the peace train

cyber-words from a wild world...

Since the day that America was attacked - I've received many e-mails from pals sharing their thoughts and experiences. I've also received quite a few missives written by strangers - but forwarded by friends.

Together - they make up a patchwork of feelings about this terrible event that has shaken all of us.

There are some I wanted to share with my friends and others. Rather than endlessly forward e-mails - I have gathered a few together on this page. If you want to write to any of the folks who have written these words - just e-mail me (martin@martinlewis.com) and I'll forward your comments.

I will keep updating this page as and when I receive these cyber-postcards from the edge.

It was the former Cat Stevens - now Yusuf Islam - who sang "Oh baby baby it's a wild world..." It is indeed. (Yusuf has posted a very heartfelt message about this tragedy on the premier fan site dedicated to him http://www.catstevens.com) Maybe Yusuf who has experienced both the Western and Islamic worlds can come up with something to help bridge this seemingly unfathomable gap between two cultures hell-bent on meltdown. Now would be a good time for a "Peace Train." Hence the address of this webpage. Climb on this Peace Train - and please share it with others.

Shalom... Salem... Peace...

Martin

To start this Peace Train rolling - here is Yusuf Islam's message

September 12th, 2001 - Message From Yusuf Islam

I wish to express my heartfelt horror at the indiscriminate terrorist attacks committed against innocent people of the United States yesterday.

While it is still not clear who carried out the attacks, it must be stated that no right thinking follower of Islam could possibly condone such an action: the Qur'an equates the murder of one innocent person with the murder of the whole of humanity.

We pray for the families of all those who lost their lives in this unthinkable act of violence as well as all those injured; I hope to reflect the feelings of all Muslims and people around the world whose sympathies go out to the victims at this sorrowful moment.

Yusuf Islam

Virginia is a feisty New Yorker. She wrote me this on Tuesday evening - Day One.

Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 19:52:08
From: Virginia

Dear Martin:

I am so proud to be a New Yorker. Everybody is calm and together, there is no vandalism whatsoever, everybody is helping everybody else in whatever way they can, people are lined up around the block at Hospitals to donate blood - the police, firemen, EMS, the Red Cross, the Mayor (who almost bought it) have been calm, determined, fast, smart and caring. The city's official response has been amazing. Strangers are giving other strangers money who lost their wallets and bags in the blast, citizens are walking into Hospitals saying "What can I do to help".

Everybody walked over bridges, etc. to get out of lower Manhattan in an orderly fashion stopping to help their neighbors who needed it.

My heart swells with pride.

This is an unimaginable disaster. When I watched the Towers fall, I physically felt like I had been kicked in the stomach. When I realized there were 150 passengers on the two AA flights, I threw up. My astonished admiration for the pilots is beyond words. I have no doubt that the Pittsburgh crash was on purpose to save more lives at whatever other major site was to be destroyed. It could have been the Sears Tower, Disneyland or on its way back here. We may never know. I know no AA or United pilot would have done it with even with a gun at his head. I weep for those 150 souls - they were the only ones that saw it coming on top of the terror of being hijacked. My assistant Richard said that this was the worst day in American History. He could be right. Everybody at Star File are fine.

It is beyond a miracle Florence got out. The 2nd plane crashed directly into her office on the 78th floor. She got out of the office through the debris, down a staircase, dodged the collapse and walked barefoot from the WTC to my office, which was the only place she could think of to go to. Thank God Ken was there. He and Linda took her to the hospital, where the cops, doctors, nurses and other patients were calm, professional and caring at looked after her immediately . Her Aunt's car (which travelled on the sidewalks) made it to the hospital and she was safely delivered into the hands of her family. I told her that every day of her life from this moment forward it a gift. It is.

In the next few days, every person here will be touched by the news that somebody they care has was lost. Ken said there were body bags everywhere at St. Vincents.

I watched all of it live on TV. I had gotten up early to vote and saw it all happen. A defining moment in all our lives.

Bless my fellow New Yorkers. They are magnificent. This certainly won't stop New York. It just slowed us down for a few hours. I am so proud this is my city.

Love,
GINNY

I wrote back and asked her for more details about her friend Florence. Her response includes a reference to "wearing my 'New York City' shirt. Bob gave me one the same week John got his." Virginia works with noted rock photographer Bob Gruen - who gave John Lennon his famous "New York City" tee-shirt - and then photographed him in it.

Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 21:09:50
From: Virginia

Dear Martin:

Florence Jones is the only black female Eric Clapton fan I know. We met at the Royal Albert Hall a decade ago.

At St. Vincents, after the exam, with the psych consular (sp again), she said "Oh, my - I've lost my rolodex".....A woman after my own heart.

She watched co workers die in flames and dive out of the window (78th floor). She and her surviving co workers passed up four staircases that were covered in debris and unpassable paths before the 5th offered a way out. They walked down (better than up!). She was getting triage (sp!) and oxygen as the first tower started falling. They ran just like the crowd scenes in a "Godzilla" movie. Life was much scarier than fiction. She then, barefoot (her shoes were blown off in the explosion) and with cuts everywhere (retina, arms, lets, etc. etc, pocketbook gone forever) walked the mile and a half to Star File then collapsed . When Ken and Linda got her to St. Vincents, which was ground zero, ahead of a thousand patients, Ken told the cop in charge:

"She was on the 78th floor". Everybody said "help this woman" and the very professional, compassionate staff got her in IMMEDIATELY. My neighbors are the best in the world. I honor every one. From the Mayor to the average man on the street. Tomorrow, when I go to work I am wearing my "New York City" shirt. Bob gave me one the same week John got his.

