(no subject)

life floods
anger
sadness

this
[terrorism]
is not new to me

but it always
has made me angry
and
depressed

in Israel
such events
are frequent
and
usually
of smaller scale

not that
it makes it
any less
terrifying or
tragic

i have placed
my hands
[uselessly]
over the rent hole
of a terrorists bullet
trying to breathe life
by sheer will alone
into
broken deflated lungs

i am
not good at
being emotional

cold
calculated
excessively rational
is more
my style

how do we come to terms
with this bubbling
emotion

parts of me
wants to rage

to find those
who are responsible
to kill them
their families,
their families friends
the people who owed them money
flatten their houses
level their cities
sow salt into the
earth

other
parts
see the senseless
violence
not only in
yesterdays tragedy
but in
our souls
in response to it

and quite frankly
i do not
know how
to handle it.

How are you handling it?

reminds me of a set from "escape from New York"

post-apocalyptic new york

America: The Good Neighbor.

[what follows is the full text of an editorial broadcast from Toronto]
[by Gordon Sinclair, a Canadian television commentator. ]

"This Canadian thinks it is time to speak up for the
Americans as the most generous and possibly the least
appreciated people on all the earth.

Germany, Japan and, to a lesser extent, Britain and
Italy were lifted out of the debris of war by the
Americans who poured in billions of dollars and
forgave other billions in debts. None of these
countries is today paying even the interest on its
remaining debts to the United States.

When France was in danger of collapsing in 1956, it
was the Americans who propped it up, and their reward
was to be insulted and swindled on the streets of
Paris. I was there. I saw it.

When earthquakes hit distant cities, it is the United
States that hurries in to help. This spring, 59
American communities were flattened by tornadoes.
Nobody helped.

The Marshall Plan and the Truman Policy pumped
billions of dollars into discouraged countries. Now
newspapers in those countries are writing about the
decadent, warmongering Americans.

I'd like to see just one of those countries that is
gloating over the erosion of the United States dollar
build its own airplane. Does any other country in the
world have a plane to equal the Boeing Jumbo Jet, the
Lockheed Tri-Star, or the Douglas DC10? If so, why
don't they fly them? Why do all the International
lines except Russia fly American Planes?

Why does no other land on earth even consider putting
a man or woman on the moon? You talk about Japanese
technocracy, and you get radios. You talk about German
technocracy, and you get automobiles. You talk about
American technocracy, and you find men on the moon -
not once, but several times and safely home again.

You talk about scandals, and the Americans put theirs
right in the store window for everybody to look at.
Even their draft-dodgers are not pursued and hounded.
They are here on our streets, and most of them, unless
they are breaking Canadian laws, are getting American
dollars from ma and pa at home to spend here.

When the railways of France, Germany and India were
breaking down through age, it was the Americans who
rebuilt them. When the Pennsylvania Railroad and the
New York Central went broke, nobody loaned them an
old caboose. Both are still broke.

I can name you 5000 times when the Americans raced to
the help of other people in trouble. Can you name me
even one time when someone else raced to the Americans
in trouble? I don't think there was outside help even
during the San Francisco earthquake.

Our neighbors have faced it alone, and I'm one
Canadian who is damned tired of hearing them get
kicked around. They will come out of this thing with
their flag high. And when they do, they are entitled
to thumb their nose at the lands that are gloating
over their present troubles. I hope Canada is not one
of those."

Stand proud, America

(no subject)

To the passenger and crew
of
United Flight 93

who had the courage
to fight back
and
prevent their plane
from increasing
the tragedy of
Sept. 11th.
beyond its already
unimaginable scope

They paid with
their lives



for their actions

I salute them.