i found this view on the horrible tragedy interesting...
09-12-2001, 09:46 AM
#1
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i found this view on the horrible tragedy interesting...
a
>
> Death, Downtown
>
> Dear friends,
>
> I was supposed to fly today on the 4:30 PM American Airlines
> flight from
> LAX to JFK. But tonight I find myself stuck in L.A. with an
> incredible
> range of emotions over what has happened on the island where
> I work and
> live in New York City.
>
> My wife and I spent the first hours of the day -- after being
> awakened by
> phone calls from our parents at 6:40am PT -- trying to
> contact our daughter
> at school in New York and our friend JoAnn who works near the
> World Trade
> Center.
>
> I called JoAnn at her office. As someone picked up, the first tower
> imploded, and the person answering the phone screamed and ran
> out, leaving
> me no clue as to whether or not she or JoAnn would live.
>
> It was a sick, horrible, frightening day.
>
> On December 27, 1985 I found myself caught in the middle of a
> terrorist
> incident at the Vienna airport -- which left 30 people dead,
> both there and
> at the Rome airport. (The machine-gunning of passengers in
> each city was
> timed to occur at the same moment.)
>
> I do not feel like discussing that event tonight because it
> still brings up
> too much despair and confusion as to how and why I got to
> live... a fluke, a
> mistake, a few feet on the tarmac, and I am still here, there
> but for the
> grace of...
>
> Safe. Secure. I'm an American, living in America. I like my
> illusions. I
> walk through a metal detector, I put my carry-ons through an
> x-ray machine,
> and I know all will be well.
>
> Here's a short list of my experiences lately with airport security:
>
> * At the Newark Airport, the plane is late at boarding everyone. The
> counter can't find my seat. So I am told to just "go ahead
> and get on" --
> without a ticket!
>
> * At Detroit Metro Airport, I don't want to put the lunch I
> just bought at
> the deli through the x-ray machine so, as I pass through the metal
> detector, I hand the sack to the guard through the space between the
> detector and the x-ray machine. I tell him "It's just a sandwich." He
> believes me and doesn't bother to check. The sack has gone
> through neither
> security device.
>
> * At LaGuardia in New York, I check a piece of luggage, but
> decide to catch
> a later plane. The first plane leaves without me, but with my
> bag -- no one
> knowing what is in it.
>
> * Back in Detroit, I take my time getting off the commuter
> plane. By the
> time I have come down its stairs, the bus that takes the
> passengers to the
> terminal has left -- without me. I am alone on the tarmac,
> free to wander
> wherever I want. So I do. Eventually, I flag down a pick-up
> truck and an
> airplane mechanic gives me a ride the rest of the way to the terminal.
>
> * I have brought knives, razors; and once, my traveling
> companion brought a
> hammer and chisel. No one stopped us.
>
> Of course, I have gotten away with all of this because the airlines
> consider my safety SO important, they pay rent-a-cops $5.75
> an hour to make
> sure the bad guys don't get on my plane. That is what my life
> is worth --
> less than the cost of an oil change.
>
> Too harsh, you say? Well, chew on this: a first-year pilot on
> American
> Eagle (the commuter arm of American Airlines) receives around
> $15,000 a
> year in annual pay.
>
> That's right -- $15,000 for the person who has your life in
> his hands.
> Until recently, Continental Express paid a little over
> $13,000 a year.
> There was one guy, an American Eagle pilot, who had four kids
> so he went
> down to the welfare office and applied for food stamps -- and
> he was eligible!
>
> Someone on welfare is flying my plane? Is this for real? Yes, it is.
>
> So spare me the talk about all the precautions the airlines
> and the FAA is
> taking. They, like all businesses, are concerned about one
> thing -- the
> bottom line and the profit margin.
>
> Four teams of 3-5 people were all able to penetrate airport
> security on the
> same morning at 3 different airports and pull off this
> heinous act? My only
> response is -- that's all?
