FEATURE EDITORIAL

Friday, 14 September 2001
.....
About sorrow
By Bill Huang

http://www.cyberdyaryo.com/

Three days later, the images of the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center in New York being attacked by two planes, exploding into flames and smoke, and then crumbling to the ground continue to be shown on TV, and the shock and horror remain for many of us.
As the tedious and grim task of digging through the rubble in search of survivors proceeds, only the body count has risen. There are few survivors--only five have been found alive--and the final death toll is expected to be in the thousands.

At ground zero in New York and Washington, things have come to a standstill. Even as volunteers continue to search for both casualties and survivors, these cities are paralyzed. And in the rest of the world, people are glued to their TV sets, hanging on to every new bit of information about possible survivors and the massive manhunt that has been mounted for the perpetrators of this unspeakable horror.

And yet, within hours of the tragedy still unfolding, there were those who were already trying to get us to think of the world’s oppressed minorities, of the Palestinians who have lost their homeland, of Iraqis who are suffering and who have died under the weight of UN sanctions, to name but a few, and the role of the United States in their plight.

At best, it can be said that these people would have us move past the moment of shock and sorrow a little too quickly.

When the dust settles, and the flames are extinguished and the smoke clears, perhaps the attacks on New York and Washington will be seen for the political statements that they were intended to be. But not just now. Now is the time to be shocked, and to grieve.

For most, the sorrow for the yet-undermined number of lives lost is not a political statement, and, for all their earnestness, those who have tried to interject political overtones into the world’s grief have, for the most part, met with the silence of a stunned and anguished world.

The world’s sorrow and mourning comes not because people necessarily endorse capitalism, imperialism, globalization or whatever ills the United States has been accused of fomenting, but because they identify with the human tragedy that has unfolded before them, and not with the fanaticism and hatred that brought it about.

The call for swift action against such acts of terrorism is not necessarily an endorsement of any political doctrine, but rather an expression of an all too human need for resolution and understanding.

Remembering the dead of New York City, Arlington, Virginia and Somerset, Pennsylvania does not diminish our concern for the oppressed around the world, but right now, our sympathies are with the working- and middle-class employees and families whose lives were torn apart by these horrific and senseless acts.

This is the reality that is currently resounding in the collective consciousness of the world, and we are no less human, no less compassionate for recognizing it in ourselves.

Can anyone who watched the live coverage of large aircraft slamming into the Twin Towers within minutes of each other really say that their first, instinctive reaction was "Serves them right"?

The grief the world is engulfed in over the deadly bombings in the United States is not about politics. It is about sorrow.

There will be time enough for political discourse and debate later.

But not just now.

--CyberDyaryo