Love
Virginia

The 11 year-old daughter of my manager sent this e-mail to her junior girl scout troop on Tuesday afternoon at 3.15pm (Pacific) Her rightly proud mum forwarded it to me. Later that night I read it out on BBC Radio as an example of how one child had dealt with the events of the day.

Subject: the tragedy
Date: Tue, 11 Sep 2001 18:14:19 EDT
From: Emily

by now, everyone knows about the terrorist attack on America. almost all countries are on our side. this email is not a chain, but a reminder, and a memorial. so many people woke up today, that wont live to see the sunset. many people risked their lives, and actually lost hem for others. this proves that America is a unit. everyone is truly upset, except for in Afghanistan next time you do anything, be it homework, or just lagging around the house, enjoy it, because many people that we're alive earlier today, cannot even cry. trust me, this is a global problem not only ours. everyone loves america.

emily

ps - there is four hour waits at most red cross establishments, just for giving blood. go, and get a parent or yourself, depending on age, to give blood to wounded of todays tragedy.

Short note from Henry Epstein in Liverpool. Henry is the nephew of the late Brian Epstein. This horrible event touched everyone in the UK as well as in America.

Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 11:47:56
From: henry epstein

Terrible tragedy for America and really the whole world. Deep sadness in the whole atmosphere.

One British friend living in NY wrote to a bunch of her pals (including me) and expressed the understandable anger that gripped so many.

Subject: Just in case you were wondering how we are...
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 23:04:28 EDT
From: Isabel

We are all fine and well and for those of you who know them, so are Angela and Ian.

Sadly, tonight we've heard of 2 people (friends of Rob) on the 105th floor are missing presumed dead and I heard from a friend at Warner Bros Records in Burbank that the wife (and her mother) of the head of creative services were on AA Flight # 11. This is just the beginning.

Pray for America, pray for the world and find the bastards that were responsible for setting this up and kill their wives and children.

ISABEL

Several of her friends wrote back to her - and tried to address her feelings of anger. Here's one from England:

Subject: Re: Just in case you were wondering how we are...
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 14:01:10 EDT
From: Eddie

Hi Isabel
thanks god you are well. I feel so selfish in feeling relief each time an e-mail comes from a friend or a family member in New York in view of the grief being suffered by countless individuals trying to understand the cataclysmic barbarity and evil that was visited upon them. No words can condemn enough the wretched souls that perpetrated these unthinkable and vile acts of hell.

Please don't lower yourself nor waste your energies in hating, I know it is easy for me to say from this side of the pond but anger and hate manifests to rage which will in time eat away at you and make victorious these monsters aims. Give instead your energies and simpatico to those worthy of them like the families and grief stricken.

Like your friend Steve says, lets not talk of retaliation, lets contemplate and find a real solution. Hundreds if not thousands of innocent individuals stand to loose their lives if the US, as expected, unleashes it's military mite. Don't forget the countries that harbour these animals also oppress and subjugate its citizens, its innocent citizens that by misfortune happened to be born in these lands, why must they suffer further injustices.To steal from MTV: "IF YOU ARE NOT PART OF THE SOLUTION YOU ARE PART OF THE PROBLEM".

One thing I know for sure is that I don't want to be part of the problem and I am sure neither do you, your friends or America. Nothings is impossible just a challenge to or intelligence and our communicative abilities.

Tomorrow is a day of mourning here and I am sure in the US if not around the globe, lets rid our thoughts of these creatures and instead spend that moment of silence with thoughts of those so tragically taken from us and their loved ones. My heart truly goes out to all affected by these monstrous acts against humanity. Lets not let them win.

I am sincerely glad you and yours are safe from harm.

One love
Eddie

and here is the wise and kindly reply to Isabel from my mother - who is a lot smarter and more caring than I like to give her public credit for...

Date: Thurs 13 Sep 2001 23:04:28
From: Nina Lewis

Dear Isabel,

Knowing you, I am sure that the sentiments you are expressing come from the depths of your pain and grief at the execrable and unspeakable act perpetrated on helpless and innocent human beings by the vilest creatures in creation.

We pray with you that they should be avenged, but not by slaughter as senseless as that which they have inflicted on individuals, their families, the communities in which they lived and the countries that gave them citizenship. They should live to hear their despicable deeds reviled, despised and rejected by their own children.

Since they wish to perpetuate for ever the burning hatred which motivated these atrocities, then to realise that they have alienated those they most wished to influence will mean that they have totally failed.

They should be hunted down certainly, but brought to judgment. Justice must be seen to be done.

This evening we saw, amongst all the horrors, scenes of ceremonies, religious and secular attended by all sections of the public wanting to express their solidarity with all those suffering as a result of what has taken place. One of these took place in the West London Synagogue, which was an ecumenical service attended by Jews, Christians and Muslims. We must hope it pointed to at least one of the more hopeful ways forward.

Louis and I send you and Rob our love and support at this time. Stay safe and well.

Nina Lewis

Joe Massot is an American filmmaker who has lived in London since the early 60's. He forwarded me the following two accounts of Tuesday's events. At present I don't know who the authors are.

Subject: Terror
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 10:42:44

Dear Martin,

Some writings that were sent to me. I thought you might be able to use them.

Your friend,

Joe Massot

Account Number One

I wrote the following off the top so to speak. Or maybe out of my heart. Maybe I will write something different tomorrow. But this is what I am left with tonight. love, R.

Terrorists struck in the US today but it is just one more strike in a long series that has been going on for a long long time. Today Americans begin to know what other peoples of the world have lived with as a reality part of their lives and not as a fantasy that maybe could happen one day.

