>The answers are very clear, but they are too often rejected.
>
> The rejection, its nature, is also the province of poets, because
usually
> it involves changing the sentence subject and / or leaping a couple
of
> stages in the argument.
Of all the words I've read and heard since 9/11 these, Lawrence, strike
the heart of what is a global issue. There exist an opportunity for all
societies to make great leaps in thinking. That thinking has the
potential of manifesting a restructuring of actual systems. The big IF
at the World's door (as I see it) is that the causes of inequity can be
addressed and eradicated if nations acknowledge their own complicity in
creating enmity and accede that human rights supercede corporate rights.
Where is the moral high ground of a nation that has routinely funded and
executed military campaigns in South America (for one example) on behalf
of corporate interests? How many legitimate governments, how many tens
of thousands of civilians, have disappeared in Rightist coups and as a
result of economic blockades financed and armed by the USA?
How many people have suffered because of American support of power
elites throughout the Third World?
How many people labor under sub-standard conditions and wages on behalf
of American companies?
To root out the causes of enmity takes more than military resolve, it
takes a bravery heretofore unexercised on a national level in history,
the ability to look into ones self and change.
It is difficult to see this happening, however, from an Administration
that withdrew from the Kyoto Agreement, abandoned the ABM Treaty with
Russia, sought a massive missile defense system, and is in the process
of pillaging the natural resources of our most precious public lands.
I must ad a word here about the everyday people of my country though. I
have seen and been the beneficiary of amazing kindness, a selfless
character. That is the America I believe in. That is our saving grace. A
grace so precious that anything that sullies it, internally or
externally, sickens me. What Walt Whitman loved about America I love.
It is the America beyond political rhetoric. It is what joins all
peoples of the planet, knows no borders. I am a citizen of the World.
My anger and my sorrow is so intense because I love you so much.
:fp
***************
Frank Parker
[log in to unmask]
http://now.at/frankshome
----- Original Message -----
From: "Lawrence Upton" <[log in to unmask]>
To: <[log in to unmask]>
Sent: Sunday, September 16, 2001 6:30 AM
Subject: Re: POETRYETC Digest - 14 Sep 2001 to 15 Sep 2001 (#2001-149)
> | Date: Sat, 15 Sep 2001 00:03:52 +0100
> | From: "david.bircumshaw" <[log in to unmask]>
> | Subject: Re: WTC
> |
> | The unanswered question about this tragedy is why did the terrorists
> become
> | terrorists? What does the US do that makes the poor of the Middle
East
> hate
> | them so much? What makes someone want to become a suicide-bomber?
>
> I don't think these questions unanswered, except perhaps the last
question
> when posed at a personal letter. The answers are very clear, but they
are
> too often rejected.
>
> The rejection, its nature, is also the province of poets, because
usually
> it involves changing the sentence subject and / or leaping a couple
of
> stages in the argument
>
> | I entirely agree with your criticism of the Taliban though.
>
> But trying to wipe them out would be no better than trying to
eradicate
> cholera without affecting the water supply.
>
> The Taliban must take individual responsibility for their actions, as
must
> those in USA and UK, and Saudi Arabia and Israel and USSR; but the
> phenomenon seems to me entirely explicable given the slow burn world
war
> which has been fought over their country.
>
> bin Laden himself appears to be a USA creation - financed and trained
by
> CIA.
>
> L
>
|