85 thoughts on “09.11.02”
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i turned myself to face me – from star trek: the cruise vii
I use my phone to record all of my talks and readings, and then I put them with all my glasses and my shoes, so I have them.
star trek the cruise vii was wonderful
We disembarked from Star Trek: The Cruise Thursday morning at 715 in Orlando, waited in the airport for seven hours, and got home to Los Angeles just before midnight, which […]
wild child
I looked at it, curiously. Why do I still have this?
this is correlation, not causation
Just a couple of days ago, I told Anne that though I am always a little sad to wrap a season of Ready Room, because I genuinely love my job that much, I was glad to have the time and energy to do stuff together. It's always so weird how we can live together, sleep in the same bed, see each other every single day, and still miss each other because we're just so damn busy, and going in opposite directions most of the time. I was so happy that she had the idea to go out together, which is something we just haven't done in a long time.
The United States must lead by example, by acting not in the interests of its profiteering corporations, but in the interests of the inalienable rights declared by her Founding Fathers 226 years ago.
Good job Wil. I left my computer on your site all day long so that my roommate and our friends could see your message. Keep it comming.
I came to WWDN for comfort and found it. My heart and mind were filled with too little to say and too much to imagine. Thank you for the space you gave for us to do make both alright. Imagining peace …
One of the coolest links ever. Blue Man Group rocks!!
OK, I’m still not getting it.
I don’t get how instability in the mideast makes it easier to get oil. Please elaborate.
I don’t get how it’s evil to excel. Are companies only suppsoed to achieve a certain level of success and, then, what? Give money to those who can’t compete? What is an acceptable level of success?
It’s the same thing we see within the US with Microsoft and Bill Gates. We love a success story, but if you become TOO successful you are evil personified. I don’t get that mindset. Sounds like sour grapes to me.
It’s all rhetoric with no substance. What is the US doing that is so awful? Being successful? Gaining more wealth?
What, then, is the solution? Try less? Be less successful? Who would be evil then? Canada? Britain? Germany? Japan? Someone has to be the top dog keeping everyone down after all…
Look, there are serious problems in the world. Could the US do more to actively solve them? Probably, but when the US acts it’s “interfering” and when it doesn’t, it’s “uncaring.”
I don’t know what the answer is, but they damned sure isn’t to give in to maniacs who fly planes into buildings and threaten to attack our schools. Those people need to leave the planet immediately if not sooner, and then let the rational ones talk about solutions.
Wil,
Well said Wil, well said.
Until your next post……
Matt……
Zeno!
You rock!!
I agree. My question about us “interfering in other cultures”, is
Is it justifiable to attack another country’s government/culture when half that culture is oppressed, subjugated, reduced to nothing (ie women in the Arab world)? I think the US has a right, no an OBLIGATION to protect everyone in the world. The weak of the world need to know thats theres hope for a future for them. And that means taking out some of these horrible, misogynistic anti-western a-holes.
But even if our goals as the US is to bring US style democracy to the world, whats the prob? Who can read our Constitution and disagree with the basic human rights written there? Sure, the US messes up ALL THE TIME and does things we’d rather not talk about or admit, but whats the altnernative?
If the whole world lived by the US constitution, we’d still have lots of problems, but everyone would finally have a forum to discuss those problems and the ability to get involved and rectify all greviences, without having to resort to terrorism to get it.
Let me guess, Wil went to the Blue Man Group at the Luxor…regarding entry: thanks.
http://www.dnalounge.com/gallery/2002/08-22/
Wil, thanks for exhibiting the same class and thoughtfulness you always do.
As for those who feel the urge to wallow in jingoism, ask yourselves this: Were it not for America’s near total addiction to foreign oil, how much genuine interest would we have in the geo-political goings on in the Middle East? Would we have done much beyond foreign aid for Kuwait or Saudi Arabia? Would we have spent so much time and effort throwing foreign and military aid at Israel?