We are all shocked by the events of the moment but if you were surprised then shame on you. It means you haven't been paying attention. I am just as shocked as anyone else today. But I am not in the least surprised. I've known that this could happen any day for several years. The probability went way up on the day we (the USA) bombed several sites around the world claiming it was part of Osama bin Ladin's infrastructure. I said at the time to hold on tight. The only surprise to me is that it has taken so long. And that is more reason to be concerned because it says that whoever orchestrated this today is very very cool and calculating, is not rushing into retaliation - is patient and willing to wait for a right moment. And that is what happened today.

It is an incredible exercise in planning. It is beautifully choreographed. The president is out of Washington DC, the Secretary of State is in So America, the FBI terrorist response teams are ALL in Monterey, California for a several day training exercise and cannot get to their posts. It is so simple it is elegant. No bombs, no bugs. Just hi jack some planes and crash them into very high profile targets .......... but not the White House or the Washington monument. No not those, too emotional, the chosen targets are symbols of Americas economic and military power. Oh the calculation is really something to behold. I can't help a certain professional admiration.

It has been a terrible day. And it could have been much much worse. The way the buildings came down this morning indicate that explosives had been planted in side the building before the planes crashed into them. We will learn soon enough. But suppose bugs had been put in the NYC water supply.......................

Whatever else it is, it is a WAKE UP CALL for AMERICA. Let us pray that America does wake up and handle this in a very different way than is normal for this country. It has to drop the ancient and outmoded "eye for an eye" mentality and give up its arrogance and bully mentality. I don't know how to handle this but I do know that we change or these attacks, although perhaps not as dramatic as today, will become more and more frequent.

I think it is premature to be praying for peace right now. It is too easy for that to become a form of denial. Let us pray for world enlightenment in our world leaders, especially in American leaders. Let us pray for a waking up in both leaders and all citizens of the world.

I pray the Light to shine so brightly in the aftermath of this dark day that all hearts are lighted so completely that no one can miss seeing/understanding reality.

Richard

Account Number Two

The morning sky was a brilliant azure with whiffs of high cirrus clouds sun sparkled the deco chrome eagles of the Chrysler as tourists gathered at the Empire and Trade center observation decks . We can see them from our eagle eerie here at the 60 th deck of the old Pan Am; like ants we see the reflection of their lens and chrome covers The view of the Trade towers is distant; but we have brothers there The steel workers are my crew . We are friends and they do my rigging. Sometimes in mornings we make pre arranged mirror flashes like clever boy scouts then salute each other by cell phone over morning coffee confirming our signal success and guffaw like errant school boys.

Eight am yesterday morning we are hanging rigs at the 57 floor; it's a busy morning we are on the Vanderbilt side with commanding views of lower Manhattan. The Hudson is majestic in the September sun. The Circle line and the tugs dart and ply the island like it was a holiday. Office workers pour into there buildings many with coffee in hand. Its a Tuesday its warm yet you can feel a cool Canadian front upon us.

Up high my foreman Tiny grins with his missing eye tooth. His rig rests over the side of the 57 floor; approx half the distance in height of the twin tower. We are gaming on about the weather; and and what we "gotta do"...When Tiny (who weighs 275) breaks conversation and sez "Getta load of this asshole"

With that all eyes focus on this incoming 757 wagging its wings coming over the Pan Am just 200 feet from our deck. As the huge jet approached it veered slightly to the right; the sparkle of the sun glistened its wings and the rays warmed its fuselage our men who hang precariously off the sides of buildings are outraged at the total disregard for safety; stand and yell obscenity at the pilot shaking their trowels as the jumbo careens over Broadway just broadside of us.

The sun is very bright just now we can see the white shirt of the pilot(?) and in the direct sun we can see the heads of passengers at their assigned windows I distinctly see a blond woman at her seat. This is unbelievable. Perhaps another low level tourist ride ; perhaps he came low to avoid another air craft; perhaps ...perhaps .... as we watch the plane pass the Empire state Building and then diminish in size until . ...until.....poof a large ball of flame emerges from the twin tower......all at once everyone is screaming...radios crackle ..."IT hit the Trade Tower...Tower Hit...a plane just hit Trade center!!!

We are slack jawed in disbelief; there is a deafening silence as we glance at each other in momentary stillness; radio calls are coming in from below asking for information.. .we watch the burning and tug at cigarettes and hang nails......minuets pass and we observe what appeared to us a observer plane coming in for a "look see"

But suddenly it too plows into the other tower ...explosion ..fire ball ... no mistake this time ..that's deliberate.....all of a sudden it becomes apparent that we are a potential target....everyone starts yelling ..."get down ..get down" like submarines under depth charge attack, huge hanging rigs and their crews drop down the sides of the building in fits and starts ...cussing and yelling as they push off the building face and scale down in record time

Once down we head for the corner Irish bars of O'Malleys And Patrick Connelly's and the Ragged Sleeve where we stand six and seven deep gain information from the sports TV 's over pints of black and tans.Office workers are ordered out of all buildings and jam into the saloons with us . There on large screens the tragedy unfolds in Washington and Pa; we think of our missing steel crew ; unable to call loved ones; some crying others vowing for revenge..all different nationalities all united as New Yorkers and patriots in America.

