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This conundrum CAN be resolved... quickly... easily... economically... once and for all.

My simple solution requres only that for one whole month, every newspaper in the free world devote its front page to cartoons ridiculing Allah (peace on him) and Mohammed (peace on him, too). By the end of that time, all of Islam will have self-destructed in a paroxysm of snits, hissy-fits and terminal apoplexy. WARNING: This will not be pretty... but the world will be a much better place for it.

My only regret in this is that I cannot think of a similarly uncomplicated, cost-effective and efficient stratagem to dismantle Christianity... but, oh well... one thing at a time. One only does what one can.

Rabbi Kula:

Thank you for the beautiful chant. That was truly art, and a wonderful way to make the point that those last phone calls were to express love, not anger. Love to you.

Thank you for this lamentation.

How can we learn to grieve as we must, so that we can move back into life with open eyes, ears, minds and hearts?

Although many bereaved individuals have been able to return to life, as a nation we seem to be stuck in a disastrous downward spiral of vengeance and retaliation.

Partly the nation is being prodded into vengeance, by people who manufacture and prey on a bilious, sentimental, truculent second-hand grief. This we must oppose.

But learning to grieve, deeply and truly, could release us from that cycle. Rabbi Irwin Kula has given us one tool to use in that healing grief.

Kim,
Whoa girl. I agree with one of the first commenters, who said 'compassion knows no bounds' and suggested your words were inappropriate, and trust me, I'm not a flag-waving right-winger.

I can agree that the continuing attention paid to 3000 victims seems disproportionate compared to the amount of suffering caused by the "response" to 9/11 - and I've put "response" in quotes because invading Iraq had nothing, really, to do with 9/11, and the deaths of the 9/11 victims was used as a tragic, sickening excuse for Iraq.

But, I have to remember that each family lost a loved one. I know the hole that leaves in one's heart. That's not something you ever get over, perhaps made worse when the manner of loss was so stupid, violent, and wrong. Cussing at these familes is hard-hearted and wrong.

It's right to be angry at the damage our country's policies is doing to the world and to our own nation. But lashing out at people who have suffered a great loss - whoever they are - won't help.

Kim,

I can't believe that you could not hold such comments until well after the anniversary. Let me explain this to you using a Jewish tradition, which I am sure the Rabbi would agree with. After a family member has died, each year we light a candle on the day of their death called a "Yahrzeit" candle (literally "year time" candle from the Yiddish). The candle is to honor their memory and to make sure we remember these people. You shouldn't simply put deaths into the dustbin of history, especially those that were unprovoked. Would you ask us to forget the lessons of the Holocaust, Soviet Purges, the indiscriminate bombings of Vietnam, Darfur, and now Iraq? 9/11 was a tragedy of our time, similar to Pearl Harbor. On December 7th we remember not only those who lost their lives at Pearl Harbor, but all WWII vets as a whole. On 9/11, we mourn those who have died, for it was only 6 years ago (a very very short time with regards to history), but those who serve us now. Yes, we should (and I know I do) remember those Iraqis who have lost their lives, but of all days, now, if only for a couple days, is it time to remember those who had their lives snatched away for no good reason on 9/11. They were our brethren, and the same way a family grieves more for the loss of a loved one, that is the way the US, and especially New York, grieves on 9/11. I have a lot of family in NYC, and everyone of them knew somebody who died that day which did honestly rock the city to its core, and we should give them, our brethren, your fellow Americans, a day to grieve and remember those who died from the worst attack on your country since Pearl Harbor.

Wow, Kim, that was really uncalled for. Have you no pity or humanity to give to others? The events in 9/11 weren't your garden variety tragedy, were they? The denizens of NYC paid the terrible price of attacks that were directed at all Americans, yourself included.

