A rchive Date
[ 14-09-2002 ]
Category
[ International Relations ]
sub-Categoy
[ U.S ]
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[http://www.canoe.ca/Columnists/mustard.html
A silent but powerful eloquence
By LAURIE MUSTARD -- Winnipeg Sun
September 11, 2002
Today, a memorial cairn will be dedicated at the International Peace Garden to mark the Anniversary of 9/11.Located near the garden's Peace Chapel, the cairn has been constructed with steel girders from the World Trade Center debris.
Earlier this summer, just after the girders arrived at the Peace Garden, my wife Marly, daughter Andrea and I stopped in to view them. We were a little surprised at the intensity of the feelings triggered by the experience, one of them being a compelling need to touch the girders. We certainly weren't the first.
As a Peace Garden spokesman put it: "Everybody has to touch those girders."
Perhaps it's a symbolic way of reaching out and personally consoling the 2,800 people who lost their lives so tragically, amidst the scorched, scarred steel before us. I felt no anger in their presence, just a deep, sobering sadness. It's much the same feeling as one gets when standing over the sunken USS Arizona at Pearl Harbour. The anger, mixed with a good dose of resolve, comes later.
We hear so much about American foreign policies bringing this all on. Sure, they've earned their share of shame, but by no stretch of the imagination can one justify the cowardly act committed a year ago today as being just retribution on behalf of oppressed victims of American policy.
Think of who the villains are here. Hardly what you'd call respected citizens of the world.
Consider how kindly Mr. Compassion (bin Laden) and the Taliban were treating the people of Afghanistan, especially the women. Study Saddam Hussein's history and weep for his countless victims.
And unlike the terrorist agenda, the Free World doesn't wage war simply to kill and run. Our ultimate goal is self-preservation, along with a commitment to protect and preserve this extraordinary freedom and democracy many of us take way too much for granted.
Consider the enemies Allied forces conquered during the Second World War. Our record is hardly one of murder and mayhem, occupation and exploitation. Germany and Japan are healthy democracies, free to live and thrive on their own. I'm tired of hearing ankle-biting dissidents compare the leaders of the FREE world, to a pack of low-life murderers and fail to see the difference. Tired of those who paint the political serial killers of the world as desperate victims understandably seeking revenge.
We walk free, read, say and do as we choose, all won at great cost, as recognized on Remembrance Day.
The broken beams we see here, stained with the blood of innocent, unsuspecting victims, are all the evidence we need to justify disarming "them" before they continue in their quest to destroy "us."
Pick a side.
Laurie Mustard can be reached by phone at 632-2749, by fax at 632-4250, or e-mail at lmustard@wpgsun.com Letters to the editor should be sent to editor@wpgsun.com]
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