C'punks, Here's a thoughtful piece I received from Sean Hastings:

From: Sean Hastings [mailto:whysean@softhome.net] Sent: 12 September, 2001 20:22 Subject: FW: "Attack on America" - a Personal Response

. . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . "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 to 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@havenco.com

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