Posted by jay on October 10, 2001, at 21:10:27
In reply to Re: Sept. 11 : Empathy for the World, posted by akc on October 6, 2001, at 7:42:10
Maybe it's simple and may sound silly...but only love of ourselves and others will save us. Nothing else really matters....that seems to be the focal point of why we are taking meds..or in therapy...or in the hospital..or what ever. As Andrew Sololomen say's in "The Noonday Demon"..."Depression is a flaw in love.."
Jay
> I am not trying to minimize what you are saying. I agree. We should be more aware, more caring, take more action to the horrible things that happen outside of our nation.
>
> Yet, what is happening now with the terrorist attacks in our own nation should not surprise. I know my own strong reaction comes from at least two things. First is the visuals -- while not in New York or D.C., I felt I was present. Unlike some of the disasters you listed around the world where we might see an image or two on the nightly news, we have been inudated with the attacks and the aftermath. More so than even some other disasters that have taken place here at home -- like the earthquake in San Fransisco or Hurricane Andrew in Florida.
>
> The second, and for me probably the greater thing that is driving my reaction, is what has caused this disaster -- the fact that it is a terrorist attack, and one on such a large scale. Personally, I am affected by such attacks when I hear of them, be it in Israel or Africa or wherever. But to be so close to home -- and then all the details that have come out since then -- it continues to fuel the reaction.
>
> I haven't been keeping up very well on posts lately, so I might be redundant here. Dr. Phil on Oprah said that the price of this attack is too high to pay for any lesson we might learn. Much too high. But what would be worse is if we did not learn anything from it. I hope that one thing we can learn is compassion -- starting for those here at home (and I am worried when I hear of the discrimination against those of Middle Eastern descent), and for those around the world (and I am more worried when I see polls that still, even 3 1/3 weeks later are ready to bomb a nation to bits, even though it is ruled by a oppressive few).
>
> It would be great that we could learn from the horror of what happened here to have more empathy. To see in our loss, the pain in other's loss. I am usually an optimist. Unfortunately, this has had the effect of making me more into a pessismist. Maybe I'll be proven wrong.
>
> akc
poster:jay
thread:11763
URL: http://www.dr-bob.org/babble/social/20011006/msgs/12373.html