more cyber-words from a wild world...
I think my favorite correspondent on these pages is dear Peter
Shelton. He won awards for editing the longform video of Grace Jones'
"One Man Show"; has edited numerous films, TV shows, documentaries,
commercials and music videos. And it turns out that all along he was a
fabulous writer in disguise. He calls this latest report "more of the
same." Since all his words are compelling - that's fine by me... (But
you'll need to get your dictionaries out again!)
Subject: more of the same
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 14:01:14 -0400
dear martin,
you have become a wonderfully literate and quizzical call-in show for the more logorreahic of your friends. so much less guilt in boring you than many others. thanks.
last night i visited the impromptu memorial at union square - a wall is posted with the ubiquitous sheets containing a missing person's photo, name and identifying details (someone should assemble them all into a book/website - they speak to the human nature of the tragedy in an extraordinarily raw and unfiltered way ). people have left their drawings, writings, graffiti, candles, strangely personal tributes (like a pair of shoes in a box, presumably belonging to one of the missing).
while the comments displayed cover the many angles of the nation's and city's reactions, from kick-out jingoism to sheer, all-encompassing grief, the prevailing tone at this northern end of the village is of the peace and understanding school. the actual content seemed to matter less than the renewed sense of thoughtful community, the people's park aspect {now that dates me} which feels well-suited to this downtown horror. a singer was singing 'this little light of mine' - oddly touching, though what isn't these days?
it reminded me of the ever present tributes left at the imagine mosaic in strawberry fields. i am sure there will be many hardcore Lennonists who will have gravitated there in recent days - another local tragedy [albeit of a vastly differing quality and please don't think i make any kind of comparison beyond the purely emotional] that touched the whole world.
i guess Yoko will have to find some words at some point. i hope they are sound. anyway in my apparently daily habit of quoting English poets with new York connections at you, imagine would seem to be as pertinent as ever. imagine no religion. hmm. i don't know how easy that is, try as one might, but not such a bad admonition to both sides in this situation.
and the hapless bush continues to dismay - i mean, wanted dead or alive!? cannot someone in Washington take time out to find the man some decent writers - he becomes an embarrassment to America and by extension the english-speaking world. Surely in this age of sampling and unabashed musical retreads some Churchillian loops could be fed into the mix. there really is no excuse for such a lame level of rhetoric.
i assume that you got Michael's link to the clear channel radio censorship song list. "rock the Casbah" and "war" i sort of get the why of, but "ob-la-di ob-la-dah" ? these are some strange signs and portents - is there no limit to human folly at levels both banal as well as grotesque?
love
peter
Jeremy is a young chap working for Miramax. And a very smart one
too - as you can read...
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 11:37:10 -0700
From: Jeremy M
Nice piece Martin. You verbalized a lot of what I have been thinking very eloquently. I am very frightened by Bush's brash, "Texas Cowboy" demeanor.
Stating that our response is going to be "fierce and decisive". This I feel is the last thing we need. We are not going to change the mentality of a people by lashing out violently against those who were likely not even directly involved. This type of response in actuality may strengthen their convictions. I hope that "cooler" heads will prevail.
Jeremy
This is not the time to allocate blame. However since Jerry
Falwell and Pat Robertson have ascribed the thousands of deaths to the
gay community and the ACLU (God apparently deserted this Sodom &
Gomorrah nation) - and Fox News Channel's Bill O'Reilly blames this all
on Bill Clinton (you remember him - he's the one O'Reilly holds
indirectly responsible for Chandra Levy's disappearance) - I thought
that perhaps I might take a shot. Being an old-fashioned liberal and
thus cursed with being fair - I decided to seek some information before
passing judgment. Hence this letter i just sent to the L.A. Times.
Subject The F.B.I.
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 12:27 PM
To: The Letters Editor - The Los Angeles Times
From Martin Lewis
Letter from political commentator Martin Lewis (BBC, CNN, Fox News, MSNBC, Time.com etc etc)
The F.B.I.
As a taxpayer who contributes to the FBI's budget, may I please be permitted to know the following? Between 1993 - when terrorists first bombed the World Trade Center - and 2001 when that building was destroyed by terrorists (some of whom were apparently right under the FBI's nose) - what was the number of FBI man-hours dedicated to terrorist detection?