There wasn't time for a second pint....Port Authority police from Grand Central burst in saying "Get Out ..Get Out..."Grand Central is going to blow".....everyone dropped their conversation and took to the streets,,,I became separated from my crew as thousands ran down 44 th street to times square .......with that the towers collapsed; on 42 street many stood holding hands in prayer others by the thousands stood beneath mega screens 4 stories high trying to get some handle on it trying to come to grips with the totality of this criminal act ...I wandered for hours ..all the while thinking and praying that quite possibly the world as we know it has changed .forever.........I do not know what future lays for us ..I do not know how to get home ...my first home call was at 2 am there was a lot of crying and relief because we sometimes work in this area It seems back home there is a run on petrol and ammo ..It will be sometime before I can get a flight out .....Blessings to you

On Thursday afternoon I received this e-mail passed on by a friend.

Subject: unexpected result
Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 14:43:44
From: Ed Jaffe

In pursuit of better airport security, 700 agents from Customs and the Border Patrol are being taken off the drug war and detailed to guard American airports against violence. It's a start. One cannot help but wonder how many acts of violence and terror could have been prevented if all of these cops who spend their time busting kids for smoking pot and taking X had been assigned to preventing violence in the first place. I abhor all violence. However, if given the choice between having cops assigned to hunt down violent political terrorists as opposed to hunting down drug taking teenagers, there is little question which way I will vote. My concern for those who cheer and celebrate at the death of innocent human beings is far less than that I hold for those who are persecuted for exploring the depths of their own consciousness. Simply said, there is no doubt that we are at war. The question is, with who?

Love always,

With all the e-mails urging us to wear patriotic colors or to light candles for peace at 7pm on Friday - some questioned the sense of obligation - as did my San Francisco friend Wally.

Subject: Friendly Coercion?
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 19:46:14
From: Brian Wallace

Have you been getting all these "patriotic" emails, too?

Listen, I think the scumbags responsible for these attacks should be chased down like rats and thoroughly stomped. My heart goes out to the families of the victims/firefighters/police officers, (heck, my father was cop), but if I don't participate in these "patriotic" gestures, does that mean I SUPPORT terrorism ? ... that I'm LESS patriotic than the person who goes along with all this stuff? It's the Trenton Times cut-out-flag, AIDS ribbon all over again.

- Wally

My friend Miles passed on this graphic report from Ground Zero by a New Yorker - Leslie Fuller who originally wrote this to a friend at ABC TV.

Subject: At Ground Zero
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 01:32:35
From: "LAF"

you know the frequent dream you have where you're being chased, a big monstrous disaster is running you down and you have to flee madly? in my dream, i never make it.

in reality tonight, i did. stephen westfall and i volunteered (there were only 4 of us who did) to go down to ground zero in a salvation army van to get water and supplies to the rescue workers on the front lines.

stephen and i got off at the site of the former world trade center as they were bringing up three airplane seats. our salvation army truck moved on, lost, toward another site while stephen and i stayed on alone and got cold water and snacks from coolers to the exhausted firefighters and cops on their way off their 4 hour shift. they'd all been there about 40 hours straight.

the place is flooded with heavy light and crawling, crawling with rescue workers. like an ashen, too brightly lit human anthill. ALL the buildings in sight are deeply damaged. skeletons of the two world trade center towers stand - about five stories left out of 110. the remaining 105 stories imploded into the ground. hundreds of feet of rubble and ash and corpses way below even the subway level. it's all down there. they'll never be able to bring all the bodies up.

like ants, the rescue workers clamored in the grossly subterranean pits filled with rubble and markers for body parts. we had to wear asbestos masks but the rescue workers had gas masks. layers of asbestos ash covered us within minutes. the fragments of the world trade center facades remained standing like a 3-dimensional frank stella painting. it looked like pictures I've seen of Hiroshima, if you want to know the truth.

stephen and i know these buildings and these streets so intimately that we knew exactly where we were and what everything used to look like and we could still feel, amidst the shattering transformation, 'at home.' that was an unexpected feeling.

concentrating on getting supplies to these heroes keeps your mind busy, as service is meant to do. but suddenly, about 150 cops and firefighters came running at us at high speed, because the skyscraper on the block we were standing on was presumed to be collapsing. the yelled and dragged us with them "RUN RUN RUN RUN RUN - FASTER FASTER DON'T STOP DON'T STOP RUN RUN RUN!" and i think both stephen and i felt that this was probably 'it' but also that it was the right way to go. one of the two endangered buildings believed to be unstable was starting to crumble, as was the remaining structure of one of the towers. I'm asthmatic and it's a miracle I'm okay breathing wise but i am and that's a miracle i decided to rely on.

i couldn't run anymore and the cops ran past me and we were a few blocks away and safe. then a crowd of firefighters ran the other direction, toward the presumed collapse. we said 'it's falling'. they said 'they've been saying that for three days" and ran back into the fray. later, we heard reports of rescue workers taken to emergency rooms because of this.

somehow we escaped. we wanted to go back. we were interviewed on TV.

all i can say about ground zero is that it makes the movie "escape from new York" look like "you've got mail." we've been to the belly of hell. and there are hundreds of angels working there, fully "delivered from the bondage of self. " the word 'hero' feels like a big understatement.

we got back and tried to shower off all the asbestos.. the salvation army captain said we aren't supposed to eat till we've taken at least three showers.

we're going back tomorrow at 8 a.m. the landscape of hell has the content of home. too much true heroism is going on there, round the clock, for those of us who can be of some small use to stay away. serving these heroes is an honor.

this damage is a lot worse than it appears on TV. the financial district is in devastation. stephen said he didn't think the attackers knew they'd cause this much destruction. it's indescribable. i had no idea till i saw it in person.

pray for the firefighters cops and rescue workers. they're finding new and creative places to post the American flag in the middle of hades.

anon
leslie

My friend Michael works in NYC and lives in Brooklyn.