Rather than directing your ire at the Rebbe and the victims of 9/11, why not direct it at the bush administration who did nothing to stop the attacks even though they knew it was coming, who have never made a serious effort to catch bin Laden, and who launched the unnecessary war in Iraq that has resulted in all of those casualties that DO seem to resonate with you. It may be 120º in Baghdad, but our troops aren't suffering in that heat because some New Yorker sent them there. They're there because our Coward-in-Chief talked to god and decided that chattle are chattle, and that their lives would buy him and his political party a few decades of power.

BTW - I lived in NYC for years and was living at the Jersey shore on 9/11. I have never met a New Yorker who thought that they're "the only ones to ever shed a tear." It's people like you who make such statements, not New Yorkers. Sorry if most New Yorkers can't toss aside the emotions of that day and get about the business of shedding a tear for your hangnail or whatever the hell is bothering your keister.

You need to get over yourself before you even consider asking New Yorkers to get over something that there's no reason for them to get over.

Still the most moving tribute in the aftermath of 9/11.

Thank you for posting it.

SOME FACTS:

3,000 killed at the Towers.

258,000 killed in auto accidents in the U.S. since 9/11.

20,000 killed British soldiers, on the first day of the Battle of the Somme.

72,000,000+ killed, military and civilian, in World war II.

1 killed, when you die.

A COMMENT:

By Dylan Thomas, in "A Refusal to Mourn the Death, by Fire, of a Child in London":

"AFTER THE FIRST DEATH, THERE IS NO OTHER"

All brought to us courtesy of the Abrahamic God
Yahweh ["the Ignorant Demiurge"] who created the universe and the earth with the characteristics which made these deaths and this suffering inevitable and inescapable.

What sayest thou now, Abrahamic believers?

To Anonymous - You asked:
"But why is the grief of 9/11 family members somehow more than the grief of an Iraqi mother burying her child killed by the civil war in Iraq? Why is the grief of 9/11 families just somehow more important?"

The grief of a 9/11 family is NOT more than the grief of an Iraqi mother, father, son, brother, sister or child. Absolutely not. I don't think the grief of 9/11 families is more important.

Then you say: "since then 9/11 has become a rallying cry for war and hatred and murder and torture and hundreds of thousands have suffered and died because of it." Yes, many people have used 9/11 to manipulate public opinion, and as an excuse to invade Iraq. But for me it is possible to separate the manipulation for political ends from the raw tragedy of what happened on 9/11. I keep the human dimension of those who died and their loved ones, separate from the political dimension of those who exploit what happened.

I am not sure why you say that "the 9/11 families hold their grief above the grief of others and above the heads of others." Maybe some of them do, I don't follow the 9/11 families very closely. What makes you say that?

As a country we decided that 9/11 families should receive financial compensation. I am not sure if that was the right decision to make, but on the other hand I do not begrudge those families the money that they have received.

As for the soldiers killed and wounded in Iraq, you make a good point. Indeed, why have the 9/11 families received so much, and soldiers and their families so little? That seems to be skewed priorities, and a national disgrace.

I thought this piece was beautiful. Lamentations is the stuff of remembering, I thank Rabbi Kula for helping me to remember. The thought of juxtaposing scriptural chanting with these messages was haunting and novel, but maintained an expect level of respect.

And in regards to Kim Smith, I second the thought from another reader/writer: Compassion knows no bounds.

" Kim:

"My name is Kim Smith. This is the first time I've ever posted my name on one of these boards because 99% require registration and I won't register."

Well, don't fuss about that, I posted with a screen name based on a particular song that'd been playing and now it's 'my name.'

I would say, a) Anyone who says you ought to post your legal name to an Internet board where people talk about religion is off their gourd, and b)

Well, people have a way of growing into screen names, for better or worse. I kind of like mine, because it's come to remind me I'm trying to represent a 'place,' not a 'me.'

How well I do at that depends upon mood, I suppose, but, twill serve. :)

Janet, I do have compassion for people who have lost loved ones. We've all lost loved ones. But why is the grief of 9/11 family members somehow more than the grief of an Iraqi mother burying her child killed by the civil war in Iraq? Why is the grief of 9/11 families just somehow more important?