And secondly - in the same period of time - what was the number of FBI man-hours dedicated to investigating Ken Starr's numerous allegations against Bill and Hillary Clinton (no indictments); Louis Freeh's vigorous investigation of Bill Clinton and Al Gore's alleged campaign finance irregularities (no indictments) and to the protracted investigation of American scientist Dr. Wen Ho Lee (one minor plea bargain for "negligence" - and a public admission by an FBI agent that he'd provided false testimony in Dr. Lee's bail hearing.) Just wondering...
Martin Lewis
Los Angeles
In addition to sending the letter to the L.A . Times - I also sent
it to some of my pals. Within minutes - the brilliant Rick Mitz
(creator and writer of AMC's "The Lot" sitcom) dropped this English boy
the ultimate compliment.
Subject: RE: The F.B.I.
Date: Tue, 18 Sep 2001 12:54:46
From: Rick Mitz
Right on, Martin Lewis!!! I love that you're doing this stuff. I just love you to bits these days! Thank you for being such a goddamned good American!
RICK
I've asked Rick to head up my defense committee in the event that
I'm interned or listed for deportation. So if he contacts you - give
generously.
Terry Gilliam sent me this e-mail - with a link to a very thoughtfully-worded petition. Please read it - and support it if you can.
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 11:15:12
From: Terry Gilliam
I am forwarding this e-mail from a friend of mine Please read it - you might want to sign this petition.
Please take a moment to read the petition below (by clicking on the link) and sign.
A letter, published in yesterday's New York Times, lays out the fundamental difference between terrorist acts and war in the following manner:
"it is a horrible mistake to use the metaphor of war to describe this terrorist action. Wars entail violence by entire populations. Calling this "a war" is a way of preparing ourselves to accept and justify that which is unjustifiable--namely, the indiscriminate slaughter of innocent civilians in our attempt to target a very small group of terrorists."
(James Dawes, NYT, September 14, 2001)
************************************************
Petition for a Thoughtful U.S. Response.
*************************************************
Please sign The Petition at http://home.uchicago.edu/~dhpicker/petition which appeals to world leaders to be level-headed and, wherever possible, peaceful in their response to the recent attack against the United States.
The signatures logged by the website above will be forwarded to leaders around the world. It is imperative that we act quickly to prevent war!!!
Thank you.
Terry
And I was also sent this suggestion of a letter to be sent by fax
or mail to President Bush
Subject: try to fax/mail this please!
Date: Wed, 19 Sep 2001 12:38:36
From: Mark Kramer
President George Bush
The White House
1600 Pennsylvania Avenue NW
Washington, DC 20500
September 19, 2001
Via fax: 202 456 2461
Dear President Bush.
PLEASE do not start a war. Protect us without killing innocent people or wasting my tax money on overkill. PLEASE find smart folks who know the Arabic culture, and let them help you plan diplomatic strategies. GO AND GET Bin Laden anyway you can (CIA, Special Ops), but PLEASE, no war.
PLEASE control the terrorism problem as best you can without violating the rights and privacy of our citizens. If you deprive us of our liberties, the bad guys have won. Pass a law that requires airlines to install bank-vault style doors on the cockpit so these maniacs can't do this again, but please think twice about diminishing the civil rights we are so very proud of. PLEASE don't let America's liberties be beaten down by the atrocity in NYC. My family, my friends, and I feel VERY strongly about this.
Finally, please keep religion out of politics. It is an insult to the Bill of Rights and makes us look weak and helpless.
REVENGE is NOT the response of a civilized society. Remove Bin Laden and his supporters, but PLEASE do not start a war.
NO CRUSADE in history has ever done any good. Crusades kill innocents.
Please be the leader we elected you to be; strong, resilient, and respectful of human life, despite what the Taliban zealots would have us do. The Afghani people have suffered enough at the hands of these monsters. The Taliban is NOT the Afghani people. They are a cult of maniacs that currently rule Afghanistan thanks to the LAST war commenced by a powerful nation (the USSR), and nothing more. Another war will only further harm the Afghani people, already suffering atrocities beyond description at the hands of the Taliban. You KNOW this.
PLEASE do not extend the suffering of the Afghani people any further.
Bin Laden wants a World War between Islam and the West. PLEASE do not give him what he wants most. PLEASE deny him this. Capture him, punish him, but do NOT give him his Jihad.
Grateful for all your hard work, I am,
Sincerely,
Mark Kramer & Family...
Tess Kramer (daughter, 9)
Valerie Zars
NY NY
My pal Alisa forwarded me this long - but fascinating piece by an
American ex-soldier - now living in Ireland. As the late American
composer David Ackles once astutely observed - sometimes you get a
clearer view on your homeland when you look at if from the perspective
of living elsewhere.