Date: 14 Sep 2001 16:12:05
From: Michael

Dear Martin,

Thanks for your concern. Robin, Taylor & I are well but shaken.

We don't know anyone who died personally, we feel a profound sadness. It's been very difficult.

The recovery process is already underway. Traffic is returning and offices as far South as Canal Street are open again. I'm sure in ten years the skyline of New York will have a new jewel in its crown, but New York and America will ever be the same again.

Warm regards,

Michael

My pal Robin Leach read my latest column ("Faith De-based Initiative") about the need to 'de-Nazify' the children of radical Islamics - and sent me this kind note.

Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 16:19:36 EDT
From: Robin

it's a brilliant column and addresses a point I'd discussed earlier this week with an elderly Jewish friend I have great respect for. It's not until the USA understands the reeducation of the child terrorists or the kids who grow up to become one that " this evil is eradicated"

Your column is well written. I hope it's read, digested and acted upon by the right people in power

cheers-rl

and occasionally I received something downright scary - like this e-mail from a publicist I barely know...

Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 15:04:47
From: Edward L.

Thank you for your kind thoughts and messages for the loss of my friend in the World Trade Center Disaster. . She was a good person for all of her 37 years.

Take this opportunity now.. to hold and cherish your loved ones.

And now it's time to wipe out the wasp nests of terrorism. Many of you know that I was a White House staffer.. and during the Gulf War. Believe me when I tell you.....we are going in. Finally.

This disaster should not have happened !! We should have seen it coming!!!

We have been contacted by a group of extremely wealthy Americans who are now putting together a way for all Americans to get involved with their money for a "bounty" to kill Osama and or any government officials in countries who harbored these terrorists. An idea to pay mercenaries or anyone or group to go in or who are already with these bastards. A logical idea. Millions are being raised right now privately ..and a web site for pledges is about to go up for average Americans to pledge any amount from $1.00 to 1 million. Stay tuned.

Edward L

Two pals -Steve Hochman who writes for the L.A. Times and Jay Roach who directed the "Austin Powers" movies and "Meet The Parents" - sent me this horrific information.

Subject: the voice of evil
Date: Thu, 13 Sep 2001 22:24:13

Friends,

This is perhaps the most disturbing thing I've heard in the wake of the horrible tragedies of this week. Speaking on "The 700 Club" on the Christian Broadcasting Network on Wednesday, Jerry Falwell spewed hatred as he assessed the events:

"Pagans and abortionists, feminists, gays and lesbians ... the ACLU, People for the American Way, I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen,' " he said, saying that God has lifted his protection of the U.S. because of such people. In response, show host Pat Robertson said, "I concur."

Folks, this is NOT a hoax. After seeing something about it on the bottom of the screen crawl on CNN, I searched the internet for an account and ultimately went to the CBN site (www.cbn.com) and watched the broadcast myself. You can hear it too, if you care to. Click on Wednesday's edition of the show for streaming video/audio. Falwell's remarks happen at about the 49 minute mark.

I hope you all are as disturbed as I am about these words of hatred and narrow-mindedness -- the exact kind of attitudes that are behind the unthinkable actions of Tuesday. Please share this with others and help raise the voices of reason and love to drown out the voices of bigotry.

thanks,

Steve

p.s. A humorous note: My spellcheck's suggested replacement for the unrecognized word Falwell was ... falafel!!

I was very disturbed by this - and was relieved to find a brilliant response by a leading member of the gay community. I wrote back to Steve and Jay to share the good news of Falwell's rebuke.

Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 17:35:10 -0700
From: Martin Lewis
To: Jay, Steve

Jay, Steve, thanks for circulating the Falwell comments. It's always useful to study the words of the enemy.

There is an excellent, dignified rebuke I discovered on the Advocate website (I just read it for the pictures) Please feel free to share it with others.

It was so elegantly worded it almost made me want to go out and become gay. (Almost.)

Yours in rueful mood

Martin

Friday, September 14, 2001
Jerry Falwell blames gays for terrorist attacks

The National Gay and Lesbian Task Force issued a statement Thursday responding to anti-gay remarks made earlier in the day by the Rev. Jerry Falwell on the Christian news show The 700 Club. When host Pat Robertson asked Falwell to comment on Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York City and Washington, D.C., Falwell went on a tirade, naming all the groups he deems responsible for setting the stage for such an event to happen: "The ACLU's got to take a lot of blame for this...throwing God out successfully with the help of the federal court system, throwing God out of the public square, out of the schools. The abortionists have got to bear some burden for this because God will not be mocked. And when we destroy 40 million little innocent babies, we make God mad. I really believe that the pagans and the abortionists and the feminists and the gays and the lesbians who are actively trying to make that an alternative lifestyle...all of them who have tried to secularize America. I point the finger in their face and say, 'You helped this happen.'"

NGLTF executive director Lorri L. Jean issued a statement that read, in part, "The terrible tragedy that has befallen our nation, and indeed the entire global community, is the sad byproduct of fanaticism. It has its roots in the same fanaticism that enables people like Jerry Falwell to preach hate against those who do not think, live, or love in the exact same way he does. The tragedies that have occurred this week did not occur because someone made God mad, as Mr. Falwell asserts. They occurred because of hate. It is time to move beyond a place of hate and to a place of healing. We hope that Mr. Falwell will apologize to the U.S. and world communities. Our hearts go out to the victims of this week's tragedies and their friends and family members."

advocate.com

A dear pal Amy Alkon - who was a founding member of the Advice Ladies - and who now bills herself as the Advice Goddess - responded generously to my new essay - and sent me her own touching piece about the disaster.

Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 21:55:39 EDT
From: Amy Alkon

Dear Martin,

I agree with you here...and I think there has to be a call from many in this country asking them to do so. Really good piece. Such a need for voices of sanity now, amid the voices of extremism and racism.

Here's a piece that I wrote. Feel free to pass it along if you're so inclined. --A

Faces Of The World Trade Center
by Amy Alkon

I lived in New York right near the World Trade Center and cut through the concourse in the building all the time. In my head, I see the faces of the people who are gone with it. I don't know them. But I know who they were: ordinary people with New York accents who just wanted to get a paycheck or a pension and send their kids to college.

I can see them -- a fat clerk in short sleeves carrying a folded copy of The Post and an egg and cheese on a roll, the girls at Bakers shoes snapping their gum and going back to see if there was a 9 1/2, a receptionist with two-inch fuchsia acrylic nails and a matching pant suit hurrying out of the subway, an executive working his cell phone and his Palm Pilot while getting money out of the ATM, a messenger kid with mid-back dred locks lugging his bike up the stairs from the PATH train from New Jersey.

These people didn't sign up for exciting lives like Christiane Amanpour on the job from some war zone. These were people who died terribly simply because they got to their desks on time. Like the people on the hijacked planes, so many of these people must have died in terror. There was a couple holding hands as they leapt out of the burning building and fell a hundred stories to their death. I can't stop thinking of what must have been behind them for them to jump. Who were they? Which faces were theirs? Were they in love, or just friends who worked together, or strangers who didn't want to die alone? Did they work at Merrill-Lynch or Morgan-Stanley or maybe at Frenkel & Co. insurance? Did people who loved them post messages looking for them like these I saw posted on America Online?

Subject: Re: Cantor Fitzgerald - Howard Lutnick
I have heard from another Investment executive who knows Howard personally. He said he spoke with Howard and Howard was not in the building. But there was no real information about employees.

Subject: Re: Cantor Fitzgerald - Howard Lutnick
I am looking for Amy O'Doherty, who worked on the 104th floor. Is there any number to call? Thanks for any help and God bless them all.

Subject: Re: Cantor Fitzgerald - Howard Lutnick
Need to know if you're ok Please let us know you're ok Michael Solano.

Subject: Re: Cantor Fitzgerald - Howard Lutnick
can you tell me what floor he works on and what time you heard from him? my brother works on the 104th floor and we have no news.

I don't know any of these people, but I can't stop seeing their faces -- imagined faces I've created out of all the real faces I'd seen over the years I'd been cutting through that concourse. Yesterday, in an attempt to stem that stream, I dragged myself out to the post office. There, I heard a woman arguing at length with the postal clerk about getting a signature on a letter she was sending. The interchange was so normal, it seemed obscene. Didn't she know there were hundreds, maybe thousands, of people in New York and Washington hospitals with their skin falling off in pieces, and so many people just gone?

Peter Shelton is an Englishman In New York. He is a film & video editor of distinction and taste, delightfully erudite and literate. And with a gigantic heart. He sent me this incredibly poetic cyber-postcard from the edge on Friday evening. It has all the insight and elegance of one of Alistair Cooke's fabled Letters From America.

Subject: a hole in the sky
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 21:11:37
From: peter shelton

Yesterday [my first in Manhattan since the catastrophe], gazing down sixth avenue was a truly strange experience - a hole the in sky, which the New York-accustomed mind tried to fill, like some amputee retaining the sensation of his missing limb. Something has changed and it affects us all, no question of that.

I am glad to say that we are fine - witnessing, as no doubt did you, much of the horror on TV, though with the extraordinary overhanging of a daylong cloud of smoke, being as we were directly downwind of the WTC. smells of burning and occasional flurries of dust reached us [perhaps four miles from the scene] which gave the event a strangely palpable quality,as you might imagine.

A piece of paper, charred and dusty, some kind of page from some internal corporate memorandum landed in our backyard. in the park, ashy fragments could be seen on the grass. very real and unreal at the same time. of course it was no comparison to the sheer magnitude of the scene in Manhattan [which was effectively impossible to drive into for both Tuesday and Wednesday]. the children are overwhelmed by it all of course, but of an age to grasp some kind of understanding and search for appropriate response.

and the emotion - the unavoidably blitz-like sense of urban community which has embraced the city - is extraordinary, both sombre and inspiring.

Guiliani has been a far more effective Churchill-figure than Bush, who seems ill-equipped to express and encapsulate the occasion's full meaning.which is what?

the war everybody speaks of and uses as a template for a necessarily visceral response seems to me to be the wrong - if emotionally and politically inevitable - term to apply to what ultimately is asupra-national conflict - will we [Europe as well as America] come to an understanding of what made these maniac acts occur? it is, i feel, much more than angry fundamentalism and gut religiosity , but a deep and presently unbridgeable gulf between two distinct parts of the world - the dispossessed with their anger and false prophets and our technologically sophisticated but maybe equally blind culture of relative ease and comfort. the north and south, the haves and have-nots - i am being horribly glib, but in America today, i fear for a heedless response that fails to grasp whatever struggle [and surely not a military one in the final analysis] we must undertake to achieve a true peace, both spiritual and material.

nonetheless there is much on the human scale, especially here in New York, which is very moving and deeply affecting. the scale and sheer pointlessness of the carnage has brought out so much good in people that one cannot but find considerable inspiration in the proliferation of flags, that speak of a sense of shared ideals [and whatever else i may feel, i do believe in the underlying American ideal] deeper than any kneejerk xenophobia. may the good in people prevail.

sorry about the overly lengthy and simplistic editorialising - but one does grasp for a response that can give meaning to these quite unprecedented days.

much love,

Susan Kirschbaum is that most dangerous of creatures - a beautiful Jewish New York girl - who is also a top fashion writer. (Fortunately for me - she has a boyfriend!) She sent me her latest essay on Friday evening....

Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 22:21:10 EDT
From: Susan

Here's my latest editorial. From a fashionista's viewpoint. Not profound. But heartfelt.

Susan

Editorial: A Fashionable New World Order
By Susan M. Kirschbaum

When Diesel, the Italian sportswear company sent invitations for a party called "Save Yourself," the label didn't anticipate the threat of war.

Referring to various beauty treatments, the copy read, 'You will also get the chance to try different ways to Save Yourself so that you too can stay young and beautiful forever." But when terrorist hijackers attacked America, destroying the World Trade Center and leaving innumerable dead in their wake, "Save Yourself" can only mean one thing: stay alive.

En route to the Douglas Hannant runway show Tuesday morning, at 9:45 a.m. I watched policemen evacuate editors from Bryant Park as bystanders shouted that the Pentagon had been bombed. Fashion designer Stephen Sprouse, who had painted the main tent in swirling technicolor stripes stood in disbelief. "This has never happened," he said, as hundreds walked aimlessly into the streets. Poof. There we were, suddenly standing open jawed and seeing only black and white.

One colleague, a contributing editor at InStyle -- contracted to report the celebrity quotient of the New York Spring collections -- was already making her way across the Brooklyn Bridge with camping equipment and canned goods in tow. After the Marc Jacobs show the previous evening, we had been dancing under the stars at Pier 54, facing a beautiful view of the Twin Towers as deejay, actress Rosanna Arquette played Rolling Stones songs on the turntable. It was a glowing New York moment dashed the next morning with a dark mushroom of smoke that rose from downtown where the tallest city buildings once stood, those same edifices that seemed to bless our celebration the night before.

Fashion folk --myself included -- obsessed with hemlines and hipness might as well turn to fairy dust, since in a time of crisis our clothes and attitudes don't matter. They didn't care what we were wearing at the relief point outside Jacob Javitz center to donate sandwiches and socks to feed and clothe the firemen and relief workers, covered in damp grime. And rather than note movie stars sitting on the front rows of catwalks, we hollered loudly for the workers and army reserves driving jeeps that proudly displayed American flags.

Alex Werz, a founder of Frederic, a couture line that outfitted Nicole Kidman for the Venice Film Festival telephoned from Paris to offer support. "At a time like this," he said, "fashion means nothing." Another friend, a designer of an Italian bridge line called Modamerica said that in his city, Padua , people were staying indoors since military at a nearby American army base established various checkpoints throughout the area. Expressing disbelief that such a great power as United States was attacked so ferociously, he expects American orders solicited at Magic -- the fashion trade show held in Las Vegas last month -- would now be canceled.

For now, all our lives as we've known them may not be canceled but certainly will adopt a wait and see approach. And as I've walked through the streets the past few days in my Levis 501 jeans with a small American flag erected from a back pocket, I've looked my fellow New Yorkers in the eyes.Some are crying. Some have shown photos of missing relatives. A few stare blankly back at me. But in some small way, we are all connecting. And a new fashionable mantra could read: 'Don't save yourself. Rather, let's save each other."

� 2001 Susan M. Kirschbaum

I heard from Howard Bloom. I first knew Howard as a music publicist 20 years ago. These days he is a scholar, author, paleopsychologist (a title which I'm impressed by - though ignorant of its meaning) and all-round renaissance man. He referred me to the chapter of a book he'd written in 1995 warning the West of the likely actions of the radical Islamics. Reading it - I was frightened by how little I knew... The link is in his e-mail to me. I recommend going to the link and reading it.

Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 22:02:23 EDT
From: Howard Bloom

Martin--All is shuddered emotionally but physically intact here. Take a look at http://www.howardbloom.net/islam.htm - put together in a matter of hours, a chapter from my 1995 book that I HOPED would wake people up before a World Trade Center could be attacked. I failed. And it felt that way. Thirteen printings and 50,000 copies sold don't mean a thing.

You and I are communicators. We have a moral sense, a strong one. We showed that working together for Amnesty International. It's our job to communicate humans out of harm's way. I failed. I hope never to fail again. Howard

My friend Stuart is a night-owl - usually in pursuit of little birds who live on the wing... (!) On Friday night-Saturday morning he went on a different kind of prowl.

Subject: Surreality
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 01:37:38 EDT
From: Stuart

I have been walking around the city to try to absorb all of this. I visited the west side highway where crowds cheered truckloads of rescue people heading to the site. I participated in candlelight vigils in Washington Square Park and elsewhere. I watched fighter jets fly high over Manhattan, and talked with people who knew someone who escaped before the collapse. And last night I went downtown with other friends who live in an apartment just a few blocks from the disaster. We managed to walk to the edge of the work area, amongst the hundreds of police, fireman, volunteers and vehicles. We watched as sparks flew around the giant cranes cutting away at twisted metal, and as immense claws picked up the pieces. We were just several hundred feet away. And the smoke just kept rising, filling the air around us with a rubbery smell, drifting north above the city. It seemed like another planet.! ..strange, unearthly, hell really. This is beyond what we know or have ever experienced.

My pal Virginia (remember her - she sent me the first e-mail in this section) forwarded me this incredibly powerful piece by an Afghan writer.

