IP: Do read djf: Against hate

[David Farber <dave () farber net>]

> Date: Mon, 17 Sep 2001 01:47:23 -0400
> To: farber () cis upenn edu
> From: Dave Burstein <daveb () dslprime com>
> Subject: Against hate
>
> Dave
>
> The IP list this week has been extraordinarily helpful, with more solid 
> information than some major newspapers. I particularly appreciate the 
> views from other cultures, and the practical comments on the futility of a 
> violent response. A few thoughts, perhaps to include with a related email.
>
> Wider stairs, a low tech improvement, probably could have saved many 
> lives. Many did not make it out, because the exits were too limited to get 
> everybody out in the 40 minutes or so people had.
>
> Returning violence for violence only multiplies violence, adding deeper 
> darkness to a night already devoid of stars. Darkness cannot drive out 
> darkness, only light can do that Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can 
> do that.
> - Martin Luther King, Jr.
>
> My brother, an emergency medical physician brought in from Boston, tells 
> me the situation in the hospitals is very stable, with few new admissions, 
> mostly minor injuries of the rescue crews. There are no surprises coming - 
> but no good news either. Very few "John Does" to identify, no survivors 
> coming in. The 5,000 missing number will soon rise, as they report the 
> number of bodies that are not "missing" because identified. Most people 
> died almost instantly in the collapse, with only a relative few in the 
> hospitals.
>
> "The unleashed power of the atom has changed everything save our modes of 
> thinking,
> and thus we drift toward unparalleled catastrophe." Albert Einstein
>
> What's been remarkable about the IP list is the difference compared to 
> American media. I have been sickened by U.S. TV, with military and 
> security types calling for blood. What could Deputy Secretary of State 
> Paul Wolfowitz mean when he spoke of "ending states who sponsor 
> terrorism." Ending states, spoken by a man with enough weaponry to do just 
> that? I am Jewish, knowing what the "ending" of the Jewish race in Europe 
> entailed. I pray he, and Crusader George Bush, do not mean what they say.
>
> "He who saves a life, shall as though he had saved all mankind alive" Koran
>
> My father smuggled guns to Israel as a teenager in 1948; his older brother 
> was an Israeli pilot. I'm sure either would have freely given their lives 
> flying a military plane into the opposition headquarters, or the Pentagon 
> if they thought that would protect Israel. I would like to think they 
> would not have used a civilian jet with passengers, or attacked the World 
> Trade Center. People they knew bombed the King David Hotel in 1946, 
> resulting in the deaths of 92 Britons, Arabs and Jews, and in the wounding 
> of 58. I not know what I would have done, with a chance to strike at Adolf 
> Hitler and his entourage. True pacifism may take more courage than I have.
>
> "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
> Jesus
>
> I came of age in another generation, shaped by the war in Vietnam, in 
> which I would not have fought, learning from people of peace. I've become 
> convinced that the only true hope for Israel is to make peace with the 
> Palestinians, and that no military solution will ever bring Israel 
> security. If the people of Palestine do not today have the arms to fight 
> back, their children will, or their children's children. Technology is 
> advancing; I am one of millions with enough computer power to design a 
> nuclear weapon, or to master the biology of devastation. Fighting the 
> sources of hate, beginning by respecting all human rights, is the only 
> rational response today. I've spoken before of Israel's reliance on force 
> as "suicidal lunacy" - so is any response to this crisis that merely makes 
> more enemies, who one day will strike back.
>
> "We urge the governments of the world to realize, and to acknowledge 
> publicly, that their purposes cannot be furthered by a world war, and we 
> urge them, consequently, to find peaceful means for the settlement of all 
> matters of dispute between them." Einstein
>
> In elementary school, they taught me that Nathan's Hale was a hero, 
> proclaiming "I regret I have but one life to give for my country". The 
> Afgans, Iraqis, Palestinians and Libyans are as dedicated to their 
> countries, and religions. Killing Afganis already broken by the Taliban 
> will accomplish little - but the children and brothers of those who die 
> will provide the sources for the next generation of "holy martyrs."
>
> "There is no way to peace—peace is the way" A.J. Muste
>
> Fifty years after the bomb dropped on Hiroshima, I met Hiroshima's Mayor, 
> Takashi Hiraoka, traveling the world in the name of peace. We introduced 
> him to Ted Taylor, a nuclear weapons designer who had renounced his trade. 
> "Can you ever forgive me?" Taylor asked.
>
> "This is an era in which we must think of global security. It is a time to 
> foster human solidarity transcending national borders, to pool our wisdom, 
> and to work together to establish world peace. " Takashi Hiraoka, Mayor of 
> Hiroshima
>
> The Doomsday Clock stands at 9 minutes to midnight, and now may be 
> advanced. The clock is the symbol of The Bulletin of the Atomic 
> Scientists. "The American people," said the Bulletin's first editorial, 
> must work "unceasingly for the establishment of international control of 
> atomic weapons, as a first step toward permanent peace." Among the 
> sponsors of the Bulletin were Hans Bethe, S. Chandrasekhar, A. H. 
> Compton,  Robert Oppenheimer, Abdus Salam, Leon Lederman, Andrei Sakharov, 
> David Baltimore,Julian Schwinger , Carl Djerassi, Freeman Dyson, Joseph 
> Rotblat, Sheldon Glashow, V.F. Weisskopf, Rudolf Peierls,Leo Szilard, 
> Robert Wilson and 75 more of the most distinguished scientists of the century.
>
> "Blessed are the peacemakers, for they shall be called the children of God."
> Jesus of Nazereth
>
> Dulce et decorum est pro patria mori may have been a fine call to 
> sacrifice in Roman days - technology today spreads weapons so widely, we 
> must do better.
>
> Dave Burstein



For archives see: http://www.interesting-people.org/