Subject: from an american in ireland
From: Cian Séamas Yates
Sent: Wednesday, September 19, 2001 5:01 PM
I'm a little "absent" these days as I think of home, and the impending war. As an American living alone overseas, and a former soldier, I seem to be in my head a lot more these days. For a few minutes this morning, I was watching Sky News in the company canteen (we have a wall-sized TV screen always showing Sky News), and there was a tribute to the New York City Firemen who died trying to save the people in the WTC.
I started to think of one of the most important people in my life, my maternal great grandfather, a man I never met, who was a fire fighter for the city of Canton, Ohio and died in the line of duty. It is his picture so prominently displayed on my mantle. My connection to him is very strong, through the eyes of me mum, in ways that I can't go into right now, but his spirit felt close to me this day.
But, I'm not into this "Dead or Alive" and "Nuke 'em all" feeling. Nor am I engaging with the vacuous moral relativism from both sides of the Atlantic and the Middle East that makes the claim Americans are equally responsible for what happened. I know there are problems with how America conducts its foreign policy, but it's too simplistic, too much a swallowing of somebody's propaganda to say that we asked for it.
Nobody, Muslim or Christian, American President or Taliban Mullah, let alone most of us in the streets and homes of our respective lands, ever think that far ahead, or really understand how much we are manipulated by all sides. From the FBI and CIA and NRA to the PLO and the IRA, everyone is spinning out their particular version of what is truth. And that truth, while it may lay out a goal of a "united" Ireland or a Palestinian "Free State" or a "free" America, never does count the human cost in any way that could be considered humane.
Well, I never liked a lot of the soft thinking of the left anyway, as bad as the fascist fundamentalism of the right (or those that think they're right). Unlike many people I know, and have read this past week, I've no desire to pay lip service to "the horror" and then go about espousing whatever political agenda I support. Guess I'm not committed enough, nor smart enough for that manoeuvre. Oh well. I guess one Saturday or another will be the time it all happens, after the markets close.
We used to make jokes in the army that military intelligence was an oxymoron like jumbo shrimp. I don't think it is much better these days. But why expect it from the army when civilians aren't any better? Looking at pictures of Afghanistan, I can't see anything worth bombing. Looking a pictures of men thronging the streets of cities in Pakistan, flushed with excitement as they chant anti-U.S.A slogans and burn Old Glory, I look at their clear eyes and fresh, unmarked skin. As they wave their arms, I mark their clean, strong limbs and that all fingers and thumbs are present. I know that those maimed by the landmines, or by malnutrition, aren't in front of the camera, and I wonder how many of those healthy men will be maimed or dead next year.
I do understand that I'm just looking at the surface, and I can't see what may be maimed or crippled under the flesh. Then, I wonder how many have helped the Taliban dig graves to bury alive all the unwanted widows. Perhaps some, perhaps many, are not even aware of such deeds or would not care enough about such an atrocity (as we've been told - in cyberspace - has happened) to be swayed from their rhetoric, much the way Republicans speak of their sorrow at the death in America, as they point fingers at Americans and keep their arms dumps. After all, Canary Wharf isn't the same as Omagh, let alone Manhattan, right? And what goes on in Belfast or the Basque Country isn't the same as Tribeca, right? So, we can bomb them, right?
But these bad bombers had good reasons. Nothing like having the good bombers with their even better reasons to point that out. An Phoblacht/Republican News tells its readership it was America's fault. American and European academics shore up the same shoddy thinking with their quote-filled comments rigid with defunct rhetoric. At least some of the lads in turbans point to divine retribution with purity unavailable in these dry dissertations that both mourn and mock America.
Does it really matter? In the end, we pick a side and we attempt to live with our choice as best we can. Some will support, and some will condemn, and some will just turn away, and some days the roles we choose will shift. All I know is that I've always flown an American Flag in my home long before the current fashion, even if it did have a Native American on it (I didn't have one up in Williamstown, as I had to replace the one I had in Minnesota). I had one up in Belfast, and now in Limerick, I have two, an "Indian" Stars & Stripes, and a regular Old Glory, facing each other in my stairwell with an Irish Tricolour between.
