Letter to David and Friends

[barbara100 at jps.net]

I think I get it now,  David.  I think I understand you. You want "us" to admit that the terrorists are more "evil" than We are.  It's starting to sink in.  The more I read, the more I listen to people around me, the more I see what it is you're trying to say to "us."  I guess you're not such a bad guy, David.  I mean, if I saw you in the flesh I'd be a little scared you'd try to break my fingers, but I want to be sympathetic to how you feel. I know We Americans have a lot of tenderness in our hearts, despite all the steel reinforcements--truly, David, I want to believe we're Good. And to some degree I do. Tony Blair said some nice things yesterday about us on the radio, and for a moment there in my icy stare of the road, I felt my national pride seep in. I am thankful to be a product of this great society.  I could  have been born in Afghanistan.  
David, I've stripped it to as bare as I could think it. I think the difference between you and me is the classic "us  &  them" mentality. It's Pynchon's one with...Or Tchitcherine passing Enzian on the road. What is it Pynchon says there? so direct and out of character?  

"This is magic. Sure--but not necessarily fantasy.  Certainly not the first time a man has passed his brother by, at the edge of the evening, often forever, without knowing it."

When I bomb Afghans, David, I feel like I'm bombing myself.  When you bomb Afghans, David, I think you just feel like you're bombing Afghans.  And it's not just you--it's a sentiment I see here and all around.  At work it's, "Why are they our problem?  We got people here who need help. We need to take care of our own.  Nothing's fair in War."  I realize now I don't make the same distinctions in life that other people do.  American, Afghani, Iraqi--they're all kinda the same to me.  Yes, it makes a much stronger impact on me when I see the images on TV and know they're so dear and close.  But if you're going to make me contemplate 'Who's the Bigger Evil? Us or Them?' I have to look at suffering and deathtolls. What other measures could there be?  Seriously.  I don't care whose side George Bush thinks God is on; I'm a practical woman, and I think the "evilest" one is the one who kills the "most."  The terrorists got us for 6000 poor innocent souls. It's tragic, it's sad, it's criminal, it's evil, it's inexcusable. It's so bad, I wouldn't wish it on my worst enemy! 

I won't make the arrogant distinctions between my life and theirs just so you all can feel more comfortable with yourselves!       

I'll admit,  I think those terrorists should be euthanized like rabid dogs, for the preservation of society; plucked out at the root like a crabgrass, so the rest of the lawn can flourish. And maybe in the winter time think strategies of sterilization, pre-emergents and fertilizers for the coming spring.  Yes, I believe we have to be practical. 

I don't know what's gonna happen over in Afghanistan, but I'm afraid a lot of people are gonna die. It don't think it's the prudent thing to do to let a huge population of people suffer and die in order to root out a band of terrorist who may or may not kill a few thousand more. If these were investment dollars instead of lives, we'd be losing our asses. And if these were really lives, we'd be losing our humanity. (I'm holding out with "if," you see. I still have my glimmers of hope.) 

I think that Quail friend of yours is a little off, David. I haven't been around long enough to know what he's talking about, but it's not true what he said about Doug gloating in America's misfortune. I wouldn't like Doug the way I do if I tasted even a hint of gloat coming from him. And what he said about him "using this situation to do nothing more than grind  [his] usual axes,"  that's simply not true either. Doug has engaged me, opened my eyes a little to the world, provided me with resources for learning, reiterated for me the importance of taking in different view points, and demonstrated how to be tenacious but tolerant. There are no axes grinding there. 

Barbara  
 


David Morris wrote:
I do get a little hot sometimes, and like many of (US) Irish descent, I 
enjoy a good fight now and then.  What really got me was the recent on-list 
argument that practical US M.E. policy has been at least as (actually more) 
evil than what was displayed by the WTC attack.  That crossed over into the 
"you deserved it" camp.

Being the only remaining superpower (it really is strange to think of one's 
country as such) puts the US in a very difficult position, but those that 
criticize with such zeal should honestly answer whether it would have been 
better for the world had the US walked way from the cold war, because 
essentially we ARE experiencing "blowback" from that war.  And by this 
question I seek only a balance in weighing US guilt in what were (and are) 
numerous real sins.