Fwd: [Santiagobis] thoughts in the aftermath of tragedy

[Kathy Gower]

>From: "lin galea" <caminante93ahotmail.com>
>Reply-To: Santiagobisayahoogroups.com
>To: GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu
>CC: Santiagobisayahoogroups.com
>Subject: [Santiagobis] thoughts in the aftermath of tragedy
>Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 08:34:09 -0700
>
>Dear friends,
>I appreciate your thoughts and prayers for the victims, as well as the
>perpetrators, and for your hopes for world peace.
>
>   I certainly do not agree with the tactics of terror,  but I also know
>that
>we, and the rest of the "1st" world, need to listen to what is happening in
>the rest of the world.  It's true we have many problems to solve here in
>the
>states, but nothing like the poverty, hunger, illness and utter dispair
>that
>exists in so much of the world.    I desperately hope that our leadership
>will act responsibly and not exacerbate the situation. I hope that in their
>search for solutions to the problem of terrorism, they will seriously
>consider the necessity of alleviating the despair as an integral means of
>eliminating terrorism.  I feel deeply saddened by the hatred and
>desperation
>that has provoked these acts.
>Thank you all for reminding us of the necessity of keeping our hearts and
>minds open to love and peace at this most difficult and trying time.
>
>lin
>
>
>
>----Original Message Follows----
>From: Rosina Lila <BlaroliaAOL.COM>
>Reply-To: Road to Santiago Pilgrimage <GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu>
>To: GOCAMINOapete.uri.edu
>Subject: Back in New York
>Date: Wed, 12 Sep 2001 09:46:56 EDT
>
>My friends,
>I just returned from Santiago, full of impressions and new insights which I
>had anticipated sharing with you.
>Alas! a major tragedy in my hometown has intervened and, at this moment,
>Santiago seems very, very distant.
>I live so close to what was the World Trade Center that when the first
>plane
>hit I heard the crash; not knowing where, or what it was I ran to my
>terrace
>to look and saw the fire coming from one of the towers which was in direct
>view from me.  (For those of you familiar with the City, I live in the one
>tall building at the corner of Charles Street and Seventh Avenue, two
>blocks
>down from St. Vincent's Hospital). I remained on the terrace in disbelief
>until the other plane hit. I though it was an accidental explosion.  The
>announcers on TV first said that a plane had hit the building accidentally,
>and it was more than fifteen minutes since they began talking about the
>possibility of a second plane.  Trying not to panic I phoned my son who
>lives
>just a few blocks from where the explosions happened (he and his girlfriend
>and their cats were all rights, although their building was later
>evacuated).
>There was no time to calm down as one horror followed another, first with
>one
>of the towers collapsing, and then the other.
>The traffic was stopped on Seventh Avenue and nothing moved except
>firetrucks, police vehicles and ambulances, all in a terrible hurry and
>with
>sirens blaring.  People who were obligated to come out of the subway were
>milling around in the street, as dazed and unbelieving as I was at the
>sight
>of those familiar, defining and comforting buildings disappearing before
>our
>very eyes.
>As news of what had happened became clearer and I could think about the
>magnitude of the human toll and the determination of the attack planners I
>could only cry in profound sadness and despair at the realization of my
>fears.
>Some of you may remember that I visited Jerusalem in May and that I came
>back
>so distraught at what I saw there that I refused to write about it.  The
>disregard and contempt of some humans treating others, their daily,
>constant
>humiliation, and the resentment and anger that seemed to boil within them
>depressed and horrified me.  More so since I knew that we finance the
>turmoil
>there, and that, perhaps, by not becoming somewhat politically active on
>the
>issue we ourselves contribute, albeit unwillingly, to the debasement and
>hopelessness of so many there. I sensed that it was inevitable that sooner
>or
>later we would be presented with a bill.
>Except for writing a few letters to my elected representatives, the only
>thing I could do was to ask the congregation at Mass to pray for peace in
>the
>Holy Land.  To my surprise, my request did not seem to elicit much
>interest.
>Nevertheless, I did, and do continue to pray for a fair and humane
>resolution
>to the conflict there.  I am absolutely convinced that until peace in the
>Middle East is brought about we ourselves, here, shall have none.  Someone
>wrote that killing an enemy begets five more.  An ancient Chinese
>philosopher
>wrote that one planning revenge should dig two graves, one for the foe to
>be
>killed and one for himself, and as any rational person knows, nobody really
>wins a war..... we all lose.
>What has now happened is  too much for me to bear. I am distraught.  As
>close
>as I am to St. Vincent's Hospital I am in the midst of the pain of
>relatives
>and friends milling outside the hospital waiting for news of their loved
>one..... waiting and waiting for the thousands of people unaccounted for,
>hoping that they will be brought to the hospital wounded but alive..... and
>they don't come.
>My friends, I ask you, with tears in my eyes and my heart imprisoned in
>sorrow, to pray with me for peace in the land of our Sweet Lord's birth.
>How
>tragically ironic, that in the land where God's love for us became
>incarnate,
>so much hatred causes so much pain and so much inhumanity.  There is a
>picture in the International Edition of the Herald Tribune dated August 10,
>2001, that alone depicts what I am trying to convey far better than all my
>words and all my tears. Seeing that picture reopened the pain of my
>Jerusalem
>impressions; thenceforth my pilgrimage was one of silent and constant
>prayer.
>Now,  at home,  my prayers are bathed in tears.
>Rosina
>
>
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