I am an American in Ireland who is happy to be out of the country, but who does long for "home" from time to time. I was more sad than angry to see my former home, both country and city, attacked and my former place of employment - Windows on the World - melt and fall away. No bombs will bring that back, though I do understand that is not the purpose of bombs anyway. I understand that America has to respond, though to my mind, it should be primarily through diplomacy and negotiation. Though if it is to be war, it should be a ground war. I won't go into the reasons right now, though I do understand I'm talking bloody murder let alone bloody hell.
A part of me is even thinking of leaving Ireland and going back home to reenlist - I have exactly 42 days left until I am too old - but I would need a wavier on my service connected disability, and my tattoos, among other things. I'd probably be sent back to Special Forces after a re-training period, if I could get in. I anticipate they'd do much of the ops on the ground, God help them if they get caught out, but I suppose I'd make a damn good drill sergeant in any event.
My only rational for thinking the above is pretty simple. If I were a soldier on the ground, I would fight. I do not know if I would kill those strong young men I see on Sky News as easily as they might kill me, but I would kill. And, if I were a drill sergeant, I would train other, younger men how to fight, and most importantly, how to keep themselves and their comrades alive, so they could make the other fellow die for his country. There would be no grand philosophy, no rush of patriotic passion. Just an acceptance that there is no need for a reason for men to stand up, to step up and fight, and kill and die. It is what men do in this world, what we do best in this world we've created for ourselves. I know there are real men who choose not to fight. Fair play to them. But, the History Channel doesn't dedicate itself to war and men at war on a whim. And though I understand I could come up with many reasons not to fight, in my heart, it seems a pretty simple choice.
Don't fight or kill or bomb unless there is no other choice (so, for me, that means I won't be picking up a gun just yet), but when you do, accept it as one of the things men do because they've failed. People don't kill each other and blow each other up because they're right or have truth on their side or it's their proper return payment. People kill each other because they're mean, selfish and stupid. It is so rare, especially in the modern Western world, that we really have to kill to survive. All the wars and death are testament to our collective lack of intelligence and creativity, to what we're willing to visit upon others to get our own way.
Witness the way people play the word games and the mind games to move their own agenda along. The "my bomb good, your bomb bad" stance, let alone the support for the notion that some people, because of their wealth or questionable foreign policy or religion, for example, actually deserve a "bad" bomb, or helped bring it about upon themselves in the first place. Such reasoning is often reduced to a kind of syllogism, often seemingly valid because it appears to follow a reasonable line of thinking, but untrue because the premises it is built upon are faulty. A premise or truth must be based upon measurable and verifiable data, not just personal or political preference.
So much of what I've been hearing and reading is just more anti-American or anti-Semitic or anti-Arab rhetoric disguised as mournful sentiment. It's a grab bag of fallacies, you name it, it's there. Non-sequiturs, hasty generalizations and false analogies, equivocation here or a slippery slope there. But, mostly, it is the old post hoc, ergo propter hoc fallacy of false cause. There's no real truth behind these assertions, and no real morality that I can see. Just some pundit mouthing platitudes as they exploit tragedy to play the old blame game. In the end, if there's a war, we are all to blame, and we all lose. But no worries, just the same as it ever was, just like we like it.
And that's how I see it,
Cian
Two e-mails - one from Ginny in NY - and one from Krys in NJ -
both of which include a glimpse into the difficulties facing members of
the Muslim community in America.
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 00:05:50
From: Virginia
Dear Martin:
Although I hate the bit about the women's status, I appreciate the possiblities of the following and you probably will too.
I hope you are well and have been glad to be in touch with you. Florence sends her best. She's coming along.
I go to the first funeral of a lifetime friend on Saturday. His family has nothing to bury.
I know there are good times ahead, just not now.
Love From NYC
GINNY
What my friend annette wrote to me:
We live in a very islamic neighborhood. I don't mind and know a few of them personally and we get along just fine. But this one guy across the street has really bothered me. He is very unfriendly, keeps his women locked up in the house, has the beard and robes and the whole bit and a number of young men around the house at all times. When the neighborhood association puts out American flags in everyone's yard for the 4th of July, he pulls his up and throws it away. I began to get more and more worried about this guy that if we attacked Afghanistan he would come over and kill us all in his own personal jihad. I was ready to call the FBI. My imagination was really getting the best of me. Then I realized he was just a symbol that represented what I feared most. And I too might be a symbol to him and his family.
So, yesterday I walked over to him and the young men in his yard and I told him that if things ever got ugly and people were unkind or threatening and their women were afraid or needed help, they could come to me. You should have seen their faces. They melted into softness and they thanked me for my kindness and compassion. We have to destroy these icons in our thinking, break them down and implode them to find the love that will bring us all together.
