Moscow Woman praying for the victims of 11 September 2001
(From Ryan Garland's Collection of Photos)

New York, 11 September 2001: Gaelic Blessing
New York, 11 September 2001: Many Voices
The Crone Papers: Notes on the Mideast
What Can We Do About Terrorism? by Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.
Afghanistan I
Afghanistan II
Letter from an Afghan-American
Pakistan
Wars, Weapons, and Lies: The Dehumanizing Impulse

NOTE:

I have shifted the background information on these pages from my home page, where they originally appeared under "NEW":

Sunday, 21 October 2001, 7am (PDT):  for the past five weeks, in an attempt to catch what educators call the "teaching moment," I have been working at fever-pitch annotating links on Afghanistan.  What began as one page is now two -- and both were finally completed a few hours ago.  Afghanistan I looks at current events & recent history (also: cities & regions, ethnicities & religions, general information, and collections of photos, both current and pre-Taliban).  Afghanistan II focuses on this region's ancient, pre-Islamic, & Islamic history, arts, music, and lore.  In addition, I am "unofficially" launching the Balkan page I was working on all night 10-11 September: Croatia -- despite many ungrokked links (which I'll start annotating later this week or next), there's much here to explore.

Monday, 8 October 2001, 2pm (PDT):  The sorrow many of us feel over leaders who fail to think "outside the box" is very deep.  As the world stands at the edge of chaos, holds its breath and prays, I have little to add to what I've been writing the past month.  However, you might wish to read this new page I just uploaded: "What Can We Do About Terrorism?" by Dr. Robert M. Bowman, Lt. Col., USAF, ret.  This man directed the "Star Wars" programs under presidents Ford and Carter -- his hard-hitting message has been going around the internet via e-mails.

Monday pre-dawn, 1 October 2001, 2:12 am (PDT):  There are Many Voices pulsing through the web.  In my latest page on 11 September 2001, I have tried to capture some of the best -- humane and thoughtful.  These include: Yasmine Galenorn, Deepak Chopra, astrologers Wolfstar and Melissa Stratton, Jean Houston, Starhawk (and other wiccans), David Spangler, Stephen Jay Gould, Orin (channeling DaBen), a piece inspired by the work of Thich Nhat Hanh, Eva Hoffman, and "God."  There is also a link to an extraordinary collection of photos, "America's tragedy is felt by all the world..."

Tuesday, 18 September 2001, 9:45pm:  while our military leaders scheme late into the night, I have been scheming late into the night too -- see yet another new page, The Crone Papers: Notes on the Mideast.  I also put up a page on Pakistan in the wee hours last night -- there aren't many links yet (I still have much to complete on Afghanistan first) but I love the opening image of the little girl in a mosque full of males.

Sunday, 16 September 2001, 4:50pm: I'm so worried that the "clouds of war" rolling across the country are eerie extensions of those ghastely, roiling clouds we saw engulfing fleeing people when the towers fell.  I light candles, pray to the wind-spirits to blow the clouds away, pray for light, for sanity.  At least 50% of the population should be attending rage-aholics meetings, which should be held on every street corner.  We're truly addicted to violence -- to speak of "justice" is a sanitized euphemism.

We have an amazing windfall of goodwill from all around the world right now.  Why are we squandering this "capital" on short-sighted vengeance against a proximate cause?  Why aren't we investing our full resources, creativity, and strategies in solving the *ultimate* causes: the Israeli/Arab conflict and widespread despair and poverty in the region?  Even if we can ever manage to take out bin Laden, we'll only have cut off a single dragon's head.  Mythology warns that a dozen or more dragon heads will spring up from the stump, worse than the first.

Many of us are frightfully depressed by all this.  I thought we'd learned from Vietnam and Iraq.  Violence begets violence.  It *never* works.  It takes no "leadership" to fall back upon patriotism and sentimentality.  True leadership would find a way to chart a new, more humane path through the littered landscape of centuries-old hatreds and revenge.

Yesterday I felt an urgency to give a "human face" to Afghanistan's people and land.  If we're going to bomb them, we should at least know what they look like.  I worked til 5am and then much of today.  The page is still very rough but the images are there with many links, grokked and ungrokked: Myth*ing Links' Eurasia / Central Asia: Afghanistan page.  I hope you'll take a look -- and then read the Gaelic Blessing on my very brief page for New York City (see directly below).

11 September 2001, 1:37pm:  It was my home for 15 years.  This is for New York City......a Gaelic Blessing and a painting by a Croatian artist of "Jesus Praying."
 

My complete Site Map and e-mail address will be found on my Home Page.

This page created with Netscape Gold 3.01
Technical assistance: William Weeks
Design & introduction © 2001 by Kathleen Jenks, Ph.D.
All rights reserved
Page designed 21 October 2001 (1:10pm PDT);
Launched 23 October 2001.