h2g2 The Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy: Earth Edition

Violence and hate are neither left-wing nor right-wing. Neither is God, whatever you conceive hir to be.

I may be finding it difficult to remain a pacifist, but I will not yield.

184310,

You speak of leftist politics. While I no longer consider myself a communist, having stepped just a little bit to the right of that position, I am politically still to the left of most people who label themselves socialist.

Let's take all nationalism out of it. A crime has been committed. That crime is the murder of probably thousands of people. I speak of the passengers in the hijacked airplanes and the people in the twin towers. The people in the Pentagon were also killed, including any number of civilian employees. My grief includes them as well. Had that been the only target, and had the weapon not been a civilian airplane, I could acknowledge that the pentagon is a legitimate military target.

As a citizen of Earth, I want the murderer(s) identified, captured, tried, and imprisoned or executed. Not because 'my country' was attacked. Not out of nationalism. Murder is murder. The world is a dangerous place when mass murders are at large.

I grieve for all or victims of this crime, just as I will grieve for the civilian victims of American agression should the United States use this as an excuse to start a war, as I fear it will.

NBY

Amazon claims that people have already given 1.4 million just through them. I know they got five bucks (not much, but if everyone gave just that much that's a lot of money) from me.

Well, it's the evening of the 12th. I've heard numerous bomb threats and scares; Lincoln Plaza in Dallas (Texas) was evacuated because somebody saw two men put a package in the trunk of a car. In an elementary school in Forest Hill, two bombs were found, and a man wearing a robe had a third bomb taped to his chest.

Already a mosque has been shot at. Several Muslim businesses have been vandalized. We can continue to expect more of this idiotic behavior in the next two weeks.

Why are we showing so much hatred toward individuals who had nothing to do with this? It's as morally wrong as their hatred of Americans for the policies of their country.

People have been worried about the U.S. starting a war. I'm thinking that we don't know who to throw bombs at yet. It's a little early to start worrying about military action. What happens when we do find out who's responsible? Do we attack? Do we ask for custody of the criminals responsible? I guess I'll have to wait and see.

I hope that:

This attack will polarize the world community. In the U.S, I expect that petty party-line bickering will cease. We'll stop seeing a conflict between UN decisions and Congress. The world governments will band together against terrorism, and this will be the beginning of a true world order.

I fear:

Muslim/Arab internment camps. After Pearl Harbor, the Japanese were rounded up and put in internment camps in California, even those who were third or fourth-generation Americans. I fear that the same will happen here. It'll ostensibly be for 'protection,' but the real reason will be so that the U.S. government can keep an eye on them.

The Palestinian celebrations really shocked me. For years now, American television has shown us the images of death and destruction in Palestine, Iran and Afghanistan. We've grieved for their losses. Now, I see Palestinian women dancing in the streets, smiling and clapping their hands because innocent civilians have died. What is this? It tells me that truly, our cultures are very different.

I spent almost an hour last night watching the sky. I have never been able to look at the night sky and not see a plane. At the time, I wished I could enjoy the stars without technology imposing itself. Now the sky is empty of all but stars, and it scares me.

Lentilla

Lentilla, I've said a lot about this in many different places, but just on that particular topic... have you looked at that footage closely, particularly the one with the woman and children? Have a look in the background, what do you see? You notice that there's only a few people dancing, and all of these people in the background with bemused looks on their faces, like anyone gets when they see someone ridiculously mugging at the camera. I doubt the kids even know what's going on, probably just think it's a bit of fun dancing. I agree with what you're saying - but beware of what the media is showing you. There are always groups of people, in any country, who rejoice over or take advantage of the misfortunes or deaths of others. They are vastly, vastly outweighed by the people who do not. That doesn't mean that we should not be sickened by images such as that, but we should not condemn a culture because of their actions. It would be as bad as assuming that all Americans are going to be mistreating people of the Islamic faith withinthe United States. Neither is the case.

We were watching T.V. here in Oz when it all occured (about 11pm Tuesday night here) ... we couldn't believe it and have been glued to the T.V. for news since. Are there any researchers in N.Y. and Washington and are they OK?
To anyone affected please accept my and my partner's deepest sympathy.
Bran.

