Message-ID: <20933633.1075852555850.JavaMail.evans@thyme> Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 22:54:00 -0700 (PDT) From: grantoregonrains@hotmail.com To: alpinetop@aol.com, bill_chamberlin@hotmail.com, cartoman@earthlink.net, cjwink@gowebway.com Subject: Fwd: Barbara Kingsolver's piece in the LA TIMES Mime-Version: 1.0 Content-Type: text/plain; charset=ANSI_X3.4-1968 Content-Transfer-Encoding: 7bit X-From: "grant wiegert" @ENRON X-To: alpinetop@aol.com, bill_chamberlin@hotmail.com, cartoman@earthlink.net, cjwink@gowebway.com X-cc: eemain@ucdavis.edu, holmestp@northnet.org, hush@pond.net, Wolfe, Jason , KarenJ2000@aol.com, ljm20@qwest.net, Markheadings@hotmail.com, Davis_Dick/r6pnw_willamette@fs.fed.us, RFoshee@aol.com, ruthjoy@qwest.net, tamclark@union-tel.com, tencentranch@juno.com, waykels@hotmail.com, wwiegert@hotmail.com, zman@vcn.com X-bcc: X-Folder: \JWOLFE (Non-Privileged)\Inbox X-Origin: Wolfe-J X-FileName: JWOLFE (Non-Privileged).pst >From: "Aryana Ferguson" >To: DCHinks@hotmail.com, ren4@mindspring.com, sandhill@swcp.com, WHinksJr@aol.com, sandm@javanet.com, vjPima@aol.com, ZoeJess@aol.com, leah496@home.com, drew22@teleport.com, BDHasson@aol.com, newhouse@efn.org, cferguson1@uswest.net, schultz@nceas.ucsb.edu, Starlight0221@hotmail.com, davek7@earthlink.net, grantoregonrains@hotmail.com, dfly888@hotmail.com, hobbsj@efn.org, kpearl@teleport.com, velok1@hotmail.com, hyland@pond.net, springs@teleport.com, mar_c@efn.org, Maria.mendola@tmcaz.com, clickbeetle@earthlink.net, cfg@mail.teleport.com, phil@ori.org, rmorse@OREGON.UOREGON.EDU, rhodyh@oslc.org, rrrob@raidersfan.net, ronald@guppy.pond.net, landstew@hotmail.com, tom-bev9@juno.com, Mendola1@aol.com, pags@efn.org >Subject: Fwd: Barbara Kingsolver's piece in the LA TIMES >Date: Sun, 30 Sep 2001 19:52:25 > > > Hi all: Some food for the mind and soul. Love, A > > > > > > > Published on Sunday, September 23, 2001 in the Los Angeles Times >> > >A Pure, High Note of Anguish >> > >by Barbara Kingsolver > >> > >TUCSON -- I want to do something to help right now. But I can't >>give >> > >blood (my hematocrit always runs too low), and I'm too far way >>to >> > give >> > >anybody shelter or a drink of water. I can only give words. My >>verbal >> > >hemoglobin never seems to wane, so words are what I'll offer up >>in >> > >this >> > >time that asks of us the best citizenship we've ever mustered. >>I >> > don't >> > >mean to say I have a cure. Answers to the main questions of the >> > >day--Where was that fourth plane headed? How did they get >>knives >> > >through >> > >security?--I don't know any of that. I have some answers, but >>only to >> > >the questions nobody is asking right now but my 5-year old. Why >>did >> > >all >> > >those people die when they didn't do anything wrong? Will it >>happen >> > to >> > >me? Is this the worst thing that's ever happened? Who were >>those >> > >children cheering that they showed for just a minute, and why >>were >> > >they >> > >glad? Please, will this ever, ever happen to me? >> > >There are so many answers, and none: It is desperately painful >>to see >> > >people die without having done anything to deserve it, and yet >>this >> > is >> > >how lives end nearly always. We get old or we don't, we get >>cancer, >> > we >> > >starve, we are battered, we get on a plane thinking we're going >>home >> > >but >> > >never make it. There are blessings and wonders and horrific bad >>luck >> > >and >> > >no guarantees. We like to pretend life is different from that, >>more >> > >like >> > >a game we can actually win with the right strategy, but it >>isn't. >> > And, >> > >yes, it's the worst thing that's happened, but only this week. >>Two >> > >years >> > >ago, an earthquake in Turkey killed 17,000 people in a day, >>babies >> > and >> > >mothers and businessmen, and not one of them did a thing to >>cause it. >> > >The November before that, a hurricane hit Honduras and >>Nicaragua and >> > >killed even more, buried whole villages and erased family lines >>and >> > >even >> > >now, people wake up there empty-handed. Which end of the world >>shall >> > >we >> > >talk about? Sixty years ago, Japanese airplanes bombed Navy >>boys who >> > >were sleeping on ships in gentle Pacific waters. Three and a >>half >> > >years >> > >later, American planes bombed a plaza in Japan where men and >>women >> > >were >> > >going to work, where schoolchildren were playing, and more >>humans >> > died >> > >at once than anyone thought possible. Seventy thousand in a >>minute. >> > >Imagine. Then twice that many more, slowly, from the inside. >> > > >> > >There are no worst