I am an American too and I watched those people jump out those windows. I wanted to kill every Arab on the face of the Earth after I watched that but I was in shock. On that day I would have signed up myself if someone had asked. I would have been at the World Trade Center digging with my bare hands if someone had asked. But since then 9/11 has become a rallying cry for war and hatred and murder and torture and hundreds of thousands have suffered and died because of it. The 9/11 families and New York seemed to have missed all that from what I can tell because they hold their grief above the grief of others and above the heads of others. They have also become millionaires and their children will receive free college educations. What will the families of the soldiers killed in Iraq recieve? No million dollars that's for sure and they've been killed by 9/11 just as if they'd been in those buildings.

Thanks and so long Janet.

Kim:

"I'm tired of hearing about what New York suffered on 9/11. Since that day, and because of that day, hundreds of thousands of people have paid a heavy price for those 3,000 lives yet it's still all about New York and the 9/11 victims."

Yeah, in some ways I'm sick of hearing about it, cause the Bush administration didn't even take a half-breath in lionizing these guys while quietly cutting their health benefits, pay, and numbers, in the name of 'homeland security.'

kim,
darling, and for that matter all of you. this ridiculoous bickering is something i'd expect to get from my highschool classmates and unless i'm posting with a bunch of immature highschoolers masquerading as adults, i'm sure you all have lives beyond this. GO LIVE THEM. make a difference. be happy that you can because those people in those buildings didn't have that chance.

Wow. You really told me. Did I not make any typos for you to chew on? Sorry. But my mother has you beat on the English lesson. Her retort to my incorrect grammer would be "how are things behind the at on preposition street?" You can use that if you want to.

And I used the following artful phrase of yours for my first lesson: "Not even the Iraqis believe the numbers fools like you issue." I mean, I get what you meant but I guess it was so sophisitcated it went over my head. I had to re-read it a few times. Thanks again.

And I suppose you're right about Iraq. We really need a strategic military stronghold now that we've created one terrorist nation where this was none and strengthened the ones in Iran and Syria.

I think you may have changed my life between that grammer lesson and your startling grasp of the obvious. Can you give me a puncuatin lesson now? I really need that.

Hi Kim,

Don't get sidetracked by all the stupid attacks on you by people posting at this site. As I said in my post, I don't agree with your attitude to the victims of 9/11, I think you are really missing something here, but I think you have a really good point about what has happened since 9/11, and the numbers of people killed, maimed or displaced by American policies.And I do think it is WAY past time to "take a long hard look at what 9/11 has cost others."
Fear and grief can be manipulated, and maybe you think there is too much manipulation going on, and there definitely is that, but to say that people should just get over what happened on 9/11 is also unrealistic and uncaring. I am unable to understand why you cannot relate to and care about the people who died on that day, and to the families and friends they left behind.

Kim:

You are even more stupid than I previously thought. I am neither a "right-winger" nor a "Republican", but you can believe that I am if it gives you comfort. I am not in the least concerned with "liberating" Iraqis nor promoting democracy you idiot. The only issue which concerns me is that we have bases in Iraq from which to attack your Syrian and Iranian friends. Not even the Iraqis believe the numbers fools like you issue.

Perhaps if you could speak and read several languages and gathered information from a number of sources outside of the US you would not be dependent on the E Network for your information? By the way, were you ever taught not to end a sentence with a preposition you semi-literate rube?

I mixed two responses in the last post but I'm sure a ditto head can sort it out.

My name is Kim Smith. This is the first time I've ever posted my name on one of these boards because 99% require registration and I won't register.

I have a common name.

But thanks for the salient point. It will definitely make me ponder. And your ad hominem attack gives you away as a right wing ditto head sort who has to check am radio every day for your cue on how to think. You need to round out the cliche by criticising my typos.

