The past few days

[Peg Kerr]

"Neil Ward" <neilward at dircon.co.uk> wrote:

>    Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 08:32:39 +0100
>    From: "Neil Ward" <neilward at dircon.co.uk>
> Subject: The past few days...
>
> I know several people have said this already, and it seems rather obvious to
> say it, but this tragedy has deeply affected many people outside the US.

Yes.  And you have no idea how much of a comfort it is to us in the U.S. to hear
that, to know that as we struggle through the days, frightened and bewildered,
we are not facing this . . . this MONSTROSITY alone, but the rest of the world
is gathering with us so that we can face it together.

One of the other emails lists I subscribe to is World Wide Recipes at
www.wwrecipes.com.  Get a recipe a day by email.  Run by a nice gentleman out of
Georgia, and has about 140,000 subscribers around the world.  Apparently, when
this happened, he received thousands of emails from people around the world, all
telling him (because he was the one American they knew) how sad and sorry they
were.  He's sent a sampling out of them out in his daily message, and I can't
tell you how comforting they are: message after message after message, from
India, England, Indonesia, Brazil, Australia, South Africa, Israel, Java,
EVERYWHERE, telling us, yes, we are with you, we are shocked and grieved, too,
you are not alone.  I cried as I read those messages, because they really helped
me see how much the whole world understands my hurt.

> Those horrific images are running through my mind as I write this and it
> doesn't feel right yet to try to file them away and move on, not that doing
> that would be easy.  I can hardly imagine what it must be like to be closer
> to all this than I am, here, in London.

It's dreadful.  I've been very sick, which hasn't helped.  Or oddly enough, it
did, because I had a prescription for cough syrup with codeine, and that helped
me sleep, and for that I was grateful the first two days.  Last night, I was
well enough to go without the cough syrup, and as a result, I got only about
three hours sleep.  This living nightmare would not let me sleep.

> The playing of the US National Anthem during the Changing of the Guard at
> Buckingham Palace made me cry as I watched it on the news.  I'm not the
> steeliest of men, but I had been unable to cry until that point, probably
> out of sheer disbelief at what had happened.

I cried a little, a very little the first day, before I heard that my brother in
Manhattan was safe.  I've cried a little over some of the newspaper reports.
But I keep waiting for some huge wrenching cathartic sobs to come--god knows I
feel enough grief to justify them--but even though I think they might help, and
I WANT them to come, I just can't cry like that.  Still too numb.

My eight year old daughter is showing signs of stress.  We have not let her
watch any television, but it's impossible to hide everything from her: her
classmate's uncle died at the Pentagon. And she has seen a few things in the
papers (bits about heroic rescuers, support from around the world, etc., without
showing her pictures), although I hid the first one from her.  (Note: as I typed
that very last sentence, she came out of her bedroom an hour after her bedtime
saying that she can't sleep.  Brief break for hugs and reassurances.)

> The friendship in this group has been something to treasure over the past
> few days.  The advance of technology has allowed us a small world within our
> world that has strengthened the ties between us.

Absolutely.  I am so grateful for my friends on this list.

> I hope the human race can
> now advance and eradicate terrorism, war, prejudice and hatred.  I hope
> against hope that it can do that.
>
> Neil
>

I sent a card of support today to the Islamic Center of Minnesota, where I
live.  Just saying, I know your community is anxious right now, but please
believe that your deep faith will pull you through, and know that people of
other faiths will stand shoulder to shoulder with you, as we face this together.

Also, I wanted to pass on the best idea I heard all day, from a friend on
another list, Roz Kaveney (actually, her email originates from the UK, too).

"As for the question of a fitting memorial for all those who died, a
memorial that will not just perpetuate the politics of hate in the Third
and Islamic Worlds, I have a proposal. Create scholarships, one each named
after the victims of Tuesday, to provide poor children all over those
parts of the world most in need with high school education followed by
training in medicine, civil engineering and maybe a few other things. An
Operation Headstart for the Third World would actually help reduce poverty
and remove that foreignness and alienness which is one of the reasons for
hatred. We need to change the world, and an act of imaginative kindness to
those who think they have a reason to hate us would be a start.

If you agree with this, write to every influential person you know...."


Peg


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