Subject: An Afghan view worth reading
Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 23:50:09
From: Virginia

The following is an observation by an Afghani-American writer. It's pretty sobering. Pass it on:

I've been hearing a lot of talk about "bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age." Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with this atrocity, but "we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. What else can we do?" Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing whether we "have the belly to do what must be done."

And I thought about the issues being raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even though I've lived here for 35 years I've never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing.

I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. I agree that something must be done about those monsters.

But the Taliban and Ben Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps." It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of international thugs holed up in their country.

Some say, why don't the Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled orphans in Afghanistan -- a country with no economy, no food. There are millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in mass graves. The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan people have not overthrown the Taliban.

We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make the Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health care? Too late. Someone already did all that.

New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. Maybe the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making common cause with the Taliban -- by raping once again the people they've been raping all this time. So what else is there? What can be done, then?

Let me now speak with true fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with ground troops. When people speak of "having the belly to do what needs to be done," they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent people. Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's actually on the table is Americans dying. And not just because some Americans would die fighting their way through Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout.

It's much bigger than that, folks. Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be first. Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West.

And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he wants. That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's all right there. He really believes Islam would beat the West. It might seem ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the West, he's got a billion soldiers. If the West wreaks a holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with nothing left to lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view. He's probably wrong, in the end the West would win, whatever that would mean, but the war would last for years and millions would die, not just theirs, but ours. Who has the belly for that?

Bin Laden does. Anyone else?

Tamim Ansary

On Friday night I sent out my column "Faith De-based Initiative" to my e-mail list. Many of my pals agreed with what I wrote. Some did not. Their views are important. Here are a couple...

Subject: Re: Faith De-based Initiative
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 08:27:44 EDT
From: Alisa

"There will inevitably and understandably be a military response to this week's tragedy. The American nation demands it."

No we don't, honey. Not all of us. I think you'd be surprised at how many Americans are sick of this shit.

Peace-Love-Unity-Respect
xoxoxo -- alisa

Subject: Re: Faith De-based Initiative
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 01:45:40
From: Matthew

Martin -

Your extensive article is filled with an immense ignorance about the background of Bin Laden and who trained and raised and paid him (Bush Sr. and the CIA) to commit similar acts of terrorism against Soviet citizens, as well as an ignorance about our country's full support of acts of terrorism against ordinary non-military persons and assassinations as long as those acts suit our business and influential needs. As for what you said about the evil pursuits of followers of Allah, it is ironic that our government and television are publicly combining constant invocations of a Christian god with vowing to mete out justice upon those other 'crazed religious fanatics.'

I don't want or need bandwagon rhetoric in my e-mail box. Please take me off of your mailing list. Thanks.

Matthew

I was disappointed but intrigued by what Matthew wrote. Here is my reply to him.

Subject: Re: Faith De-based Initiative
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 07:05:13 -0700
From: Martin Lewis
To: Matthew

First of all thank you for taking the time to explain why you were so offended by my article. For drawing my attention to your perspective. And for being courteous in your final request - even though it disappointed me.

Perhaps you were reading things into my article which were not there.

I freely acknowledge that I am comparatively ignorant of the background of Bin Laden. My piece was written not claiming the perspective of knowing the details of the past - just with seeking a way forward from where we are this week.

Whatever you may feel about the specific views I expressed - I don't think that they can be categorized as "bandwagon rhetoric" I may make some assumptions with which you disagree - but I don't think you will find many voices in America trying to temper the reflexive "nuke 'em" mentality which is rapidly gaining ground among less thoughtful people in this land.

I have absolutely no doubt about the way that previous administrations and the CIA funded Bin Laden. Certainly full awareness of the cynical and ruthless way that Salvadore Allende and his democratically-elected government was betrayed and slaughtered by the US - and many other abuses. You will not find me defending those heinous acts in my piece. Or ever.

I didn't refer to " the evil pursuits of followers of Allah" I specifically went out of my way to condemn those who are abusing Allah's name. I even drew the parallel of the so-called Christians who are in favor of killing abortion doctors - they are 'crazed religious fanatics' as much as any.

So you misunderstand me if you think I don't care about those points.

But please tell me what you think. Surely the undeniable past sins of a sizable number of high-placed Americans abusing their positions of power don't make the events of this week in any way acceptable? What is your feeling about the people who planned and financed the events of Tuesday? (It didn't just spontaneously happen that morning.) What is your feeling about the people who actually carried out the plan? Did they honor or betray Allah? Or were they betrayed? Do you see any divide between those Islamics who have condemned Tuesday's acts as blasphemy and others who have not condemned those acts? And what is your proposed solution for bridging the dangerous gaps between the Western world and Islam? And between the differing sides of the Islamic world?

Rather than closing the door on debate - I hope you will engage in an exchange of words and perspectives.

Martin

And a couple of friends wrote kind words. My favorite was a succinct note from my dear pal Pete Townshend

Subject: Re: Faith De-based Initiative
Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 10:40:40 +0100
From: pete townshend

I wish you were the bloody President!

to which I replied

Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 14:49:49
From: Martin
To: Pete

Thanks. Unfortunately the Americans still tip their hat to the new (1776) constitution - which tends to prohibit Brits occupying that role. (Though I do point out to them that George Washington - and indeed the first 8 Presidents - were all like us - born as British subjects.) However I am undeniably RESIDENT of the US - which makes me just one pee away from being President.

Love

Martin

Transcript of Martin Lewis interview about the tragedy on CNN on Sunday September 16th

Martin Lewis's current column about the tragedy - "Faith De-based Initiative"

Columns written by Martin Lewis for Time Magazine's website - Time.com

Martin's website: www.martinlewis.com

This page was created Saturday September 15th 2001