Tuesday 11th September 2001 23-30 CET
World Trade Centre/Pentagon Violence
"Poverty is the greatest form of violence" stated Mohandas K Gandhi.
This is most certainly true, for poverty inflicts pain in so many ways.

But violence is not a question of degree...violence is violence and
demands from us a response which, in our human experiencing condition
cannot always be one of expressing lovingness...though there have
been many...great and small..who in this past century have done
just that.

So we look into a shattered World Trade centre dustcloud. We
contemplate the terror aboard those hijacked civil airlines
whose passengers and crew were mercilessly sacrificed to some,
as yet, unknown 'principle of justification'. Oh, that the world might
be saved from such principles and justifications that carry within
them all that speaks against the sanctity of human life.

In these horrendous circumstances it is hard to 'find a blessing'.

I sometimes visit the websites of young 'anti-social/punk orientated' people
in the USA. I have heard the revolt against authority, the cynicism
expressed against social morals and values and the empasised hyprocrisy
of older generations. I see the disrepect verbalised against the world..and
read of the apparent lack of individual responsibility and respect.

A 15 year old of this 'category' writes in this way. Having heard of
the appalling scenario unfolding in America today, his response..his
immediate response..was " I am going down to give blood."

The price of freedom is individual responsibility. In such circumstances
as these we all have the potential for 'being a source of blessings'.
God Bless you Tonio!!!!

"A true disciple feels another's pain as his own" sang Gandhi as a child.
I am not certain if I qualify as a 'disciple', but I am weeping inside for the
pain of all those families, friends, schoolpals......who have lost a loved one
this terrible, inhuman, unimaginably unkind day.