I grieve. I grieve for the lost, for those who know whom they've lost, and mostly for those who don't yet know. I remember - the worst is the not knowing. There is something horrible going on in your mind when your forebrain knows, intellectually, that there is no hope, and your hindbrain keeps right on hoping anyway because, after all, there is still a chance.

I hope. I hope that we can still have the beautiful thing this country was meant to be. When my father was killed by (similar) terrorists in the 80's, I hoped the US government would learn the lesson being taught since at least Nov. 5th, 1979. They didn't, and a year later we'd had at least 2 more bombings in the same city. The US government still didn't learn. Then came Pan Am and Lockerbie and [...] the earlier attempt on the WTC, and still they didn't learn. The answer is not more bloodshed. The answer is not My Imaginary Friend Is More Powerful Than Your Imaginary Friend. I'm not saying that I know what the answer is, but it isn't war.

I fear. I fear for those still missing, I fear for the deaths yet to come. I fear with all my heart and soul anything remotely pertaining to war. My parents suffered horribly in WW2, and neither of them were military. I can't imagine anything worse than an all-out aggression against people whose main crime seems to be that they have a different imaginary friend than our President. I can't imagine the horror of a real war, which --make no mistake-- WILL be fought here, on this continent, in this country, in your backyard.

I beg. I beg of my friends and colleagues not to fall into the natural, instinctive response to such a horrible attack. I beg of strangers and their friends and colleagues not to allow themselves sink to the depths into which we are being dragged. Please remember, not all Arabs are Moslem, not all Moslems are Arab, neither all Arabs nor all Moslems are radical rabid fundamentalists, not all Americans are Christian or Jewish, not all Christians or Jews are radical rabid fundamentalists either.

Please, please, anything but the allout war we seem to be heading for. That would really be the End of the World as we Know it.

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