days, it seems. Ten years ago, early on a >>January >> > >morning, bombs rained down from the sky and caused great >>buildings in >> > >the city of Baghdad to fall down--hotels, hospitals, palaces, >> > >buildings >> > >with mothers and soldiers inside--and here in the place I want >>to >> > love >> > >best, I had to watch people cheering about it. In Baghdad, >>survivors >> > >shook their fists at the sky and said the word "evil." When >>many >> > lives >> > >are lost all at once, people gather together and say words like >> > >"heinous" and "honor" and "revenge," presuming to make this >>awful >> > >moment >> > >stand apart somehow from the ways people die a little each day >>from >> > >sickness or hunger. They raise up their compatriots' lives to a >> > sacred >> > >place--we do this, all of us who are human--thinking our own >>citizens >> > >to >> > >be more worthy of grief and less willingly risked than lives on >>other >> > >soil. But broken hearts are not mended in this ceremony, >>because, >> > >really, every life that ends is utterly its own event--and also >>in >> > >some >> > >way it's the same as all others, a light going out that ached >>to burn >> > >longer. Even if you never had the chance to love the light >>that's >> > >gone, >> > >you miss it. You should. You bear this world and everything >>that's >> > >wrong >> > >with it by holding life still precious, each time, and starting >>over. >> > > >> > >And those children dancing in the street? That is the hardest >> > >question. >> > >We would rather discuss trails of evidence and whom to stamp >>out, >> > even >> > >the size and shape of the cage we might put ourselves in to >>stay >> > safe, >> > >than to mention the fact that our nation is not universally >>beloved; >> > >we >> > >are also despised. And not just by "The Terrorist," that lone, >> > >deranged >> > >non-man in a bad photograph whose opinion we can clearly >>dismiss, but >> > >by >> > >ordinary people in many lands. Even by little boys--whole towns >>full >> > >of >> > >them it looked like--jumping for joy in school shoes and pilled >> > woolen >> > >sweaters. >> > > >> > >There are a hundred ways to be a good citizen, and one of them >>is to >> > >look finally at the things we don't want to see. In a week of >> > >terrifying >> > >events, here is one awful, true thing that hasn't much been >> > mentioned: >> > >Some people believe our country needed to learn how to hurt in >>this >> > >new >> > >way. This is such a large lesson, so hatefully, wrongfully >>taught, >> > but >> > >many people before us have learned honest truths from wrongful >> > deaths. >> > >It still may be within our capacity of mercy to say this much >>is >> > true: >> > >We didn't really understand how it felt when citizens were >>buried >> > >alive >> > >in Turkey or Nicaragua or Hiroshima. Or that night in Baghdad. >>And we >> > >haven't cared enough for the particular brothers and mothers >>taken >> > >down >> > >a limb or a life at a time, for such a span of years that those >> > >little, >> > >briefly jubilant boys have grown up with twisted hearts. How >>could we >> > >keep raining down bombs and selling weapons, if we had? How can >>our >> > >president still use that word "attack" so casually, like a move >>in a >> > >checker game, now that we have awakened to see that word in our >>own >> > >newspapers, used like this: Attack on America. >> > > >> > >Surely, the whole world grieves for us right now. And surely it >>also >> > >hopes we might have learned, from the taste of our own blood, >>that >> > >every >> > >war is both won and lost, and that loss is a pure, high note of >> > >anguish >> > >like a mother singing to any empty bed. The mortal citizens of >>a >> > >planet >> > >are praying right now that we will bear in mind, better than >>ever >> > >before, that no kind of bomb ever built will extinguish hatred. >> > > >> > >"Will this happen to me?" is the wrong question, I'm sad to >>say. It >> > >always was. >> > > >> > >Barbara Kingsolver's most recent novel is "Prodigal Summer." >> > > >> > >Copyright 2001 Los Angeles Times >> > >-- >> > > >> > > >> > >??????????????????????????????????????????? >> > >The Eighth Mountain Press >> > >624 SE 29th Avenue >> > >Portland, OR 97214 >> > >503/233-3936 >> > >503/233-0774 (fax) >> > >eighthmt@pacifier.com >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > > >> > >------ End of Forwarded Message >> > >> > >> > Kerry Case >> > Environmental Studies Program >> > University of Oregon >> > kcase@darkwing.uoregon.edu >> > >> > Get your FREE download of MSN Explorer at http://explorer.msn.com