It’s always a bit alarming when you wake up and find yourself being hit with a link from a bigwig.
Unfortunately, the title of the post “Shared Grief” is obviously revealed as a fallacy, since many, apparently, do not “share the grief” with the Spaniards.
My heart is with Spain today. If there were people who supported terrorists in that country, perhaps their hearts will change, now that the war has been brought to their doorstep. After all, this happened for many of us in America.
I will speak for myself: my complacence, my intellectual curiosity about world events (as opposed to a gut-level understanding), my feeling that it was always “over there” was given an enormous shock on a blindingly-blue-skied day 4 years ago.
Many of us in America had to have a very steep learning curve.
Let us give Spain that room as well, people.
Or you know what? Perhaps being attacked like this WON’T change the hearts of many people – but I can’t control that – and I don’t even GIVE a shit about that right now. All I can think of is that line of body bags, with cell phones ringing off the hook. I cannot hear about such a thing and not just ACHE for those trying to call their loved ones. At a time like this, that is all that matters.
You can’t understand certain things until they happen to you. Like childbirth, or the death of a parent, or a violent terrorist attack right on your soil. And I’m a New Yorker. I experienced it first-hand.
Yes, I remember the photo of the gleeful ignorant Spanish girls, at an anti-war protest in Madrid, wearing suicide belts and bikinis. I was horrified at the image.
But … er … because of that … because there were anti-war protests in the country … I’m not going to feel terrible because 200 innocent people were just slaughtered?
Fuck off. That’s not who I am. That’s not how I live my life in this world. Fuck off.
This week, my heart is with the innocent people who were cruelly murdered, on their way to work, and on their way to school. My heart is with the men and women who are now widows, the children who are now orphans.
/begin bitter sarcastic tone
And you know what?? Oh my GOD, maybe some of those people on those trains were anti-war!! Maybe some of the people on those trains hated the US!! Maybe some of the people on those trains DIDN’T AGREE WITH EVERY SINGLE ONE OF MY OPINIONS! How DARE they?? Don’t they know that I am ALWAYS RIGHT???
/end bitter sarcastic tone
There is nothing that I have more contempt for, in this moment, than people who hold that blinkered political-filter view.
My heart is with Spain. Just like my heart was with the people of Iran when they had the massive earthquake. They’re human beings. Jesus Christ.
We’re talking about precious human life here.
I share grief with Spain. I say it proudly.
I cannot fathom how someone could be so cold hearted towards the victims of this atrocity because there were some anti-war protests in Spain. There have been anti-war protests in this nation, yet I doubt the same people would pigeonhole all of us as they have the Spaniards.
To those of you who feel nothing for the victims because a pair of morons dressed up as suicide bombers last year, damn you to hell.
You said it well, Sheila.
Had an argument at work last night on this very subject. I can’t say that even a fraction of a percentage of the people who died thought to themselves consciously at any point in the day “I hate America,” or even “I disagree with America,” or even much more than “What’s for Dinner?” or “I have laundry to do.”
By that, I mean these people were average folks who think don’t think much more beyond the goings on of their daily lives. These people weren’t representing Spain in the international community. These weren’t the people who made the decisions of the government in regards to their diplomatic ties.
These were the people who were punished for doing nothing more than going about their lives.
They’re schlubs. Like you and me. They get up. They busy themselves. They go to bed. (Hopefully you aren’t insulted by being called a schlub).
But I do them an injustice by calling them schlubs. Each one was a person with people who loved them, and to whom they were important. People who’ll never see their family and friends again.
You speak so much more eloquently than I do.
I guess I’ll just say, I agree. And leave it at that.
My goodness, some of those replies below are appalling.. thank you for the eloquent responses here.
Oh man, the cell phones ringing…
There are bad peole in the world. Thee are good people in the world. There are people who are hateful and people who aren’t. I have AIDS. There are people who think I deserve it because they lump me into a group that they have already made up their minds about. I’m not a group. And neither are the hundreds of dead souls in Spain. I agree Shelia, we must think of these people as people, and pray and cry and be hopeful and feel for the ones they left behind. The are not a group, they are individually dead.
Terror is terror. I see no value in judging anyone at this point. Anyone.
God rest their souls.
Yeah, it’s getting worse down in that comments section … I was going to close the comments but then I thought: so many people are leaving lovely comments, why should a couple of ASSHOLES ruin it for everyone?
Shit, man. It’s HARD to stay soft.
By that I mean empathic.
But dammit, I will.
Thank you, all – for the beautiful comments. I am proud to have you all as readers here on my wee little rant-space.
Bless.
Amen Sheila – Amen.
Good for you, Sheila.
For me, it’s the same as the people who can’t feel compassion for terror victims where I live in Israel, just because they hold the political opinion that Israel should get out of the territories.
Nobody deserves to be murdered this way. Nobody.
There does seem to be a fairly consistent historical thread of attempted appeasement in European politics. Those folks never seem to learn…
On the other hand, we have made it unnecessarily difficult for our allies by projecting an air of haughty smugness in the deportment of our foreign policy. The President needs to give greater heed to the advice of Powell and Rice and far less to Cheney and Rumsfeld.
The “let’s kill terrorists instead of animals” comment is my favourite… That fellow is all in favor of vengeful hatred against terrorists, just not the unjust torture of squirrels and pigeons (?!)
That one wins the “entertaining comment of the week” prize, and it’s only Monday!