Subject: NJ update
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 14:04:37
From: Krys
Dear Martin:
Here's an update to my previous post. My trip through Manhattan on Sunday was very surreal. The bus terminal, Grand Central Terminal and 42nd Street were amazingly empty. I even saw a humvee going across town. The taxi stand around the bus terminal was moved several blocks over away from the building. To add to this eerie scene, there was a Christian marching band from Alabama playing, "Bringing In The Sheaves" as they made their way down 8th Avenue. It was like a Twilight Zone episode.
Back at work at my job at a label printer, we've seen a tremendous increase in the number of orders from customers who require government labels for shipments. The military has been placing "emergency buys." One order even specified a description that said "Surface Warfare Enlisted" for a flag the government was ordering. CHILLING.
This morning I spoke with one of my Muslim friends and she remarked that some people who were previously friendly with her are now shunning her or glowering at her. Her family and neighbors are offering to stand guard around her home. She refuses to give in to fear and stays with her normal routines. Other Muslim women are not. They're staying at home and even keeping their children out of school.
It's a disgusting situation and I hope it doesn't get worse.
Michael Owen sent me the text of an extremely well-reasoned
article by Martin Amis from the British newspaper The Guardian The
article is naturally copyright by Martin Amis. I have taken the liberty
of including it here so that his words will reach a wider audience -
especially among Americans.
Subject: Fwd: Martin Amis in The Guardian
Date: 20 Sep 2001 16:52:38
From: Michael Owen
Martin
Did you see the article below by Martin Amis? It's worth the read.
Also the Frontline site for the their program on Bin Laden has some very interesting stuff on it. Worth checking out. I wish I had seen the on air version last week.
http://www.pbs.org/wgbh/pages/frontline/shows/binladen/
Best regards,
Michael
The Guardian (London) - Tuesday September 18, 2001
It was the advent of the second plane, sharking in low over the Statue of Liberty: that was the defining moment. Until then, America thought she was witnessing nothing more serious than the worst aviation disaster in history; now she had a sense of the fantastic vehemence ranged against her.
I have never seen a generically familiar object so transformed by effect. That second plane looked eagerly alive, and galvanised with malice, and wholly alien. For those thousands in the south tower, the second plane meant the end of everything. For us, its glint was the worldflash of a coming future.
Terrorism is political communication by other means. The message of September 11 ran as follows: America, it is time you learned how implacably you are hated. United Airlines Flight 175 was an Intercontinental Ballistic Missile aimed at her innocence. That innocence, it was here being claimed, was a luxurious and anachronistic delusion.
A week after the attack, one is free to taste the bile of its atrocious ingenuity. It is already trite - but stringently necessary - to emphasise that such a mise en scène would have embarrassed a studio executive's storyboard or a thriller-writer's notebook ("What happened today was not credible," were the wooden words of Tom Clancy, the author of The Sum of All Fears). And yet in broad daylight and full consciousness that outline became established reality: a score or so of Stanley knives produced two million tons of rubble.
Several lines of US policy were bankrupted by the events of last Tuesday, among them national missile defence. Someone realised that the skies of America were already teeming with missiles, each of them primed and cocked.
The plan was to capture four airliners - in the space of half an hour. All four would be bound for the west coast, to ensure maximum fuel-load. The first would crash into the north tower just as the working day hit full stride. Then a pause of 15 minutes, to give the world time to gather round its TV sets. With that attention secured, the second plane would crash into the south tower, and in that instant America's youth would turn into age.
If the architect of this destruction was Osama bin Laden, who is a qualified engineer, then he would certainly know something about the stress equations of the World Trade Centre. He would also know something about the effects of ignited fuel: at 500C (a third of the temperature actually attained), steel loses 90% of its strength. He must have anticipated that one or both of the towers would collapse.
But no visionary cinematic genius could hope to recreate the majestic abjection of that double surrender, with the scale of the buildings conferring its own slow motion. It was well understood that an edifice so demonstrably comprised of concrete and steel would also become an unforgettable metaphor. This moment was the apotheosis of the postmodern era - the era of images and perceptions. Wind conditions were also favourable; within hours, Manhattan looked as though it had taken 10 megatons.