We are accounting for New York and Washington researchers in this thread. It seems thayt everybody seems to be okay so far, which is a silver lining to these black clouds: http://www.bbc.co.uk/h2g2/guide/F76594?thread=140770

shea and NYC student are in NY - they're both okay. witty moniker is in NJ, she's okay. those are all i know.

Hi King C of B

I agree with your take on the footage of those rejoicing and dancing about.. you're quite correct, there seem to be a number of people in the background with uncertain looks on their faces.. perhaps they are more representative.. I believe so, anyway.

Hi Bran

So far I have not heard of any lost researchers, but there have been a few who have lost some friends and relatives, one I believe was actually a passenger on one of the hijacked aircraft..

Peace

I hope you're right; they'll undoubtedly show that footage again. (and again, and again.) Yassir Arafat has expressed condemnation of the celebrations which occurred, and looked sincere.

if he didn't, can you imagine what might happen to him? tactical nukes, zeroing in on his head....

i think that's why no terrorist group has claimed it yet. the american public and the government are P****D. to claim the incident would be to /beg/ to be annihilated.

Most of the people in that footage are children too young to appreciate how inappropriate their actions are.

It would be interesting to know from which country the camera person came from

Political views be damned. This is about innocent people dying for a cause they did not choose.

The Empire State Building and Penn Station were just evacuated. There appears to be some sort of threat.

I am so saddened by all this; I feel almost ashamed of my happiness that MY friends are OK when so many others are not.

I am also scared: More disturbing than the report from the researcher in Texas who reports reprisals against Arabic people (have we learned NOTHING from the shameful treatment of Japanese-Americans in WWII??), is the statement from John Ashcroft, Attorney General of the US, to the effect that we can expect to "give up some of our personal freedoms to make America safe".

Which ones, I wonder? The Right of Free Speech perhaps, or the Right of Free Assembly? How about the freedom and security of our own homes, is that what I have to give up? Or only my right to vote as I please that they require?

Very troubling.

SC

I think you are probably right about that. But I think that the response would not have been quite so strong if only the Pentagon had been hit. Bear with me here. We have all seen in the past that we are willing to not ignore, exactly, but not get all fired up about attacks on MILITARY targets. Look at the bombing of the USS Cole, or even, to some degree, the attacks on the US embassies in Africa (although that was probably cause more by the fact that virtually no Americans were killed), or other similar things. If only the Pentagon had been hit, there would still be a lot of anger because of the civilians on the plane and in the Pentagon, but we would be counting our blessings that it was only one or two hundred people killed, in a similar way that we are now glad, in a sad way, that UA 93 hit the ground in rural Pennsylvania instead of a target on the east coast. Another 50 people are dead in that crash, but that doesn't seem like all that much with the hit of the twin towers. And that is my point. What has really gotten us all so very angry is the huge amount of possible victims--we don't know how many, but I think that it's safe for all of us to think that it could easily be in the thousands--and the fact that they were all civilians. Of course we would still be very angry if it had just been the Pentagon. But at least the numbers we would be looking at wouldn't be so very, very high.

Maybe John Ashcroft is hinting that America is going to stop undermining United Nations resolutions and perhaps he is signalling a move to a more even-handed Middle East policy and its impact on American fuel prices.

Maybe John Ashcroft is hinting that America is going to stop undermining United Nations resolutions and perhaps he is signalling a move to a more even-handed Middle East policy and its impact on American fuel prices.

Deadly force may not deter all sucidal zealots, but the dead ones will sure be prevented from doing anything.

We have to be careful that we don't throw away our rights in this nation in the name of revenge. We should prosecute the people who did this. We should make war on any nation who prevents us from prosecuting the cuprits. We should not blame the innocent muslims in our country or abroad.

We can't let the Bill of Rights burn along with the World Trade Center!

*removes Goo beret and looks at it listlessly, then throws it as far as she can manage* There.

I am totally shocked and horrified at what happened just yesterday in New York, in my very own country. We had come to believe that we were big enough to handle any threat, and we have been proved wrong in the most horrible way.

I do not live on the east coast, or anywhere nearby, but my heart goes out to all those who do, and to all those directly affected by the attack in any way. I cannot believe that the cruelty and heartlessness of some few people could cause so much pain and suffering. But believe it we must, for it is true.

s for all





Sylvia Viridian