My wife wrote this. I think it is appropriate to post it here (I have her
permission). It sums up many of the feelings that we have discussed:
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What I would like Osama bin Laden to know:
I am not a Muslim, Jew, or Christian; nonetheless I am human. I am not evil
or without love for my fellow human beings. Yet after the World Trade
Center towers collapsed, I wished with all my heart that I could hold a
knife in one hand and your neck in the other. I completely understood the
wish for revenge at that moment more than at any other time in my life.
But I cannot allow the thirst for vengeance to overtake me or destroy my
humanity. There is no glory in killing-ever. No matter how guilty a person
is, to kill is always an act of sadness and it is always a failure.
Each and every person on this earth is precious to a degree that you may
never understand. The light of every spirit is what brings us to each other
and makes us a human race united and whole. Those who died in your attacks
were not soulless, irrelevant shells to be crushed underfoot; neither were
they evil.
They were human beings.
They possessed as great a degree of humanity as you yourself would claim,
and had as much right as any other being in this world to continue to live.
Our world is made poorer by their loss. You too are made poorer.
There is no glory in what you have done. There never will be.
- Anita
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John again: Let us remember IAAMOAC and let the bitterness not divide our
community, too. A horrible tragedy has occurred. Let's not let it destroy
our little shelter within this mixed up world.
- John
