Will YOU be the next dead American?

by Nathan Natas 69 Replies latest jw friends

• 

  teejay

  Interesting article, Nathan. Very sobering. It's an easy one to write off. Not me.

  It's a tough call. One thing we know... the nineteen that have been identified received a lot of help from people who are still here. I thought today: all of those in that 'terrorist' network have been here for years. They went to work, worshipped on the weekends, along with taking their children to the park to play. They shopped at the mall; went to the market. All the while, they worked their plan.

  Nineteen are history. What about the other 100? 200? 500? How ever many, they are still in country and NONE of them carry Osama bin Laden placards, making them easily identifiable. Is anyone still asleep to the extent that they now feel that life in America is REALLY like it was?

  Something else we know: these people are quite serious and will stop at nothing to accomplish their goals. The instantaneous deaths of 50,000 people was conceived, planned and executed. Are they happy now, satisfied that the job is done, or are more tragedies in our future?

  Is a grade school full of a thousand six- to ten-year-olds off limits? A horrible thought. I asked several people that question and they all said, "surely not." Really?

  How about a major shopping mall?

  Or an airport?

  Thursday, our company was advised that a driver for a major national carrier was approached and offered an "extremely exorbitant amount of money" for his tractor-trailer rig... IN CASH... on the spot. The Dept. of Transportation is on the alert that a rig of that sort could be used in a future attack.

  The Israelis have seen bombs go off in city busses, clothing stores, movie theaters... wherever people gather. Anyone who thinks that can't happen here, after what's happened, better wake up.

  Deport all Muslims not U.S. citizens? I don't know... but the America of today is not the same one we lived in two weeks ago. That's a fact. The question is, what are we going to do about it?

  peace to all,
  tj~scared as hell
• 

  teejay

  Here's something else.

  I've begun to notice Arabs. Or rather, to take note.

  I was pulling up to a stop sign, and in the next lane to the right were a couple of, what appeared to be, people of Arabic descent. What was more of interest to me than them was the guy on the motorbike the next lane beyond them. I checked to see HIS response... to see if HE noticed.

  He did. He was as interested in them as I was in his reaction to them. It took him a long time to take his eyes off them, but he did. I noticed.

  The point is, we notice. We wonder. Being Black, I know it's damn unfair to wonder about people who are totally innocent, totally appalled by the tragedy, totally in love with a freedom that most of us take (took?) for granted, simply because of what they look like. It's wrong, really. It's wrong. And it's un-American. It goes against the way I was raised.

  Due to my color, my history, my life experiences... I'm holding myself in check. I'm holding on to the America I remember, but something really scares me, more than the terrorists. I'm scared that I've been changed, deep on the inside, in ways I can't control.

  Because, when I see a stranger, because of how he looks...

  ... I wonder.
• 

  Bridgette

  Chilling indeed, tj. Torn is what I am. I am loathe to give the terrorists mine or my fellow Americans (no matter where they're from) freedoms. But as you said, this is so not the America we had two weeks ago. I want peaceable, freedom loving people to come here, live here with us--I feel a kinship with anyone in the world who just wants to be free enough to speak, walk, live, think, write as their conscience guides them, so long as they don't promote violence. But I want there to be a "HERE" to come to. We are in a crisis situation. I work in a hospital. When someone comes in with a highly infectious disease (like airborne TB) we quaranteen. It's not done out of meanness, hatefulness, or spite. It's done for the sake of public safety. People wear respirators and all kinds of garb to protect themselves when they provide care to the quaranteened individual. Are we afraid we're going to hurt their feelings treating him/her basically like a pariah? What if we get the lab results back and they didn't have the highly infectious disease? Should we be penalized for taking every precaution? It never crosses ours or the patients' minds! It's public safety. But it's meted out devoid of old prejudices. I think what people are afraid of (myself included) is that this will degrade into a witch hunt. Nobody wants that. But we want to be safe. So, what do we do? How do you weigh public safety against rights of individuals? One thing that chilled me to the bone the other day was listening to a native New Jersian who lived in the same neighborhood as one of the terrorists. He was absolutely dumbfounded--he said this guy ran the corner newspaper stand. They talked and joked every morning. He NEVER came across as someone capable of hating Americans. He had been here for YEARS.
  Let's talk about alternatives to deporting Muslims. I don't know of any. But believe me, I am desperate for them--because I don't like the thought of good innocent, law abiding people having to root up from their home--if this is home in their heart.
  Solutions!! What do we DO?!?!?!
  Bridgette
• 

  crossroads

  Bridgett---I kept reading this line over and over
  "They talked and joked every morning. He NEVER came across as someone capable of hating Americans. He had been here for YEARS."
  Maybe the man didn't hate americans, did McVeigh hate americans?

  Oh and here's a News Flash for everyone; you are safer today
  then you were on the 10th of September but now you are not
  sleep walking.

  If we should start to carpet bomb the Muslem--Islamic world
  their will be NO place on the plant that will be safe.

  I'm real happy that we have lifted sanctions or given money
  to all the TERRORTST nations that we have this week so
  that in 20years they too can do something like this to our
  kids. We haven't learned anything from this, sad to say we
  the almighty and hollier than thou US never will.

  We should stop funding terrorism and warfare PERIOD.
  NO MONEY to this STAN or that STAN, the Sudan or Isreal,
  But like I said we haven't learned anything yet. Next stop
  Pakistan and NUCLEAR WEAPONS let the good times roll.