Before even half-heartedly assuming the role of “innocent victim” in the global community, I think we, as Americans, owe it to ourselves to become a little more intimately acquainted with our government’s foreign policy track record.
No words exist to describe the scope of the tragedy of the events of last September. To remain willfully ignorant of the actions of our country that have created the environment that resulted in the attacks is to desecrate the memory of those who lost their lives.
Nice sentiment, but as long as the naked ape walks the Earth, it ain’t gonna happen.
It isn’t inherently evil to excel, but with power comes responsibility. You can’t avoid that.
Microsoft has gained a very large amount of power and money. Things that would normally be okay for a company to do, are unethical, and yes, evil for it to do.
The United States (God Bless it) has gained a very large amount of power. I feel/hope that its foreign policy has been well intentioned. It certainly has not been sane or well implemented. In an attempt to “make the western hemisphere safe for democracy”, we put people like Pinochet in Chile, Noriega in Panama, Ortega in Nicaragua, etc etc etc.
We haven’t restricted ourselves to just the western hemisphere. Read about the Boxer Rebellion sometime. In the middle-east, we established the Taliban and al Qa’ida with our money, our special ops teams, our intelligence networks, to fight communism in the mid-east. We refused money that Egypt needed to build the Aswan Dam and avoid starvation, just so we could have more power over the Suez Canal. I could go on like this for pages.
And we cannot just blame our government. Citizens of the United States provide the majority of the funding for terrorist groups in Ireland. Ask the people in the UK how much death and destruction that has caused.
What happened a year ago was atrocious, and while I lost no one, I cannot help but feel shivers when I see images or read about the events. I still wonder if we didn’t take “Talk softly and carry a big stick” a little too much at heart.
Amen!
Wil,
user friendly is at it again with you today.
http://ars.userfriendly.org/cartoons/?id=20020912
check it out.
until your next post……
Matt……
Wil,
Leave it up to you to always have the right words to say… and for the rest of America hold your heads up high and never let them see you down.
You raise some interesting points, Jeffrey, and use examples of mistakes that are impossible to refute. So, the question remains: What is the answer? What do we do?
Total isolationism? Great Britain still bristles in regard to that pre-Pearl Harbor decision.
Police the world and get involved with every injustice everywhere? Sounds like Imperialism to me, and I doubt the American taxpayers, let alone loved ones of those in the military, would stay on board with that one for long.
Get involved only where we have vested interest? I think we all see the criticism that arises with that, our current, policy…
How can the US win? Damned if we do, damned if we don’t. I’m willing to get on board with anything that stops fanatics from threatening to blow up our stadiums and kindergartens (as I read in Monday’s paper).
The US is far from perfect (but still the best damned game in town). We have internal problems and foreign relations problems, but how do we fix it? How do we deal with people who think suicide bombings and killing American children is an acceptable form of diplomacy?
May peace prevail, indeed. Thanks, Wil.
We are attracted to shows like Star Trek because we want to believe that the future is bright, that change is possible, that peace and reason will prevail, that we will raise the level of our evolution to more enlightened creatures who don’t use violence to settle differences, and who can constructively control destructive emotions like anger and put them to use to create positive change.
We want to believe this, but it is difficult. It is easy to become discouraged. It is easy to be cynical. It is easy to be angry. Hope is what is hard. Faith is difficult, because it is just that – faith, unknowable and unprovable. (Why else are so many of our conflicts with each other based on religion?) But that’s how we do evolve. And it happens one person at a time. War is easy. Killing is easy. Dying is easy. Living with each other is the challenge. Are we up for it? Keep the faith, everyone. We must keep on believing.
“A man huddles in a dark recess of his mind, crying. He holds back the tears, but not the rage, and swings his fist. He screams angrily.
A woman huddles in a corner crying. She wipes blood from her cheek and flinches at the bruise left by his hand. She sniffles quietly.
