Posted by parhad (158.252.208.139) on October 05, 2001 at 01:37:44:
I can't help but think of the poor people of the Middle East who have endured their suffering with such grace all these years, compared to the way the Americans are yowling and yelping now. One fellow said death would be too good for "those people"...that they should be locked in a small cage and be forced to watch home movies of birthdays and weddings and anniversaries of all the people who were killed in the Towers for ever and ever.
Do these people really think a Palestinian mother doesn't have feelings of love and affection for her daughter? Does an Iraqi father not cherish memories of his son's wedding? Do Iraqi's not weep and mourn the loss of loved ones...who cries in outrage over all those innocent children in Iraq killed, starving...can you imagine hearing a baby crying from hunger and not be able to feed it, or quiet it...distract it, but only hope it quiets down out of exhaustion only to wake up crying even harder?
Just when did the world declare open season on the Iraqi people? For what? Is Iraq, is Afghanistan a democracy, like Germany was when they voted Hitler into office? Aren't the people of those countries innocent, do they have a voice in choosing their government...did Americans have a voice in electing this president?
Every time some American expresses outrage that his country, his flag, his home, his family, his way of life...have been attacked , I imagine an Iraqi or Palestinian saying those very same things. Something still sounds horribly "off" in all the analysis the common people make over here of what happened and why. They still don't "get it". They want to believe there is an "Evil" force that works independently of any Human impact...just exists as "evil incarnate"...and that nothing any of us has done helped bring this day about...what about all the talk of personal reponsibility...how can Americans feel so smug and justified, how can they think they can meddle at will where they want, talk of the "acceptable" levels of suffering others must endure when they themselves are so sensitive to pain and react in such shock to fear and anxiety? What gave them this sense of entitlement, like rich kids who don't really think of others, of the Poor, as quite human, with all the same feelings of joy and fear and pain?
If they go on like this they will only invite more of the same...the world will not tolerate this rich kid much longer...and there are signs that more thoughtful people have awakenned and are at least asking..."why do they hate us so"
I can tell you why...so can many many people around the world and it has nothing to do with "envy" or "evil". It has to do with what, "goes around, comes around".