouldn’t look good in a little black moustache (and, face it, that is how we collectively characterize any head of state who would undertake such an invasion). Sure, I don’t want a nuclear-armed Iraq either; but we must find a different means to our goal. Do I have an easy alternative to recommend? No. There are no easy choices or easy answers, only hard ones.

We simply must not be moved by hatred or fear. After all, that is what the terrorists wanted from the beginning. That is why they’re called “terrorists,” right?

My friend Tom Koch uses, as his signature block, the phrase, “Awareness is free.” I wonder, though, how many are willing to pay that high of a price for it.

Over half a dozen of the greatest Republican diplomatic minds of the last 30 years have raised their voices in recent weeks to stand against a military invasion of Iraq and, especially, to explain that we must know, going in, that we would be committing no less than 10 years to armed presence and active war. Were I to use the same fear-inspiring tactics that I disdain, I would ask if every mother and father of a son currently between 8 and 20 years of age is willing to commit him to the virtual certainty of a front row seat to a Mid-East reenactment of Vietnam.

But I needn’t mobilize fear to raise that question. I need merely invoke a parent’s love.

I am sure that I have written too much. I am sure that I have written not enough. I pray that I have done no less than stir you, in whatever way your own nature and values may lead you. I pray that I have driven you to action either because you love what I have said, or because you hate what I have said, or, perhaps, because you just think I’m too damned stupid to be allowed to have the last say. Whatever. Lift up your voices! Engage the debate! Exercise your power of choice in this autumn’s political process. Our strength is in the virility of our exercise of conscience, the courage of our convictions, and the integrity of our spiritual power, not in how really cool our missiles look on CNN.

With uplifted voice, and humbled by the lamps that were their lives, and with sympathy for those who miss and mourn them still, I have paused to honor those who died in the World Trade Center devastation and at the Pentagon and over Pennsylvania fields on September 11, 2001. They deserve a great and lasting memorial. Nothing local. Nothing small. I suggest that we build our nation and our world into a living memorial that, perhaps, would have earned their pride.

PS — As I was finishing this article, my friend Jon Kennedy sent me a link for the moving (8 MB!) Flash presentation Attacked 9 1 1. (This link takes you to a page that has several mirror sites linked. Let’s don’t all hit the same one, okay? <g>) In the profound horror of the memories evoked, it emerges a beautiful, stirring tribute (especially if you like Enya’s musical accompaniment). Thanks, Jon.

PPS — Because I have no wish for The E-List News to turn into an e-newsletter devoted to political discourse and debate, I do not expect to be publishing responses to this issue. However, I have created a “9/11 Anniversary” discussion forum on AumHa Forums. I expect to leave it up for one month (until my birthday). Please feel at liberty to make free use of it for your thoughts and feelings on this subject.

Respectfully submitted,

Jim Eshelman

THE NECESSARY LEGAL STUFF
DISCLAIMER: Any information given in this newsletter, or on any other part of the Windows Support Center Web site, is researched by me and believed to be accurate. However, I cannot guarantee, and do not guarantee, that all the information provided will work on all computer systems, for all users, all the time. Also, I sometimes make mistakes (that’s life!), and it is possible I made one or more of them here. All information herein is offered as-is and without warranty of any kind. In other words, I rely on the best information sources I can, but you take your life in your own hands if you trust me on it. Neither James Eshelman, this site, outside contributors to this site, people quoted on this site, nor my cat is/are responsible for any loss, injury, or damage, direct or consequential, resulting from application of any information presented here.

The E-List News. Copyright © 2002 by James A. Eshelman. All Rights Reserved.