I got a mysterious message today. It was sent to Marshall Guy, another DSer, and my email address was in the "CC" part. Did anyone else get something like this? It was from an alegged "Arial Sharon." It makes not very much sense. It read:
Help
To be immediately distributed
"Bush and American politicians are destroying all the world. They claim
that, the war is to liberate the Irakien, but, the reality is to
destroy American and Irakien. Their only objective is to help Israel
making up the "Great Israel" at the expense of U.S.A. and Irak.
I think now, it is very clear that the American politicians are the
only responsible behind the attacks of 11/09/01 in U.S.A.: Their
purpose is to intend a strong reason to their criminal final: "The war
against freedom".
The God will never forgiv us if we don't contest against the criminal
Why not the scourage of deaths because of starvation or AIDS in Africa?
For those of you confused by Ms. Wendall's immense vocabulary, scourage means "Refuse water after scouring". Yeah. Think about it.
And as for all that, it's defined by how closely it happened on the network of everyone. Few people in America know someone who died from the terrorist attacks, but we're still socially closer to them than the folks dying of AIDS in Africa. They say that everyone's only 5 degrees apart from everyone else (I personally am only 2 degrees from Kevin Bacon; my father was an extra in some show Kevin did), and chances are you need the full 5 degrees for someone dying in Africa, but only a few for someone dying in America, or going to war in Iraq for Bush.
Which means the ultra-communication available with the internet is going to have unforeseen consequences in that war will become virtually impossible as the technology becomes widespread. Computers and the internet are becoming more and more accessible to third-world citizens. When that happens, they will be able to talk to us and us to them, and actually knowing someone on the other side who might die is a huge turn-off for silly imperial wars.
So anyway, got a bit off track there, the point is most people only care about what affects them directly. The death of a loved one will mean more to most people than the death of a nation of strangers.
General question: which affected your life more? September 11th or this war? Or something else? Why did either of these affect you? How? Why not the earthquakes in Turkey last year? Why not the scourage of deaths because of starvation or AIDS in Africa? Why not the child pornography industry? Why not the extinction of hundreds of millions of passenger pigeons, or the destruction of the rain forests?
It's strange to me that events that we may never see or hear or physically be a part of, have such an effect on our lives and our perception of the world and the past and the future.
No, everything is not pretty much the same again. I'm not even sure what I ment by that. what does it mean to be pretty much the same again. I don't know.
Life is pretty much the same again. Perspectives change maybe, but it seems like war is less on our minds then at first. There is another protest planned for tomorrow. A march to the capital and then a rally. Last week there was a large pro-war rally. Some people walked out of a pearl jam concert recently in which the lead singer was berating Bush. My guess is that Michael Moore's coming to campus is going to cause a ruckus.
I just want to post the lyrics to a country song that is popular right now among the country radio stations.
I hear people saying we don't need this war
I say there's some things worth fighting for
What about our freedom and this piece of ground?
We didn't get to keep 'em by backing down
They say we don't realize the mess we're getting in
Before you start preaching
Let me ask you this my friend
CHORUS 1
Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And you say we shouldn't worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
They took all the footage off my T.V.
Said it's too disturbing for you and me
It'll just breed anger that's what the experts say
If it was up to me I'd show it every day
Some say this country's just out looking for a fight
After 9/11 man I'd have to say that's right
CHORUS 1
Have you forgotten how it felt that day
To see your homeland under fire
And her people blown away?
Have you forgotten when those towers fell?
We had neighbors still inside
Going through a living hell
And we vowed to get the ones behind Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
I've been there with the soldiers
Who've gone away to war
And you can bet that they remember
Just what they're fighting for
CHORUS 2
Have you forgotten all the people killed?
Yes, some went down like heroes in that Pennsylvania field
Have you forgotten about our Pentagon?
All the loved ones that we lost
And those left to carry on
Don't you tell me not to worry 'bout Bin Laden
Have you forgotten?
Have you forgotten?
Have you forgotten?
And, right after sept. 11, this one came out:
Osama - yo' mama didn't raise you right
When you were young she must have wrapped yo' turban too tight
She should have kept you home on those arabian nights
It's plain to see - you need some therapy
Osama - yo' mama could have done a lot better
Though I bet every day you did somethin' to upset her
By the way, we got an answer to your anthrax letter
New York City's where it's from - it's called a smart bomb
And I can hear yo' mama sayin' now, "You in a heap o' trouble son
Now just look what you've done
Saw you on TV with yo' gun
Mercy sakes, I can't do a thing wit'cha, told ya dubyah's gonna git'cha"
And I can just hear dubyah sayin', "You in a heap 'o trouble boy
And I don't think you will enjoy
Our game of search and destroy
We got your terror right here, and we gon' run it up yo' rear"
Osama - yo' mama didn't teach you how to act
You've crossed the line too far this time, there ain't no turnin' back
You're startin' to remind us of another maniac
Yeah, you know who - he started World War II
Osama - yo' mama didn't teach you to behave
Now they say you're hangin' with the bats in a cave
Well, pullin' off that sneak attack was not too brave
Kinda makes us remember - the 7th of December
And I can hear yo' mama sayin' again, "You in a heap o' trouble son
Now just look what you've done
Saw you on TV with yo' gun
Mercy sakes, I can't do a thing wit'cha, told ya dubyah's gonna git'cha"
And I can just hear dubyah sayin', "You in a heap 'o trouble boy
And I don't think you will enjoy
Our game of search and destroy
We got your terror right here, and we gon' run it up yo' rear"
Osama yo' karma's really got you in a jam
But that's just what you get - when you mess with Uncle Sam
Osama the Taliban is history
Nobody wants to see you startin' World War Three
Osama you know the al-Qaida won't last
Osama, just like you, it's future's in the past
15 news stories they've bungled so far - list of the mistruths reported as fact so far in this war, though it would be nice if it linked to something debunking them.