And as a right wing ditto head I find it odd that you have no compassion for those you were so eager to "liberate" (so many have recieved the ultimate liberation) when you were waving your flags. As far as my numbers, if you listen to the news you would begin to figure out how many Iraqis are dying each day as a result of the civil war unleashed by our compassionate liberation. It adds up. But I suppose you consult Fox for your figures which I have a feeling are minimal. But you did illustrate my point about the amount of attention still being paid to the war by the former gung-ho crowd who wanted it. Who won last year's American Idol by the way? Was it who you voted for?

If my figures are wrong - 25,000 plus injured and nearly 3800 dead - on troop deaths and casualties I will stand corrected.

"But because of 9/11 about a half a million Iraqis (ask them if life is better now) are dead or horribly maimed and 30,000 young American men and women are dead or maimed. The suffering of it is too overwhelming to comprehend an it's vastly out of proportion to the events of 9/11."-Kim

You are an idiot. Four million people have died in the Congo since 1994, have you shed a tear for them? Do you have any proof other than moveon.org for the 500,000 Iraqi dead you claim? Has the US actually lost one-fifth of its troops in Iraq? How many people died in Pearl Harbor and was the US and Allied response proportional to the deaths of that day?

"Bury the dead and move on."

Yes, so stop sniveling about the Iraqis.

Gee Kim Smith -you or someone with your "name" is posting to many open forums lately. This came from the muckraker site. Maybe you should tweek the meds?

"It's all a bunch of pure bull intended as part of Cheney's rule by creating fear in the sheeple of the US Fascist Empire. Like the story about nuclear weapons being flown over US territory.

Cheney is the real evil-doer in this fascist junta that is dominated by the "Christian Right"...wouldn't the term "Christo-fascists" be a more reliable descriptor of the current "leadership"? and their COMPLETE lack of morality and compassion. It would suit me just fine if some "islamo-fascists" got their hands on his wife and all of his relatives (grandchildren included); "Haditha Style" and let him survive to know their slaughter and torture "US Style" was his final reward for his "Service" to his Zionist masters in Nazi Jeruslam LOL!!

Why all the hulla-baloo? It's just another exercise in a lead up to another "911" at the behest of our rabid "Deciders'" puppet masters in Nazi Jerusalem to murder millions more "Islamo-Fascists" in Iran.

Just remember this: "911" was an inside job and the next will be by the same players such as MOSSAD, CIA, Halliburton and KBR et-all.

If Nazi Israel did not exist: there would be none of this talk!

Posted by: kim smith
Date: September 5, 2007 7:37 PM"

Janet, you missed my point. I'm not diminising the tragedy of 9/11 I'm saying give it to history and move on. It's time to stop making 9/11 a thorny crown for New York and instead take a long hard look at what 9/11 has cost others. Yet six years and half a million dead later we are still seeing those GD 9/11 families on the front page of the New York Times complaining and demanding.

dear kim -
is it new york's fault this tragedy happenned to them? Whose futures are really being robbed if those brave men and women, including my father signed up to serve, even in a war that time has shown to be inneffective and fraught with bureacratic trouble? What about the women and men who didn't sighn up to get killed six years ago? true, there is a serious problem with our attitude and care for our troops but lets do something about that instead of underscoring the terrible suffering of over 2000 families whos loved ones were ripped from them

Chris,

I already have a mother. I don't need a condesencing a*s to tell me how to choose my words.

I'm angry and my post doesn't hold back on that anger.

The reverberations of 9/11 have effected the world to the point the attacks seem like a pebble in a pond that turned into a Tsunami. I suppose you are one of those flag waving, right wingers who want to debate the merits of the Iraq war (or attack my spelling). You're not going to bait me into one of those endless back and forth chicken hawk arguments on that issue. Whether the Iraqi people are better off or not was not my point. My point was that if not for 9/11 the Iraq war would never, EVER, have happened. But because of 9/11 about a half a million Iraqis (ask them if life is better now) are dead or horribly maimed and 30,000 young American men and women are dead or maimed. The suffering of it is too overwhelming to comprehend an it's vastly out of proportion to the events of 9/11.

