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

Jade,
This is just a short note, I just feel I should contact you, and I pray that all those you know and love are safe and well after this horrifying disaster in New york and elsewhere.
we are all completely stunned at this terrible thing, here in the UK, and I would like to give you a hug of sorrow and solidarity over this horrible waste of human life. I will absolutely be observing the 3 minute silence at 11am tomorrow.

love and prayers to you all,
Kipper.

*smiles, hugs tight*

Thank you /so/ much, Kipper-sama. No one I know was involved, as I dom't have family in New York (Thank the Gods.) But I must asmit that I am still worried, because I have a cousin who is a high-ranking official in the military, and it's looking like he might have to go overseas. And I don't like that.

This is such a horrible thing. You grow up thinking (as an american) that wars are things that happen in other places. America is suposed to be the one safe place, and now I know that it isn't.

That frightens me.

But I am very glad that I have your support, and that the US has the support of the UK, and the UN, for that matter.

Thank you for being a wonderful friend,

Jade-chan

Hello dear Jade-chan.

Well, I am glad to hear that you have not lost any of your loved ones, but you know I still have a sick feeling in my stomach when you think of all those families (US and foreigners) who have been devastated. And those who _will_ lose their loved ones when military action finally comes.

You know, here in the UK we have been fighting a war (euphemistically called the "Troubles") against terrorists in Northern Ireland for 25 years now, so we know all about wars being close to home, indeed the town where I grew up was attacked by the IRA. So I have a very bad feeling about this war to come, it is not going to be simple or short.

I hope you don't take this the wrong way, but I also hope that this lets the American people realise that they are not separate from the rest of the countries in the world, and that their government can no longer do things which affect the rest of the world and then ignore the consequences, whether that is to do with conflicts in other places, or global warming, or whatever. They can no longer be so insular.

Well, I pray that we can all get through this, and that in the years to come we will have more peace and stability in this world. But I am also really apprehensive about the future.

Love, and hugs for you, Jade dear.

Kipper.

I just hope it doesn't turn out to be a war, but I know that it will. This felt too much like a suckerpunch. It's like whoever did this (BenLaudin or otherwise) is just waiting for us to go and do something stupid. Dubya is too damned dumb for it to turn out anything otherwise. I agree with our eyes needing to be opened, but did it have to be this devistating, really?

But anyway, thanks again, so much for your suport,

Jade

just thought i'd say hey! i'm alive here......

and in response to the comment about the US, i'd like to point out that a majority of the people that hate the US (namely the terrorist cells) are arabic and hate us for protecting Isreal after Britain decided they couldn't do it anymore...... so in some way we were cleaning up your mess, but that is simply nit picking......

good to see you guys again.

Why did they remove my post???

I didn't say anything bad!!!

Who knows? I wonder what they took offence at? I'm beginning to feel like I'm in "1984" with Big Brother looking over my shoulder. Oh well....

Anyway, with regard to Al-xai's comment about the Israeli/Palestinian conflict, as far as I understand, the reason some Arabs hate America is because they seem to have a pro-Israeli bias in their unstinting support for the Israelis; and the Israelis are hated (partly) because they have been oppressing (and killing) the Palestinians for years.
This is merely my opinion, of course. I'm no expert on the region. And I'll readily admit that the British kind of started off the problem by promising the one region (Palestine) to two groups of people.

Anyway I hope your post will soon be un-censored.

Kipper.

stupid moderation.....

I agree wholeheartedly, Xai. Trust me. We can't say anything anymore without it being censored by /someone./

And as for Kipper-sama: I havne't the slightest idea what set them off, but I do hope we can resolve it without killing too many innocent people, as we inevitably will. I'm not at all proud of this fact. I believe that this makes us just as bad as whomever did this, but I am resigned to the fact that things like that happen in wars. I'm not ever going to like it though.

Hello again Jade.
Well i see your post has been un-censored. I don't see anything in it that they could have taken as offensive, so it's stumped me a bit why it was. Still, I supposed that if we didn't have moderation on this site, it would inevitably begin to be contaminated with undesirable posts..... I read an unmoderated anime-related newsgroup - that is, about japanese cartoons - and it is always getting stupid spam posted there, or some jerk spouting asinine and offensive opinions about homosexual people. So total freedom of speech will always get abused by some people, I guess.

I must say, that I am feeling better about the way the US govt. is seeming to approach this awful situation in a more calm and measured manner than I had worried they might have done. It looks like military action against the terrorists in Afghanistan (maybe elsewhere too) is inevitable though, but I fervently hope that innocent civilians (in any country) do not become the victims in this conflict, because we all know that will only produce more anger against the West.

But I am very pleased to see that Bush has finally pressurised Sharon, and forced him to call a ceasefire, and to negotiate with the Palestinians. If we can get, by a miracle, peace between the Israelis and the Palestinians, then the whole world will be a safer place as a consequence. Well, that is what I think, and hope, anyway.

Let's hope that we can all get through this dark time soon. But to be honest, I have no idea of what the future holds for us. And that really worries me.

Hugs,
Kipper.

Kipper-sama:

Yes, Dubya surprised me, as well. But be that as it may, we are still taking military action, and our people and others are going to die for it. And I think that's just wrong. He said something to the effect of that this wasn't going to be a short campaign. It might take years.

I wanted to say to him, why? Why do our people have to die at the expense of mass stupidity of others? I don't get it.

My philosophy teacher seems to think that we're all (America, anyway) going to die before the next Star Wars movie is released. I dont' particularly agree, but I can see where he's coming from..

*Sigh*

Until next rant

Jade

The world used to have two superpowers: the USA and the USSR.
Now it only has one. Trouble is, the world is much too big a place
to be policed by just one country. It wasn't in the cards for the USA
to go for very long without another enemy materializing. Now we have
one again, but it's not a conventional government with ambassadors
that we can negotiate with. Bin Laden doesn't even admit to being
behind the acts of terrorism that occur--nor does anyone else.

Maybe it's not such a bad thing to have known enemies. They tell
you things you need to know, things that your friends might not tell
you out of fear of hurting your feelings.

Woah!

Where'd he come from?

...And the thing about "telling"?

Did they have to scream it at us, really? There are more peaceful ways to go about these things.

Forever the Friendly Neighbourhood Pacifist,

Jade

Sorry if I startled you, Jade.
I pop in and out of conversations
sometimes, like a .

Yeah, I know the atrocities were
more like screaming than telling.
They hope we will scream back.
Maybe we'll become mired in Afghanistan
like we got mired in Vietnam when I
was young.

As air travel becomes more hazardous,
I find myself deciding against a
vacation in the Caribbean this coming
winter. You can't get there by car.

Air travel is actually supposed to be getting safer, actually.
People aren't allowed much carry-on baggage, or personal CD players or walkmans, and a number of other things. So I really don't think you have very much to worry about when it comes to air travel.

Besides, if an incident were to break out on board, I think there would be more than a few patriots ready to jump up and kick the living daylights out of whoever was making a schene. I think that perhaps if the people on the planes knew their fates, there would have been much more resistance from the passengers.

-Jade