Meanwhile, a third plane would crash into the Pentagon, and a fourth would crash into Camp David (the site of the first Arab-Israeli accord) or possibly into the White House (though definitely not into Air Force One: this rumour was designed to excuse Bush's meanderings on the day). The fourth plane crashed, upside down, not into a landmark but into the Pennsylvanian countryside, after what seems to have been heroic resistance from the passengers. The fate of the fourth plane would normally have been one of the stories of the year. But not this year. The fact that for the first few days one struggled to find more than a mention of it gives some idea of the size of the American defeat.
My wife's sister had just taken her children to school and was standing on the corner of Fifth Avenue and Eleventh Street at 8.58 am, on the eleventh day of the ninth month of 2001 (the duo-millennial anniversary of Christianity). For a moment she imagined herself to be on a runway at Kennedy Airport. She looked up to see the glistening underbelly of the 767, a matter of yards above her head. (Another witness described plane number one as "driving" down Fifth Avenue - at 400mph.) There is a modest arch that fronts Washington Square Park; American Airlines Flight 11 from Boston to Los Angeles was flying so low that it had to climb to clear it.
We have all watched aeroplanes approach, or seem to approach, a large building. We tense ourselves as the supposed impact nears, even though we are sure that this is a parallax illusion, and that the plane will cruise grandly on. My sister-in-law was right behind Flight 11. She urged it to swerve, to turn into the plentiful blue sky. But the plane did not turn. That afternoon her children would be bringing refreshments to the block-long queue waiting to give blood at St Vincent's.
Now the second aircraft, and the terror revealed - the terror doubled, or squared. We speak of "plane rage" - but it was the plane itself that was in frenzy, one felt, as it gunned and steadied and then smeared itself into the south tower. Even the flames and smoke were opulently evil, with their vampiric reds and blacks. Murder-suicide from without was now duplicated within to provide what was perhaps the day's most desolating spectacle. They flailed and kicked as they came down. As if you could fend off that abysmal drop. You too would flail and kick. You could no more help yourself than you could stop your teeth from chattering at a certain intensity of cold. It is a reflex. It is what human beings do when they fall.
The Pentagon is a symbol, and the WTC is, or was, a symbol, and an American passenger jet is also a symbol - of indigenous mobility and zest, and of the galaxy of glittering destinations. The bringers of Tuesday's terror were morally "barbaric", inexpiably so, but they brought a demented sophistication to their work. They took these great American artefacts and pestled them together. Nor is it at all helpful to describe the attacks as "cowardly". Terror always has its roots in hysteria and psychotic insecurity; still, we should know our enemy. The firefighters were not afraid to die for an idea. But the suicide killers belong in a different psychic category, and their battle effectiveness has, on our side, no equivalent. Clearly, they have contempt for life. Equally clearly, they have contempt for death.
Their aim was to torture tens of thousands, and to terrify hundreds of millions. In this, they have succeeded. The temperature of planetary fear has been lifted towards the feverish; "the world hum", in Don DeLillo's phrase, is now as audible as tinnitus. And yet the most durable legacy has to do with the more distant future, and the disappearance of an illusion about our loved ones, particularly our children. American parents will feel this most acutely, but we will also feel it. The illusion is this. Mothers and fathers need to feel that they can protect their children. They can't, of course, and never could, but they need to feel that they can. What once seemed more or less impossible - their pro-tection - now seems obviously and palpably inconceivable. So from now on we will have to get by without that need to feel.
Last Tuesday's date may not prove epochal; and it should be the immediate task of the present administration to prevent it from becoming so. Bear in mind: the attack could have been infinitely worse. On September 11 experts from the Centres for Disease Control "rushed" to the scene to test its atmosphere for biological and chemical weapons. They knew that these were a possibility; and they will remain a possibility.
There is also the integrally insoluble hazard of America's inactive nuclear power stations (no nuclear power station has ever been dismantled, anywhere). Equivalent assaults on such targets could reduce enormous tracts of the country to plutonium graveyards for tens of thousands of years. Then there is the near-inevitable threat of terrorist nuclear weapons - directed, perhaps, at a nuclear power station. One of the conceptual tasks to which Bush and his advisers will not be equal is that the Tuesday Terror, for all its studious viciousness, was a mere adumbration. We are still in the first circle.
It will also be horribly difficult and painful for Americans to absorb the fact that they are hated, and hated intelligibly. How many of them know, for example, that their government has destroyed at least 5% of the Iraqi population? How many of them then transfer that figure to America (and come up with 14m)? Various national characteristics - self-reliance, a fiercer patriotism than any in western Europe, an assiduous geographical incuriosity - have created a deficit of empathy for the sufferings of people far away.
