A moment

[Guest guest]

Take a deep breath, please, all of us. Passions rage. Well, of course they

do! An unthinkable event has occurred.

I am emotionally exhausted from the past week. We here in the Boston area are

feeling keenly some great unease. We didn't put the evil-doers on those

planes, but somehow, the fact that they flew out of Boston is unsettling and

I have vague guilt feelings, because I've noticed how slack security is at

Boston. It always has been.

At my college, this past week was difficult. The students have no context, no

paradigm in which to think war. The attacks are their defining moment, as

I've mentioned before. I am so proud of them! Here's what they have done --

and please keep in mind I teach at a music/theatre/dance conservatory: the

student government has invited the head of the History Dept at Boston

University, an expert on Middle Eastern affairs, to come to our school and do

a presentation on the causes of the unrest and hatred coming to us from the

Mid-East. They want to know why, and are making a real effort to find out.

Secondly, they are preparing a memorial concert for later next week -- a

celebration of life, a memorial for the dead, a hope for the future.

I've a friend among the missing, but happily many who survived. Last night

some 300 of us in my little town gathered in front of our 100+ year old Town

Hall and lit candles and sang together. I had a candle and a flag. And I sang

and chanted USA USA USA with my neighbors. This is not aggression -- it is a

terrible NEED to be together; to bond. It is not arrogance; it is pride. And

it is Hope.

I will confess that I'm a patriot. I love and celebrate my country. I

criticize and scream and condemn and lobby and write letters and demonstrate;

but I love my country. I cherish that I CAN do all of those things because

we're a democracy. I don't love everything we do and am often critical. But

I'm a patriot.

The enormity of the attacks in DC and NYC are difficult to keep in one's

head. But they are, and we must accept that they are and go forward. I

deplore any mention of an eye for an eye, but the perpetrators, and those who

would keep the world on edge through terrorism must be controlled. I pray for

them. Anyone who can sacrifice their life, knowing they are killing thousands

of other lives, is sad and lost. I pray that their souls may somehow be

purified. On my own path, I suspect their souls would fall off the scales and

into the mouth of the Eater of the Dead, erased forever.

I am very heartened, indeed in tears, at the outpourings from around the

world in sympathy and solidarity. To share in this, go to

http://www.speakeasy.org/~jc5810/thankyou/

http://www.thephhortress.com/thankyou/

Let there be peace in the world and let it begin with me.

phoebe