Yet we still have the endless parade of New Yorkers hauling around photographs of their dead relatives and expecting the world to accord more weight to their grief than to the people who have died and suffered as a result.

I'm sick of the harping of people like this Rabbi.

Bury the dead and move on.

There are millions of personal stories and reflections on 9.11.01. Mine is no more tragic or sad, or shocking than the most dramatized representations constructed for mass consumption since that day (see "Flight 93"). My family was living in Boston (I was scheduled to fly out of Logan on Flight 93 from Logan the next day for a conference in Indianapolis), I went to graduate school in New York, and I was born in Washington, DC, so the day really hit home for me in alot of ways.

Events like 9.11 create markers--historical, personal, national, and yes, political--for us to navigate. And so, categorizations of people and opinions: religious extremists, terrorists, heroes, martyrs, victims, and patriots become symbolic nomenclature in our attempts to rationalize irrational behavior.

I lament:

9/11 was bad.
greed is bad.
violence is bad.

folk need to treat other folk nicely. Period.

Fear and ignorance are our greatest enemies.

I have not changed significantly since 9.11 even though I have come to the conclusion that change in the world begins with me. Why? Because I am afraid. Afraid to give up what little material comforts I have. Afraid to send my child to school with "poor" children, even though they live in the same neighborhood I do. Afraid that my child will grow up in a world that poses danger to him on the basis of his skin color or his nationality.

So what am I willing to do to cope with this fear? Is the answer: Support the War? Support Our Troops? Impeach the President? Vote Democratic, Republican, Libertarian, Green? Stock pile food and water? Wave the flag? Preach Peace, Protest? Volunteer for military service?

How about speaking to my neighbors, picking up trash on my street, practicing openess when I least want to.

The people who engineered and carried out the attacks of 9.11 were dead before the first plane hit. That is why they could be convinced to do it. My hope is that by improving my own life in the ways I've described here, I can reach someone who might be on their way to being violent and destructive. Is this Love or Faith-based? I don't know but it works in small doses.

I'm just not sure we have time for this kind of (slow) change...

To Kim,

I agree that it is important to put all tragedies in perspective. 3000 Americans died on 9/11, while approximately 500,000 Iraqis have died since the American invasion, 4 million Iraqis have been internally displaced or have become refugees, and thousands of American soldiers have been killed or seriously wounded.Not to mention the enormous amount of wealth spent on Iraq, that could have been used elsewhere.I believe these are figures that Americans need to ponder, come to grips with, and never forget.

On the other hand, as Anonymous said, compassion has no limits. Are you so angry at Americans that you cannot empathise with the fear and grief experienced by so many people on 9/11?

I have a Jewish background. I recently glanced through a book about the events in parts of Germany and Eastern Europe in the first few years after the fall of Hitler. It was hell on earth. Hundreds of thousands of women were raped, and several million people murdered outright, and many more died from starvation and disease. These were people, many of whom had probably supported Hitler. Should their story not be told? Should we not feel compassion for what they went through?

If your heart is so big that you can feel for all the suffering in Iraq, why is it not big enough to feel for the suffering in New York on 9/11?

Shortly after my wife called telling me about the first plane to hit the WTC, I walked out of my office at the DC Superior Court. The Court building was being evacuated so the at law enforcement officials could be better used somewhere else. People were walking fast or running in all directions. I stopped when I heard a loud crash: it was either the plane hitting the Pentagon ort a section of the Pentagon crashing - I've never been able to clear up my confusion over the timeline. In any event, I thought at the time that every building in DC had been targeted. One thing's for sure - that crashing sound I heard on that morning is as loud in my mind today as it was then.