A child huddles under his bed crying. He wipes tears from his eyes and shivers at the screams in the living room. He disconnects swiftly.
A country huddles in amongst themselves crying. They blind themselves from the real violence happening around them every day. They do nothing.”
The USA was wounded on September 11th, 2001.
The USA has healed that wound a little bit every day since.
The USA is dying anyway.
The USA ignores the wounds made hundreds of times a day.
Thousands of families are DESTROYED every minute in the world by domestic violence. Yet atrocities like 9-11 make the world take notice? WAKE UP FOLKS!!! and for the love of whatever “GOD” you know, GET UP AND DO SOMETHING!!!!!!ANYTHING!!!!! or it will be YOU next that we DON’T bother worrying about when your “loved one” beats you to death.
Eternally,
Ember
I wish I had an answer for our domestic and foreign policy. Like you said, damned if you do, damned if you don’t. I don’t think the UK has much to complain about, but of course I didn’t have the hell bombed out of my capitol city every day for a couple years. We really are the UK writ large. The UK was always able to be a little ivory towerish in european politics because of that channel of theirs. We just have a bigger channel in a bigger world. I sometimes lean toward taking a back seat to the UN as world police. I can hear the “loss of state soverignty” people now.
I would rather take this discussion off WWDN, feel free to write me at [email protected]
I think we have gone far enough off topic 🙂
Um, yeah Wil!
Jeff
I hate the word “revenge” and I hate the word “war”
I send my thoughts and prayers for the victims, and their families + friends. Rest in peace.
But right now I will do what I can to help the people in Africa who’s dying of hunger. I will buy rainforests to save the rainforests when I have the money or the chance, and I will keep on hoping for peace. But as long as people want revenge and people want war there will be no peace.
PEACE! That’s what I want. Peace. Not revenge and not war. But peace.
Helene
I’ll avoid one of my usual bitching sessions about America.
All I want to say is that I am very glad thay Al Quaeda or any other fuckers didn’t use yesterday’s grief as a platform with which to launch another attack.
My heart goes out to all those who lost loved ones, friends and colleages, and my eternal hatred goes out to all those who would use death and violence to impose their will upon innocents.
Countless people across the world have suffered pain, torture and death in the time it took me to write this. 9/11 was a monstrous tragedy, but it is only one among many.
We must never forget that.
But we think killing foreign children and giving the Israelis Black Hawk helicopters to blow up living rooms so they do not need to use suicide bombers is just fine.
Hypocrisy is sooooooo 1987, Zeno.
Peace is fantastic, we all love peace. We all *want* peace. But sometimes you have to take a stand and actually protect yourselves and stop your pissing and finger-pointing.
What if we did indeed change our entire middleeastern policies based on the 9/11 attacks? What a great idea – everyone always says “find out why they did this” or “we had it coming for our own terrorist actions since WWII.” If we change all of our middle eastern policies as a result of these attacks, then we are sending a very plain message: “NEXT TIME YOU DISAGREE WITH OUR POLICIES, MURDER THOUSANDS OF US AND WE WILL CHANGE THEM.” Nope. Never. These people want us dead and are willing to die for it. We can only stop them by rendering them dead.
Any of you guys ever read Ayn Rand? She knew very well that the appeasers above all are most dangerous. The appeasers make sure that attacks on our country go unanswered, hence encouraged again. I have no doubt, none whatsoever, that the same crowd that’s blaming us for this now would have blamed us for Pearl Harbor.
Fuck that. We should rest only after every person actively trying to do us harm is wiped off the face of the earth.
Peace, after we win.
I actually like this one better: http://www.politicsandprotest.org/
You’re a pussy Wil, like those shithead Christians…
I think it’s worse one year later- since we now know the names and faces of so many who have died that day- Last year-
I had taped the news coverage and looked back on it- and remembered that at first they didn’t even realize that it was an Attack til the second plane hit then the Pentagon and of course who can forget- the flt 93 who fought back and sacrificed them selves to keep them from hitting the White House… all in all we are definatly all changed since then.
