Dear list-member friends,
My heart cries.
Deep condoleances to those who are hit by this tragedy, directly or
indirectly. My thoughts are especially with those hundreds of fire-
and policemen who gave their life in an effort to save
others....they, of all people, must have known what horrible fate
was hovering above them, as the blackest possible worst-case
scenario.
These are not mere local acts of terror, these are acts of terror
against freedom & democracy, as our highest values of humanity &
civilisation.
Any justification is a justification against life itself.
It's in days like this that I see a striking resemblance between
democracy and love, or even life itself....neither can function
properly if one tries to shield them against all possible
evil, and exclude all possible risks....it's their very vulnerability
that makes them worthwile.
In that context the saying 'things that don't kill us, make us
stronger' has reached the highest possible level, by replacing 'us'
with 'democracy'.
In respect for those who lost their life or loved ones, let that be
the spirit in which to honor them.
It's also in days like this that I look at my error-logs
differently....as with a few catastrophies before, I must wonder
whether new bouncing accounts are just mere coincidence, or a direct
result of a member dissappearing because of local disaster. And there
is no way for me to ever find out.
Let me end with words spoken centuries ago:
"The price of freedom is eternal vigilance."
--Thomas Jefferson
PS: please please leave the OT discussion out of this....if this list
can linder the pain & sorrow, if only 1 promille, then it served its
social function. Be it through non-EOS posts like this, or EOS posts
as a form of distraction. There is too much hate in this world,
please let this list be that one rare safe-heaven of peace.
PPS: especially in times like this, be sure to check the proper
format/quote of your message, to avoid getting trapped in
Majordomo's filters.
Do not try to send in MIME/HTML/V-card-format, and do not include
the admin footer in your quotes, and do not use a subject header like
'Digest xxxx' (nor terms like '(un)s_u_bscribe').
And be sure to send messages only from the account(s) you are
s_ubscribed with, or resu_bscribe with the correct account.
(if you included any of this in the days past, please resend that
message in the correct format....there is no way for me to resend
them (nor currently any way to send filter-bounce notification, due
to a silly accidental tweak of Majordomo)
PPPS: ignore the multiple copies, we are working on the next version
of Majordomo. If you think 60 copies are bad, imagine 10 or 20
bouncing accounts, creating 600 or 1200 error-messages in my
admin-mailbox.
PPPPS: thanx to MI'tje for the inspiration for this message....I
wanted to write this message earlier, but yesterday I could only
silently read and watch the horror unfold itself in the various
media. Where spoken words fail, typed words can hardly replace them.
Your listowner, from the Netherlands.
(had we not sold NewAmsterdam back then, the WTC would have been
standing on Dutch soil, which makes the connection even stronger)
--
Bye,
Willem-Jan Markerink
The desire to understand
is sometimes far less intelligent than
the inability to understand
<[EMAIL PROTECTED]>
[note: 'a-one' & 'en-el'!]
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