Most crucially, and again most painfully, being right and being good support the American self to an almost tautologous degree: Americans are good and right by virtue of being American. Saul Bellow's word for this habit is "angelisation". On the US-led side, then, we need not only a revolution in consciousness but an adaptation of national character: the work, perhaps, of a generation.
And on the other side? Weirdly, the world suddenly feels bipolar. All over again the west confronts an irrationalist, agonistic, theocratic/ideocratic system which is essentially and unappeasably opposed to its existence. The old enemy was a superpower; the new enemy isn't even a state. In the end, the USSR was broken by its own contradictions and abnormalities, forced to realise, in Martin Malia's words, that "there is no such thing as socialism, and the Soviet Union built it". Then, too, socialism was a modernist, indeed a futurist, experiment, whereas militant fundamentalism is convulsed in a late-medieval phase of its evolution. We would have to sit through a renaissance and a reformation, and then await an enlightenment. And we're not going to do that.
What are we going to do? Violence must come; America must have catharsis. We would hope that the response will be, above all, non-escalatory. It should also mirror the original attack in that it should have the capacity to astonish. A utopian example: the crippled and benighted people of Afghanistan, hunkering down for a winter of famine, should not be bombarded with cruise missiles; they should be bombarded with consignments of food, firmly marked LENDLEASE - USA. More realistically, unless Pakistan can actually deliver Bin Laden, the American retaliation is almost sure to become elephantine. Then terror from above will replenish the source of all terror from below: unhealed wounds. This is the familiar cycle so well caught by the matter, and the title, of VS Naipaul's story, Tell Me Who to Kill.
Our best destiny, as planetary cohabitants, is the development of what has been called "species consciousness" - something over and above nationalisms, blocs, religions, ethnicities. During this week of incredulous misery, I have been trying to apply such a consciousness, and such a sensibility. Thinking of the victims, the perpetrators, and the near future, I felt species grief, then species shame, then species fear.
© 2001 Martin Amis
Pamela Sellers is one of the fine people at CNN. I know her
because she has booked me a few times for CNN's show "Talkback Live"
She forwarded this e-mail with info about how to help support the New
York firefighters.
Subject: How to help Firefighters
Date: Thu, 20 Sep 2001 19:03:08
From: Pamela Sellers
Hello everyone,
If you're itching to donate to the New York Firefighters--but aren't sure how to make certain the money directly effects the victims and their families--the follow provides addresses and info. Please donate whatever you can, as the money will be used to fund grief counseling, scholarship funds for children of victims, etc. Thank you for reading, and peace to you all.
Pam
Washington, D.C., September 17, 2001 -- The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation expresses our heartfelt sympathy to all the families and coworkers of our fallen and injured brothers and sisters who so valiantly responded during our national tragedies. The Foundation pledges that these heroes will never be forgotten nor will their families.
The National Fallen Firefighters Foundation (NFFF) announced today that it has dispatched its senior staff and a grief specialist to assist the Fire Department of New York (FDNY) in its efforts to deal with the tragic and horrendous losses that occurred earlier this week. Services to be offered in New York include grief counseling, peer support and scholarships for the families of fallen firefighters.
Here are some of the things you can do:
The Foundation has been in touch with FDNY survivors, NY State fire officials, representatives of chaplains' groups, and families of fallen firefighters from across the country. They have advised that we can best offer support by assisting the Fire Department of New York in channeling messages to the survivors and offers of donations and assistance.
We have offered to be a central point over the next few days for accepting messages of condolence for the families of our fallen and injured heroes. We will ensure that all of these messages are delivered to the families at an appropriate time. You can send these messages to by fax, email or regular mail to:
FDNY Families
C/o National Fallen Firefighters Foundation
PO Drawer 498
Emmitsburg, MD 21727
e-mail:
firehero@erols.com
fax: (301) 447-1645
The International Association of Fire Fighters has established a charity fund for the families. Contributions are tax deductible. Those wishing to send donations should send checks payable to "The New York Fire 9-11 Relief Fund" to:
IAFF General Secretary-Treasurer's Office
Attn: New York Fire 9-11 Relief Fund
1750 New York Avenue, NW
Washington, DC 20006-5395
The Foundation also has an on-line Memory Wall for posting messages at http://www.firehero.org/wall/memory.htm.
We join with the Concerns of Police Survivors in asking all public safety personnel and the general public to wear red, white and blue ribbons in remembrance of our fallen fire and law enforcement personnel and the other victims. You may also show your support by attaching a red, white and blue ribbon to your vehicle.
