for
POST
SCRIPT,
added 16th March, 2002
See below
that, for a later POST
SCRIPT, added 17th May, 2002
For the rest of the week, as I talked with children and parents, as I do every week, everyone else was asking the same question.
But there was one other question too. It was: " What sort of person or organisation uses innocent people to kill innocent people, and then hides behind a wall of anonymity?" This strikes me as being about the worst act of cowardice that it is possible to commit.
Another question that some people will have asked is "What can I do to help?" Well, for many, in the short term, the answer is: "Not a lot." But in the long term there IS an answer, and it is to continue to look for ways to promote better understanding between all people, in all nations.
The very fact that I can sit in a room in Somerset, UK, and type a set of thoughts that will be able to be seen all round the world, serves to underline just how small our own world really is.
I do not think it right to take anyone else's life deliberately, no matter what your beliefs should be, religious, political, or indeed for any other reason. Nor do I think that revenge solves anything. It just adds fuel to an already ugly fire.
In the devastation caused to the World Trade Centre, many people lost their lives needlessly. And it was was not just Americans. It included British people too, and no doubt other people of other nationalities as well.
May those who have lost loved ones, find some sort of peace, may the children of those who have lost a father or a mother as a result of this eventually find some sort of ability to forgive, but above all may everyone think very carefully as to where we go from here. For more violence CANNOT be the answer, and it will solve nothing.
Far more important is perhaps that we all try to learn something from this. Little children endlessly ask "WHY?" It is the most important question that they ask. And they need to be given honest answers, even when the truthful answer is
"I don't know."
Coming in due course will be the following cities:
Boston.
Chicago.
Houston.
Los Angeles.
New York.
New Orleans.
San Francisco.
Santa Barbara.
San Diego.
Seattle.
Washington D.C.
And places:
The Grand Canyon.
Lousiana Bayou.
Niagara Falls.
The Rocky Mountains.
Yellowstone National Park.
Yosemite National Park.
Overall
Impressions
The following States will be covered specifically in due course:
Arizona.
Arkansas.
California.
Colorado.
Florida.
Illinois.
Louisiana.
Maine.
Michigan.
New York.
Ohio;
Texas.
Utah.
Vermont
West Virginia.
Wyoming.
and
Hawaii!
(one of the most amazing places that I have visited so far)
Mohandas K. Ghandi.
"Love of all the world is the most important thing, and liberty. Without liberty, there is no love."
Marc Chagall.
Taken in happier times for the city of New York, this picture clearly shows the twin towers. It was taken from Liberty Island, for me one of the most important places in a city that I love so much. On this island, on my left, stands the Statue of Liberty, itself a symbol of freedom, and within which are many statements concerning freedom, none of which say that it is all right to take someone else's life. I have included two of them above.
But far worse, is the fact that
with the destruction of the twin towers, so too have the lives of thousands of people, not just of those who died, but the countless relatives who lost loved ones.
It is now six months since the World Trade Centre was attacked. We have seen in that time, disbelief turn into anger, anger into a desire for revenge, and retalliation. In a few days time, I shall fly to New York again for the first time since the tragedy, having last been there in July of last year. I hope to visit the site of the devastation briefly myself, to pay my own respects to those who needlessly lost their lives.
Life is precious. In my own eyes, a child's life is doubly precious, for they have not yet had much chance to add their own thoughts, deeds and actions to this fragile world in which we live. We think that we strive to make this place a better world for them. Let us not fail through hostility and prejudice.
On the right is a photograph taken on April 4th 2002, of my visit to what the Americans have come to call "Ground Zero". In actual fact, by this time the demolition workers were well below ground level.
I can be seen on the left (It did not seem right to pose for the picture) looking at the gaping chasm where the twin towers once stood. On the right (just above the front of the yellow taxi) can be seen the simple cross, formed from two girders salvaged from the destruction and mounted on a concrete plinth, a reminder that in the region of 4000 people, (a figure that still cannot be verified exactly) died here in a period of about an hour and a half. Behind that is the almost surreal outline of the two buildings beyond, which would have been invisible from where I am standing when the twin towers were still here.
I was also privileged to be there at night and see the "Tribute in Light."
