Articles

• Pray for Humanity
• We gotta make a change!
• Another contribution
• Terrorism attacks September 11th, 2001

Pray for Humanity
By Frank Vest
1:124/6308

I'm sure that by now the world knows of the planes that crashed into the World Trade Center in New York and the Pentagon in Washington, D.C., U.S.A. on Sept. 11, 2001.

I'm not here to ask for sympathy for or condemnation of this. I'm here to ask for some simple prayers.

Pray for those who were killed. For they are our brothers and sisters.

Pray for those that did this. For they too are our brothers and sisters.

Pray for humanity. For we need all the help we can get.

Pray for understanding. For without it, we are lost.

Pray for peace. For if we don't achieve it,.... need I say more?

Please understand that I'm not saying that justice shouldn't be done. I'm not saying that those that did this deed be forgiven.

All I'm asking is for some simple prayers. We, all of this planet, will need them to get through this.

Sincerely,

Frank Vest - Fidonews Editor and fellow human being

We gotta make a change
By Petko Bossakov
2:535/1

Hello everyone,
Since I'm representing the Bulgarian people in Fidonet, I believe I must express my thoughts and feelings about the recent tragedy in the United States. As a citizen of the Western world, I cannot understand these terrorists' disrespectful attitude towards the sanctity of Life. Life is the greatest wonder on this planet, in this Universe and this reality, and no cause that compromises Life may be considered worthy under any circumstances. For a small slice of Eternity we are granted the privilege to exist, eat, sleep, work, have fun, fall in love, dream, be here, doing whatever we do; for eons, we were not. We have to respect that privilege.

As a true optimist, I still believe that this century can give us peace and prosperity, in spite of the way it started. My sympathy goes to all the human beings directly or indirectly affected by this. Let us all stop for a moment and think about these words from a song made by one of my favorite artists of the last century, Tupac Shakur:

We gotta make a change...
It's time for us as a people to start makin' some changes.
Let's change the way we eat, let's change the way we live and let's change the way we treat each other.
You see, the old way wasn't working, so it's on us to do what we gotta do to survive.

Petko Bossakov
N535C

Another contribution
From: John Aldred

Pray for the siblings, parents, children & other relatives of those who were killed. They are victims too; perhaps more so than those killed. Who knows how long the survivors will have to live with their personal losses.

It's such a sad time. And the whole world should be in disgrace that in such modern times of relative "enlightenment" something like this could even happen. Perhaps this "enlightenment" is what shielded us from the possibility that this is even conceivable. I have no doubt that one way or another, the orchestrators of this atrocity will be brought to justice.

We also have to pray that we don't see repeats of events, in the last few days, as time passes in the future.

To every member of the "civilized" world, which is not limited to just those commonly known as "civilized" countries, but also those individual innocents who are caught up in the middle of this through no fault of their own:

You are in my heart and prayers. God (whomever you believe that to be) bless you all.

John

Terrorism attacks
September 11th, 2001
From "George Vandervort" <georgev@austin.rr.com>

In case you haven't already heard, both towers of New York City's World Trade Center have now collapsed and a serious fire rages at the U.S. Pentagon, all due to terrorist attacks using hijacked planes. Check your local news for more details.

As someone who has lived in a war zone for more than a year in my past I can tell you that there are some things you should consider when talking to anyone who may have been affected by today's events.

1. Don't joke about it, even if you think it might help cheer someone up.
2. Don't coddle. Treat them with respect and help them in the ways you would normally help. Offer support, but assume they will tell you if they need help.
3. Don't speculate, and don't act like you understand or know how they feel. If you haven't gone through an extremely traumatic event you don't know what its like. Talk to them, but listen more than talk.

If you're affected by this directly yourself, take our condolences and hopes that you recover. If we can help, ask.