>
> Well, the pundits are in full diarrhea mode, gushing on about the
> "terrorist threat" and today's scariest dude on planet earth
> -- Osama bin
> Laden. Hey, who knows, maybe he did it. But, something just
> doesn't add up.
>
> Am I being asked to believe that this guy who sleeps in a
> tent in a desert
> has been training pilots to fly our most modern,
> sophisticated jumbo jets
> with such pinpoint accuracy that they are able to hit these
> three targets
> without anyone wondering why these planes were so far off path?
>
> Or am I being asked to believe that there were four
> religious/political
> fanatics who JUST HAPPENED to be skilled airline pilots who
> JUST HAPPENED
> to want to kill themselves today?
>
> Maybe you can find one jumbo jet pilot willing to die for the
> cause -- but
> FOUR? Ok, maybe you can -- I don't know.
>
> What I do know is that all day long I have heard everything
> about this bin
> Laden guy except this one fact -- WE created the monster
> known as Osama bin
> Laden!
>
> Where did he go to terrorist school? At the CIA!
>
> Don't take my word for it -- I saw a piece on MSNBC last year
> that laid it
> all out. When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the CIA
> trained him
> and his buddies in how to commits acts of terrorism against
> the Soviet
> forces. It worked! The Soviets turned and ran. Bin Laden was
> grateful for
> what we taught him and thought it might be fun to use those
> same techniques
> against us.
>
> We abhor terrorism -- unless we're the ones doing the terrorizing.
>
> We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in
> Nicaragua in the
> 1980s who killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work.
> You and me.
> Thirty thousand murdered civilians and who the hell even remembers!
>
> We fund a lot of oppressive regimes that have killed a lot of
> innocent
> people, and we never let the human suffering THAT causes to
> interrupt our
> day one single bit.
>
> We have orphaned so many children, tens of thousands around
> the world, with
> our taxpayer-funded terrorism (in Chile, in Vietnam, in Gaza,
> in Salvador)
> that I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised when those
> orphans grow up and
> are a little whacked in the head from the horror we have helped cause.
>
> Yet, our recent domestic terrorism bombings have not been
> conducted by a
> guy from the desert but rather by our own citizens: a couple
> of ex-military
> guys who hated the federal government.
>
> From the first minutes of today's events, I never heard that
> possibility
> suggested. Why is that?
>
> Maybe it's because the A-rabs are much better foils. A key
> ingredient in
> getting Americans whipped into a frenzy against a new enemy is the
> all-important race card. It's much easier to get us to hate
> when the object
> of our hatred doesn't look like us.
>
> Congressmen and Senators spent the day calling for more money for the
> military; one Senator on CNN even said he didn't want to hear
> any more talk
> about more money for education or health care -- we should
> have only one
> priority: our self-defense.
>
> Will we ever get to the point that we realize we will be more
> secure when
> the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have
> nice running
> shoes?
>
> In just 8 months, Bush gets the whole world back to hating us
> again. He
> withdraws from the Kyoto agreement, walks us out of the
> Durban conference
> on racism, insists on restarting the arms race -- you name
> it, and Baby
> Bush has blown it all.
>
> The Senators and Congressmen tonight broke out in a
> spontaneous version of
> "God Bless America." They're not a bad group of singers!
>
> Yes, God, please do bless us.
>
> Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not
> right. They
> did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at
> Bush, then they
> did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for
> him! Boston, New
> York, DC, and the planes' destination of California -- these
> were places
> that voted AGAINST Bush!
>
> Why kill them? Why kill anyone? Such insanity...
>
> Let's mourn, let's grieve, and when it's appropriate let's
> examine our
> contribution to the unsafe world we live in.
>
> It doesn't have to be like this...
>
> Yours,
>
>
> Death, Downtown
>
> Dear friends,
>
> I was supposed to fly today on the 4:30 PM American Airlines
> flight from
> LAX to JFK. But tonight I find myself stuck in L.A. with an
> incredible
> range of emotions over what has happened on the island where
> I work and
> live in New York City.