Each year during the National Fallen Firefighters Memorial Service, families and coworkers leave personal messages on a Remembering banner. We encourage local departments and communities to do similar banners and send them to the Foundation for display at the National Fire Academy and to FDNY.
You can also send donations to the: "The New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund"
New York Firefighters 9-11 Disaster Relief Fund
PO Box 65858
Washington D.C. 20035-5858
I started these webpages with the sound of Cat Stevens' song
"Peace Train" resonating in my head. At that point I did not know that
he'd issued a statement about the terrorist attacks. It was the song
that had inspired the title of this mini-site. I was pleased to
discover that Yusuf islam (as he has been known since 1977) has written
a longer message about the current situation. Here it is....
September 17, 2001
A NEW MESSAGE FROM YUSUF ISLAM - formerly Cat Stevens
COMING to Islam in my late twenties, after years as a wandering pop star, one of the first interesting things I learnt was that the word Islam itself comes from 'Salam' or 'Peace'. It is a faith far away from the violence, destruction and terrorism we have seen in recent days.
The finger has already been pointed at Muslims and the Arab world. But the display of death and indiscriminate killing has nothing to do with a religion that blends scientific reason with spiritual beliefs, a unifying faith.
As a Westerner I had been warned about Islam - that strange foreign religion which seemed to belong to people with a different colour and culture. But after being given the Koran in 1976, I discovered the opposite of what I expected. The Koran first showed me a belief in the universal existence of God (Allah), one God for all. It did not speak against peoples; it said although we may be from different countries and tribes, we were all human born of the same original parents, Adam and Eve. The Koran directly says: "The best of people are the most God-conscious".
British Muslims feel nothing but sympathy for those families who lost loved ones in this awful tragedy we've all just witnessed in the US. This is why, today, along with most Muslims in Britain, we should make it clear that such acts of horrific carnage as we've seen on TV and in the newspapers have nothing to do with the beliefs of most Muslims. The Koran specifically declares: "If anyone murders an (innocent) person...it will be as if he has murdered the whole of humanity." It goes on: "And if anyone saves a person it will be as if he has saved the whole of humanity."
The Koran does not teach us to live in a different world; rather it is full of stories and lessons from the history of humanity as a whole. The Gospel and Torah - the books of the Christian and Jewish Bibles - are mentioned. So are Jesus and Abraham, in fact it may be interesting to know that there is more mention in the Koran about Moses than any other Prophet. Why? Because Islam acknowledges all true faith began with God, and in doing so, it accepts the existence of other cultures and shows how we can all live together in peace. It says: "There is no compulsion in religion" - meaning once a person is of a certain faith there should be no force imposed on that person to change. Elsewhere it states: "To you, your religion; to me mine". So respect for religious values and justice is at the Koran's core.
But some extremists, among them self-appointed Islamic clerics, take parts of sacred Book out of context. This is a dangerous thing. For instance, some would quote verses which say: "Think not of those who are killed in God's way as dead. No, but they are alive, finding their reward with their Lord". This has been quoted to support the action of the suicide bombers. However these verses are actually meant for people who are defending their land under a legitimate state authority, against unjust external invaders. Never does it allow the killing of innocent civilians. In fact suicide itself is strictly forbidden by the Koran. It says: "Do not kill yourselves...Whoever does this in hatred and injustice we shall cast them into the fire."
Another verse often used out of context says: "Do not take the People of The Book (Christians and Jews) for friends." However, they fail to mention the historical context behind the verse, which warned not to make alliances with certain tribes who had helped to attack Muslims from behind in the early 7th Century. In fact the Islamic principle is well known and states: "Show friendship and mercy to People of the Book who are not attacking you". The Koran also says: "Repel evil with good".
Muslims believe in the authority of just government and the principle of consultation. Radical fringe groups of any race, colour or religion who organise to threaten or kill innocent people of any country, disregarding God's boundaries of justice, are deplored by the majority of scholars and ordinary Muslims. The problem is that these small groups try to represent Muslims as a whole outside of Islamic law. You find such dissident factions creating their own rules, contrary to the spirit of the Koran.
The Prophet Muhammad, (peace be upon him) said: "A believer remains within the scope of his religion as long as he doesn't kill another person illegally [outside of due process]". Such knowledge and words of guidance are desperately needed at this time to separate the true from the false.
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 Friday September 21st 2001