Hold your loved ones a little tighter, remember to say you love them, and cherrish all moments. you never know when they will be taken away.
Wil,
I certainly agree with you in hoping that peace will prevail on earth. I think we have a way to go yet.
It is the natural yearning of all humans to live in freedom, and to have choices and opportunity in their lives. This is only possible when people live under gov’ts that recognize and protect their citizens’ right to freedom. Until most all people live in freedom, under gov’ts that protect rather than abuse their citizens’ natural yearnings, we will always have conflict. People will rebel against the tyrants. The tyrants will try to extend their tyranny to others who will resist, etc., etc.
The monarchies, dictators, theocrats, thugs, Chairmen of the Parties, or whatevers, who deny freedom have no history of voluntarily giving up their privileged positions and setting their people free. Think of any democracy: the USA, Great Britain, any of them, and what events led to their being democracies where people enjoy freedom. What about Germany and Japan? No history of democracy there until it was imposed militarily after 50,000,000 people had died, many of them innocent civilians.
As I believe someone has already said, peace will prevail after all the variously named thug govt’s who deny their people freedom have been defeated: militarily, economically, from international pressure, or whatever. I think the military method has been, and will continue to be, the most effective. That might come from internal armed rebellion, or from outside force.
One comment for those who thrill in listing the assorted thugs the USA made alliances with in the past, or the nations where we helped overthrow gov’ts. From the early fifties until around 1990, our policy was to contain communism. To do that, we made many unsavory alliances, and we helped overthrow some socialist govt’s (Chile). Few things are ever 100% perfect, but our goals were noble: to keep free peoples free, and to prevent communism from spreading to enslave even more people. Anyone can point out the flaws, but the main goal was to keep the largest number of people free of communism that we could. Sometimes the alternatives weren’t much better, but the tyranny of communism lives in only about four nations now, where once it was twenty to thirty.
I’ve heard it said often lately that democracies don’t go to war with each other. I can’t think of a case where it’s happened. I believe the more who live under some reasonable form of democracy, the more that peace will prevail. But, again, the ruling thugs aren’t prone to granting their people freedom and democracy.
The best hope for peace is that more and more of the thugs will be defeated. Most likely that will most always involve some amount of shooting and killing, and the death of some innocents. Can someone show where that is incorrect, based on history, not unrealized dreams or John Lennon lyrics? If anyone can, I hope they will.
In today’s world, the USA, with all its flaws, is the best hope for greater freedom and peace.
One more thought: If you’d decided to give peace a chance, be certain the other guys (or nations) have decided the same.
William, well said. No anger or rancor, just the truth.
My heart goes out to all of those who lost there lives on September 11th….
its so sad
Wil, I think this may interest you:
http://www.livejournal.com/talkread.bml?journal=vyoma&itemid=437161
Wil, that was touching.
and 666FAG, you must be a very sad person. i hope you grow a brain someday.
The site listed above is my personal tribute to the World Trade Centers: http://www.tradecenterfilms.com
It is dedicated to displaying all of the movies that the World Trade Centers have appeared in over the years. I never noticed them until after 9/11 and since then I’ve seen them in so many movies it’s spooky. Come on over and check out all the movies displayed so far and keep coming back because I am always adding more.
You know, there was wall to wall television coverage of the anniversary down here in Australia, and I watched bits here and there, because, really, it was unbearable to watch those terrible images yet again. But one thing that came out of that for me was that every single person who made a phone call from within Tower 1 or Tower 2, or from the flight that came down in Pennsylvania was concerned with telling those on the other end that they loved them. That’s all that mattered. And it is all that mattered. It’s the one thing that will matter to every single one of us at the end of our lives. Love is really all that matters in this world, and we have to constantly remind ourselves and each other of that every day we live.
Peace, Vicki
That really just says it all.
inzucht mpeg
http://inzucht.inc-diary.com/