>
> My wife and I spent the first hours of the day -- after being
> awakened by
> phone calls from our parents at 6:40am PT -- trying to
> contact our daughter
> at school in New York and our friend JoAnn who works near the
> World Trade
> Center.
>
> I called JoAnn at her office. As someone picked up, the first tower
> imploded, and the person answering the phone screamed and ran
> out, leaving
> me no clue as to whether or not she or JoAnn would live.
>
> It was a sick, horrible, frightening day.
>
> On December 27, 1985 I found myself caught in the middle of a
> terrorist
> incident at the Vienna airport -- which left 30 people dead,
> both there and
> at the Rome airport. (The machine-gunning of passengers in
> each city was
> timed to occur at the same moment.)
>
> I do not feel like discussing that event tonight because it
> still brings up
> too much despair and confusion as to how and why I got to
> live... a fluke, a
> mistake, a few feet on the tarmac, and I am still here, there
> but for the
> grace of...
>
> Safe. Secure. I'm an American, living in America. I like my
> illusions. I
> walk through a metal detector, I put my carry-ons through an
> x-ray machine,
> and I know all will be well.
>
> Here's a short list of my experiences lately with airport security:
>
> * At the Newark Airport, the plane is late at boarding everyone. The
> counter can't find my seat. So I am told to just "go ahead
> and get on" --
> without a ticket!
>
> * At Detroit Metro Airport, I don't want to put the lunch I
> just bought at
> the deli through the x-ray machine so, as I pass through the metal
> detector, I hand the sack to the guard through the space between the
> detector and the x-ray machine. I tell him "It's just a sandwich." He
> believes me and doesn't bother to check. The sack has gone
> through neither
> security device.
>
> * At LaGuardia in New York, I check a piece of luggage, but
> decide to catch
> a later plane. The first plane leaves without me, but with my
> bag -- no one
> knowing what is in it.
>
> * Back in Detroit, I take my time getting off the commuter
> plane. By the
> time I have come down its stairs, the bus that takes the
> passengers to the
> terminal has left -- without me. I am alone on the tarmac,
> free to wander
> wherever I want. So I do. Eventually, I flag down a pick-up
> truck and an
> airplane mechanic gives me a ride the rest of the way to the terminal.
>
> * I have brought knives, razors; and once, my traveling
> companion brought a
> hammer and chisel. No one stopped us.
>
> Of course, I have gotten away with all of this because the airlines
> consider my safety SO important, they pay rent-a-cops $5.75
> an hour to make
> sure the bad guys don't get on my plane. That is what my life
> is worth --
> less than the cost of an oil change.
>
> Too harsh, you say? Well, chew on this: a first-year pilot on
> American
> Eagle (the commuter arm of American Airlines) receives around
> $15,000 a
> year in annual pay.
>
> That's right -- $15,000 for the person who has your life in
> his hands.
> Until recently, Continental Express paid a little over
> $13,000 a year.
> There was one guy, an American Eagle pilot, who had four kids
> so he went
> down to the welfare office and applied for food stamps -- and
> he was eligible!
>
> Someone on welfare is flying my plane? Is this for real? Yes, it is.
>
> So spare me the talk about all the precautions the airlines
> and the FAA is
> taking. They, like all businesses, are concerned about one
> thing -- the
> bottom line and the profit margin.
>
> Four teams of 3-5 people were all able to penetrate airport
> security on the
> same morning at 3 different airports and pull off this
> heinous act? My only
> response is -- that's all?
>
> Well, the pundits are in full diarrhea mode, gushing on about the
> "terrorist threat" and today's scariest dude on planet earth
> -- Osama bin
> Laden. Hey, who knows, maybe he did it. But, something just
> doesn't add up.
>
> Am I being asked to believe that this guy who sleeps in a
> tent in a desert
> has been training pilots to fly our most modern,
> sophisticated jumbo jets
> with such pinpoint accuracy that they are able to hit these
> three targets
> without anyone wondering why these planes were so far off path?