Kim, I think you need to consider your words carefully before you speak. I don't believe compassion knows any limits. Why can't we care for the victims in New York while still caring for our wounded veterans? Just because others have experienced hardships in this tradgedy doesn't diminish what Rabbi Kula and his family have experienced. That day affected everyone and I think thats the point he's trying to make. Furthemore, I would question your statement about Iraq being worse off now than under Hussein. Just out of curiosity when was the last time you were in Iraq? Thank you for your thoughts Rabbi. I pray God provide comfort to EVERYONE impacted by the events of 9/11 and the days that have followed.

Chris

Fort Collins, CO

I watched James Gandolfini's documentary Sunday night on the wounded veterans of Iraq who return home to little fanfare and an uncertain life. It's still haunting me and when I watched it I put my hands in my face and cried.

I'm tired of hearing about what New York suffered on 9/11. Since that day, and because of that day, hundreds of thousands of people have paid a heavy price for those 3,000 lives yet it's still all about New York and the 9/11 victims.

Iraqis has paid the price for those lives even though they had nothing to do with it. We have managed to make life even worse for the Iraqi people than it was under Hussein which is no small feat. Thirty thousand young American military men and women have been robbed of their rightful futures. Americans are more interested in the latest exploits of Britney Spears than the human toll of the Iraq war.

I'm sick of articles like this one. I'm sick of New Yorkers and 9/11 families who think they are the only ones who ever shed a tear. When the headlines on the New York times were about the 90 plus degree heatwave I checked the Baghdad weather conditions. It was 120 degrees in a place with little or no electric, no clean water and conditions that if an American kept his dog under he would be arrested.

So shut up Rabbi and get over it. Sorry your kids were traumatized and your wife couldn't get home because the subways shut down. Sorry human remains filled soot covered your apartment. Move on and shut up. Please.

Maybe instead of parading your trauma you could reflect on what that day has cost the world. Maybe you could comment on the killing and torture that has been perpetuated in the name of 9/11. Maybe you could reflect on the brain damaged and legless veterans who have had their futures snatched from then because rich, white investment bankers died. We nary turn a head when a thousand Iraqis die in a month yet you still go on.

Have you no respect?

Kim Smith,
Charleston, West Virginia

I watched James Gandolfini's documentary Sunday night on the wounded veterans of Iraq who return home to little fanfare and an uncertain life. It's still haunting me and when I watched it I put my hands in my face and cried.

I'm tired of hearing about what New York suffered on 9/11. Since that day, and because of that day, hundreds of thousands of people have paid a heavy price for those 3,000 lives yet it's still all about New York and the 9/11 victims.

Iraqis has paid the price for those lives even though they had nothing to do with it. We have managed to make life even worse for the Iraqi people than it was under Hussein which is no small feat. Thirty thousand young American military men and women have been robbed of their rightful futures. Americans are more interested in the latest exploits of Britney Spears than the human toll of the Iraq war.

I'm sick of articles like this one. I'm sick of New Yorkers and 9/11 families who think they are the only ones who ever shed a tear. When the headlines on the New York times were about the 90 plus degree heatwave I checked the Baghdad weather conditions. It was 120 degrees in a place with little or no electric, no clean water and conditions that if an American kept his dog under he would be arrested.

So shut up Rabbi and get over it. Sorry your kids were traumatized and your wife couldn't get home because the subways shut down. Sorry human remains filled soot covered your apartment. Move on and shut up. Please.

Maybe instead of parading your trauma you could reflect on what that day has cost the world. Maybe you could comment on the killing and torture that has been perpetuated in the name of 9/11. Maybe you could reflect on the brain damaged and legless veterans who have had their futures snatched from then because rich, white investment bankers died. We nary turn a head when a thousand Iraqis die in a month yet you still go on.

Have you no respect?

Kim Smith,
Charleston, West Virginia

America must find again the just road in order to come to happiness and to follow an just direction…