REFLECTIONS
(page
4)
re
TERRORIST ATTACKS ON THE USA
SEPTEMBER 11, 2001
After
September 11, I sent many messages to my haiku friends in the USA
expressing my sadness and difficulty in understanding the act of terrorists
against humanity and civilization. (Our) government will join the other
countries to fight against the terrorists.
We have to pray for the people who died during the terrorist attacks. — Ion Codrescu, Romania Autumn storm—
...
my pain and prayers for those who have losses and will have losses, and
for those who stand and will be standing ... on Judgment day.
S.O.S.
Black Day in September (Dedicated to the victims of the September 11, 2001 tragedy)
innocence crumbles
FIRE AND FURY (A Haibun) Crack of dawn, far from home, I shuffle over to the motel office for coffee and a stale doughnut only to find the staff standing mesmerized in front of the TV. “They’re bombing the World Trade Center! The Pentagon!” Forget Oregon’s sandy beaches. We spent most of the next few days like the rest of the nation: glued to the TV. Pearl Harbor all over again. Except this time an unknown enemy. An enemy who used our own planes as bombs. Commercial planes. Our own people as suicide bombers. Our families and friends. We
watched the plane hit the tower over and over. Shrank back from flame
and falling rubble. Rejoiced as survivors stumbled out into the open,
gasping and coated with dust. The blind man and his dog, safe after
going down flight after flight of stairs, greeting the firemen as they
rushed upward. We wept with with the CEO of Cantor-Fitzgerald, late to
work because he took his kindergartner to the first day of school.
His entire staff - everyone - lost. Wept with wide-eyed children,
standing on the sidewalk, watching, waiting, hoping for their mothers to
come out. Their fathers.
We
watched the towers fall, over and over. Stared at the gap in the
Pentagon. Watched Air Force One going back to Washington, fighter planes
at its wing tips. And then, all our planes grounded, all our flags
flying at half mast, all our public events cancelled, we looked at rubble.
Tons and tons of rubble. And listened to talking heads, hour after
hour. And then finally, a definitive moment: we watched the Wallstreeters
go back to work, picking their way through the rubble, briefcases in one
hand, waving flags in the
Horrified,
sickened as we were, we had to admire the planning, the execution of this
attack. Its outright originality. Its daring. But why these particular
targets? The Pentagon, yes. A symbolic strike at our military
might, often arrogantly used. We can almost sympathize with that.
The World Trade Center as a symbol of our financial might? Or not just
ours, but everyone’s? Is this the old problem of the Haves vs. the Have
Nots as my Political Science Professor at the U of Wyoming used to rant
about, banging with his fists on the chalkboard at those words written
there? What about the millions, the billions, the trillions we’ve poured
into aid for the rest of the world? Does that count for nothing?
And were we supposed to just crumble and give them - whoever they are -
what they want - whatever that is? How little they know us.
flags at half mast
We watched in shock and disbelief as the events of Sept the 11th unfolded on CNN in Singapore. We have a choice now, as never before, to make decisions that affect the collective future of all of humankind — a collective choice to choose a more peaceful, and peace-loving world, a choice to build bridges and work with other nations in securing this ideal, a choice to choose justice, and not revenge, a choice to spread love and hope, not fear and anger..a choice to choose life over death.. Let
us choose wisely, and spread our thoughts, support and love to those who
have lost family and friends in what must be one of humanity's most testing
times...May Love prevail.
watching the news—
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