Writing From Manhattan

["Beth Glace" <lb@nismat.org>]

Hi all,
I work on the upper east side, at Lenox Hill Hospital.  On Tuesday, 
though, we were doing the pre-season testing on the NY Rangers, 
at Madison Square Garden, on 34th Street.  Much closer to the 
epicenter.  I have to say that the city is still in shock, people are 
attempting to go about their business, in a staggered sort of way.  
Our emergency room has  picked up a few victims, but by in large, 
there are so few survivors that only the donwntown hospitals are 
seeing them.  Horrible. 

I second the call for rationale behavior.  Even here in the city, 
where our world will never be the same, I am not noticing any great 
cry for revenge.  I think the reality is that everyone is horrified at 
the loss of innocent life, and no one wants to advocate an action 
that results in the loss of more innocents.  The hue and cry seems 
to be aimed at finding the terrorists responsible for this, and their 
groups, and going after them specifically.  Not tareting  civilian 
populations.  Maryanne, most radio stations here and the TV 
stations are all calling for patience and understanding with no 
backlash against Arabs or Muslims.  Is seems that most people are 
following that advice, so your children should not stay huddled in 
their dorm rooms.  The horrific nature of this event has muted most 
people in NY, and turned them very much away from violence.  
They want justice, not revenge.  On the call-in radio programs we 
are also hearing many people express that as a nation we need to 
take responsibility to know exactly what our foreign policy is, and 
how our policies have been and continue to affect other people.  
While the terrorist attacks are undeniably evil, and unjustifiable, we 
all must now be more aware of the material basis for much of the 
mid-east's resentment towards our actions - or lack of- in that area. 
Evidently, most of Binladen's lunatic ravings have not been about 
the Palestinian issues, but about U.S. military force in the Saudi 
Arabia, and our interference with other governments.  There are 
certainly some justifiable reasons for Arab frustration with the US.  
Unfortunately, you only need a few lunatic leaders to use religion to 
fuel the underlying resentments of the people and you can end up 
with a handful of people who will stop at nothing to vent their fury.  In 
any case, New Yorkers as far as I can see are not targeting all 
Arabs, and I seen very little rage over this.  Everyone is just grimly 
determined to clean up and save who they can, and then to calmly 
and coldly go after those responsible.  
Beth Glace
New York
> Maryanne, I know exactly what you were trying to express in your
> statements about the Palestinians celebrating in the streets.  We
> forget that there is always another side to the story.  I for one will
> be praying for you and yours, as well as all of us. My most fervent
> hope is that the perpetrators are caught and brought to justice before
> the nation is seized by a war fever that there is no turning back
> from.  Who are we supposed to go to war against?  A madman and his
> group?  They have friends world wide it appears, but those friends are
> not necessarily responsible for what has happened.  Should we bomb the
> madman's friends because we can't get to the madman and his henchmen? 
> Would that make us any better than them?  jeri
> 
> 
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