[Grovenet] 100-year Anniversary of 9/11

[Ron D'Eau Claire]

Thank you Geri (and Bud for the earlier reminder).

There's something especially sad for me about observing 9/11 that has little
to do with the shock of the horrible loss of life that day, or the horrible
way they died. Rather it's about the tens of thousands of other Americans
who met similar, unnecessary horrible deaths in 2001 that do not receive
similar concern or remembrance. Those were women, mothers, children and men
who were literally torn limb-from-limb, burned alive or crushed to death in
2001, and similar numbers have been repeated every year before and since.
They too left families devastated by the loss of loved ones and
breadwinners. Children left behind, often maimed and disfigured who lost
parents, brothers, sisters and their security. 

We don't award them public funds to help the survivors get on with their
lives. We don't erect any monuments to their horrible end. We don't even
seem to care that we could have prevented their terrible fates. We keep
right on doing what we've always done as off those lives mattered not at
all. Yet, almost ten such people died for every 9/11 death. About 40,000 in
all in 2001 alone. 
 
I'm not speaking of those struck by a terrible disease or such calamity. I'm
speaking of the innocents who, like those that morning of 9/11 six years
ago, were healthy and vital; they going on about their lives like any other
day when they were killed or mutilated in a traffic collision. 

We have the power to prevent almost every one of those. We simply lack the
will. What does it say about American society? 

Let's keep 9/11 in perspective. In spite of the horrible carnage, it was
simply a little "bump" in the horror we allow our fellow citizens to suffer
every year little more than a brief "tsk-tsk" when we see the news. Unless
it was one of our loved ones. Then we're alone in our loss, left to pick up
the pieces as best we can with little more than a sympathetic glance from
those who know of our tragedy. 

Ron D'Eau Claire 



-----Original Message-----
From: grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com [mailto:grovenet-bounces at rdrop.com] On
Behalf Of Geri
Sent: Monday, September 11, 2006 9:05 AM
To: GroveNet
Subject: [Grovenet] 100-year Anniversary of 9/11


No, that's not a typo.  There really is a 100-year 9/11 anniversary:

     http://tinyurl.com/lsvup
     
     "A brief history of September 11, 1906: the Birth of Satyagraha
     
     "Adapted by NP volunteer Derek Mitchell & NP staff from the writings of
Professor Michael Nagler, Professor emeritus and founder of the Peace and
Conflict Studies program at University of California, Berkeley.
     
     " 'During my half-century of experience, I have not yet come across a
situation when I had to say ... that I had no remedy in terms of
non-violence.' - Mahatma Gandhi
     
     "One hundred years ago a historic meeting took place in Johannesburg,
South Africa, that would change human history. . . ."


Geri

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