>
> Or am I being asked to believe that there were four
> religious/political
> fanatics who JUST HAPPENED to be skilled airline pilots who
> JUST HAPPENED
> to want to kill themselves today?
>
> Maybe you can find one jumbo jet pilot willing to die for the
> cause -- but
> FOUR? Ok, maybe you can -- I don't know.
>
> What I do know is that all day long I have heard everything
> about this bin
> Laden guy except this one fact -- WE created the monster
> known as Osama bin
> Laden!
>
> Where did he go to terrorist school? At the CIA!
>
> Don't take my word for it -- I saw a piece on MSNBC last year
> that laid it
> all out. When the Soviet Union occupied Afghanistan, the CIA
> trained him
> and his buddies in how to commits acts of terrorism against
> the Soviet
> forces. It worked! The Soviets turned and ran. Bin Laden was
> grateful for
> what we taught him and thought it might be fun to use those
> same techniques
> against us.
>
> We abhor terrorism -- unless we're the ones doing the terrorizing.
>
> We paid and trained and armed a group of terrorists in
> Nicaragua in the
> 1980s who killed over 30,000 civilians. That was OUR work.
> You and me.
> Thirty thousand murdered civilians and who the hell even remembers!
>
> We fund a lot of oppressive regimes that have killed a lot of
> innocent
> people, and we never let the human suffering THAT causes to
> interrupt our
> day one single bit.
>
> We have orphaned so many children, tens of thousands around
> the world, with
> our taxpayer-funded terrorism (in Chile, in Vietnam, in Gaza,
> in Salvador)
> that I suppose we shouldn't be too surprised when those
> orphans grow up and
> are a little whacked in the head from the horror we have helped cause.
>
> Yet, our recent domestic terrorism bombings have not been
> conducted by a
> guy from the desert but rather by our own citizens: a couple
> of ex-military
> guys who hated the federal government.
>
> From the first minutes of today's events, I never heard that
> possibility
> suggested. Why is that?
>
> Maybe it's because the A-rabs are much better foils. A key
> ingredient in
> getting Americans whipped into a frenzy against a new enemy is the
> all-important race card. It's much easier to get us to hate
> when the object
> of our hatred doesn't look like us.
>
> Congressmen and Senators spent the day calling for more money for the
> military; one Senator on CNN even said he didn't want to hear
> any more talk
> about more money for education or health care -- we should
> have only one
> priority: our self-defense.
>
> Will we ever get to the point that we realize we will be more
> secure when
> the rest of the world isn't living in poverty so we can have
> nice running
> shoes?
>
> In just 8 months, Bush gets the whole world back to hating us
> again. He
> withdraws from the Kyoto agreement, walks us out of the
> Durban conference
> on racism, insists on restarting the arms race -- you name
> it, and Baby
> Bush has blown it all.
>
> The Senators and Congressmen tonight broke out in a
> spontaneous version of
> "God Bless America." They're not a bad group of singers!
>
> Yes, God, please do bless us.
>
> Many families have been devastated tonight. This just is not
> right. They
> did not deserve to die. If someone did this to get back at
> Bush, then they
> did so by killing thousands of people who DID NOT VOTE for
> him! Boston, New
> York, DC, and the planes' destination of California -- these
> were places
> that voted AGAINST Bush!
>
> Why kill them? Why kill anyone? Such insanity...
>
> Let's mourn, let's grieve, and when it's appropriate let's
> examine our
> contribution to the unsafe world we live in.
>
> It doesn't have to be like this...
>
> Yours,
>
09-12-2001, 03:37 PM
#4
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I don't agree with many of his comments.
Especially the running shoes...
American corporations provide a job where there wouldn't be one before. I'm trying to imagine myself in a sweatshop working for 12 hours, and earning 10 bucks... much better than working in snake ridden rice fields for 12 hours, and only earning 5.
American corporations provide a job where there wouldn't be one before. I'm trying to imagine myself in a sweatshop working for 12 hours, and earning 10 bucks... much better than working in snake ridden rice fields for 12 hours, and only earning 5.
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