  The Loyal Opposition
• 

  TR

  Seeker,

  Claiming that people see things in black and white is so cliche'. A blanket statement with nothing to back it up. The idiots who attack people for no reason are just that. Idiots. They don't see anything. They're just idiots. But why rile the idiots? The idiots that attacked our country just caused themselves and their fellow idiots a lot more pain, along with many other law abiding and decent people who are not idiots. So, who are the idiots now?

  TR

  The only thing necessary for the triumph of evil is for good men to do nothing.
  —Edmund Burke
• 

  Bridgette

  Crossroads, you asked: "Maybe the man didn't hate americans, did McVeigh hate americans?"
  Yes. But now that you mention it--it goes far deeper--these terrorists, white, american, muslim and otherwise hate humans. Call me naive, but I think anytime you want to kill people, you pretty much hate them. I can't separate the two. McVeigh was a big fan of the "Turner Diaries" by William Pierce. It's a sociopathic piece of work about the whites finally having their revolution and killing people--not just blacks but anyone who doesn't agree, walk, talk, look like them (the revolutionists). He's also written a piece called "Hunter", the main character based in part on a true life story of a man now in prison. It shows white revolutionists killing blacks, whites who fraternize with them, adn racially mixed babies. I make no distinction when it comes to hate. When you want to kill people for any other reason than self defense, you hate them.
  So, stop giving money to terrorists. I like that idea. Aren't they freezing assets already? I have known that feminist organizations had tried to warn the US govt for years about the Taliban. But because of it's and Osama's interests in oil, well...you guessed it. But giving no money to terrorists seems like a no brainer. What do we do about our immediate safety? I've heard that sentiment that we're safer now than we ever have been, but I don't feel it. I want to feel it, but I don't. Those people were here, just living, "talking and joking with us every morning at the corner newspaper stand" and they wanted to kill us. I have to say, I don't want people who want to kill me living by me. I don't care what color/culture they are. Call me crazy.
  Bridgette
  p.s. I like the not funding terrorists, but it might take a little more. Suggestions? And how do we monitor our gov't as to who they are sending money to, and what those guys stand for? And I don't even want to hear about Israel right now. Until sept 11, I was a huge sympathizer to the Palestinian people, and would let that reflect in my votes when applicable. And I'm married to a jewish american! We sat and argued one night (just a couple of days before WTC) while we watched Fiddler on the Roof! He saying "it's just a little strip of dirt--they had no place to go" me saying: "but they displaced people!" blah blah blah---I tell you now, I will not address such violent acts with civility. Just like on my personal being, or my child's, I will address violent acts with acts of self defense. You cannot set a precedence of "oh, the next time you want to get our attention about something, just bomb us, or kill a few of us again--okay?, yea, go ahead, feel free. Sorry we weren't listening or responding EXACTLY the way you wanted us to the first time! But this bombing thing really WORKS to get your voice heard, so go ahead." I will continue to propogate an INDIVIDUAL Palestinian's, and others' rights via Amnesty International (who screens those whom it sponsors to ensure that they do NOT propogate violence) but I will probably NOT use my voting power again to assist Palestinians.
• 

  crossroads

  Bridgette we have frozen assets of Bin Laden and crew.
  But in a knee jerk reaction we have lifted sanctions on
  Pakistan and India---both with Nuclear Bombs. We have
  gotten into bed with many worse nations since the attack--
  much like we got into bed with the people that just bombed
  us 20years ago. Yesterday took the cake for we let Sudan
  under the covers(they have been 3rd or 4th on our Terroist
  nation list) what morons our government is showing us to be.

  Really I think we agree a lot---You sound like a great lady,
  hope your work with Amnesty goes well. May you have a
  Peaceful day---Love Mark
• 

  teejay

  A quote I thought was apropos. Whether it applies in this case is up for debate...
  -----------------------------------------------------------------

  "In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me -- and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."

  -Martin Niemöller

  tj
• 

  Seeker

  TR,

  Claiming that people see things in black and white is so cliche'.

  And it happens so often that it becomes cliche'. Pointing it out is merely an attempt to focus thinking on the bigger picture.

  A blanket statement with nothing to back it up.

  Other than the original words that exhibited the black-and-white thinking.

  The idiots who attack people for no reason are just that. Idiots. They don't see anything. They're just idiots. But why rile the idiots? The idiots that attacked our country just caused themselves and their fellow idiots a lot more pain, along with many other law abiding and decent people who are not idiots. So, who are the idiots now?

  I believe the argument I was making is that what the terrorists did was NOT an excuse for the idiots to act idiotically. For those actions, they have only themselves to blame.
• 

  Nathan Natas

  teejay,

  SURELY you are not suggesting that Niemoller's quote about the NAZIs rounding people up into prisons and CONCENTRATION CAMPS:

  "In Germany, they first came for the communists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a communist. Then they came for the Jews, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Jew. Then they came for the trade unionists, and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a trade unionist. Then they came for the Catholics and I didn't speak up because I wasn't a Catholic. Then they came for me -- and by that time there was nobody left to speak up."

  -Martin Niemöller

  Is somehow equivalent with a proposal to simply send these people BACK TO THEIR HOMES!

  If you really believe that these actions are equivalent, please explain why they are.