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  • From: "Christian Stalberg" <cstalberg AT develop.net>
  • To: <internetworkers AT franklin.oit.unc.edu>
  • Subject: Fw: [cpsr_privacy] Attack on America - a Personal Response by Sean Hastings
  • Date: Fri, 14 Sep 2001 17:24:49 -0400


thought provoking. fyi...

----- Original Message -----
From: "Robert Guerra" <rguerra AT yahoo.com>
To: <cpsr_privacy AT yahoogroups.com>
Sent: Friday, September 14, 2001 8:51 AM
Subject: [cpsr_privacy] Attack on America - a Personal Response by Sean
Hastings


>
> Note
>
> I'm forwarding this message for Sean Hastings who's unable to send it
himself.
>
> please direct all questions and comments to him.
>
> thanks,
>
> Robert
>
>
> . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> "Attack on America" - a Personal Response by Sean Hastings
>
> My wife Jo, my dog Wasabi, and myself were all in New York City at
> the time of the attack on the World Trade Center. Thankfully we are
> all alive and unharmed.
>
> Although we were just a few miles from the site of the crashes, we
> were alerted to what was going on by a friend's phone call and turned
> on the news to watch. Safely insulated from it all by the magic of
> television, we saw the Twin Towers burn and collapse knowing that
> tens of thousands of people were probably still inside. Later, as we
> were able to get through on a somewhat overloaded telephone network,
> we called our friends and family around the world to assure them that
> we were safe, and we called our New York friends to make sure that
> they too were ok.
>
> Some friends I talked to personally witnessed the second jet strike
> the tower and saw people leaping to their deaths to escape the
> flames. One told me the story of a London office connected to its New
> York branch in the World Trade Center by a live video link. Their
> trapped co-workers told them that they were unable to leave the
> building, and that they knew they were all going to die, then the
> screen went blank at the same time as the TV news showed one of the
> towers collapse.
>
> Communications technology has brought this tragedy to all of us more
> closely than was ever before possible. An entire nation, and perhaps
> most of the world was able to watch these events unfold in real time.
> Feedback of reactions from around the world was also available in
> real time. Most people were shocked and horrified, but I also saw
> reports of people in some countries cheering and celebrating this
> attack on the US. My first reaction was very emotional - I found
> myself thinking "Bomb them back into the stone age" - and this
> shocked me. I consider myself to be an individualist to the core, but
> I now know that a blind loyalty to the group does exists somewhere
> deep inside me. At that moment, I would have been willing to
> unthinkingly follow anyone claiming to know how to justly avenge
> these acts, and prevent any more such in the future.
>
> Then I saw the start of the political rhetoric - various politicians
> declaring that this was a time for supporting our leaders, and not
> questioning or second-guessing their actions - law enforcement
> officials saying that this was precisely why they all needed greater
> powers over my life. Before the fires were even out - while people
> were still burning and being crushed to death under tons of rubble -
> there were already people trying to use my emotional reaction to
> increase their power over my life and further their careers.
>
> It was then that I realized that I was witnessing a very real threat
> to our nation and our way of life. Not from the kind of disturbed
> people who crash airplanes into buildings, but from people who would
> use such an event to further erode our freedoms - those masters of
> demagoguery who, while claiming to be the good guys, and in the name
> of defending our country, our freedom, and our way of life, will try
> to take away everything this country is supposed to be about. Even
> those with only the best of intentions may severely jeopardize our
> liberty at a time like this if they are not careful to give the
> freedom we tend to take for granted the highest priority in
> considering any course of action.
>
> So I know that a hoard of voices will now be crying out for your
> attention, trying to use this event to convince you that we should
> take whatever course of action most benefits their own position. I
> know that my voice is just a small one in this cacophony, and unless
> you agree with my message and forward it far and wide, I will
> scarcely be noticed. But I will speak my advice anyway, and hope it
> does some good. All I have to say to you is this:
>
> Do not let your natural reactions of fear or anger help ANYONE to
> further their short term political goals, or impose any "temporary"
> measures. These are frightening and enraging times indeed, but it is
> important to keep this simple truth firmly in mind: You cannot defend
> freedom by reducing freedom. The people who try to tell you otherwise
> are the ones who should frighten and anger you most.
>
> We all want security and justice, but we must be careful about the
> price we are willing to pay. If we allow these tragic events to lead
> to a reduction of our freedom, then the bad guys win.
>
> --Sean Hastings --New York, Sept 12, 2001 --mailto:sean AT havenco.com
>
> Please forward, summarize, quote, alter, or in any other way use this
> text, in whole or part, as you choose. It is placed into the public
> domain with no rights reserved or implied. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> .. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
> --
> Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness.
> Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
> "The Life of Reason," 1906, George Santayana (1863-1952)
> --
> Robert Guerra <rguerra AT yahoo.com>
> PGP Keys <http://pgp.greatvideo.com/keys/rguerra/>
>
> --
> Progress, far from consisting in change, depends on retentiveness.
> Those who cannot remember the past are condemned to repeat it.
> "The Life of Reason," 1906, George Santayana (1863-1952)
> --
> Robert Guerra <rguerra AT yahoo.com>
> PGP Keys <http://pgp.greatvideo.com/keys/rguerra/>
>
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>
>
>
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>
>
>




  • Fw: [cpsr_privacy] Attack on America - a Personal Response by Sean Hastings, Christian Stalberg, 09/14/2001

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