[MR] OT: Caution against dehumanizing/London Independent article

[Harrison, Christine A.]

Those trying to understand the political rationale of why this happened
might read the following article from yesterday's London Independent. It
is clearly sympathetic to the Palestinians, but does offer another
(historical) perspective that might help explain why these people -- if
indeed Islamic fundamentalist terrorists are the perpetrators -- felt
justified in their actions. 

The article is:
"The wickedness and awesome cruelty of a crushed and humiliated people"
By Robert Fisk
London Independent
12 September 2001

http://news.independent.co.uk/world/americas/story.jsp?story=93623


This is a key graph:

"No, there is no doubting the utter, indescribable evil of what has
happened in the United States. That Palestinians could celebrate the
massacre of 20,000, perhaps 35,000 innocent people is not only a symbol
of their despair but of their political immaturity, of their failure to
grasp what they had always been accusing their Israeli enemies of doing:
acting disproportionately. All the years of rhetoric, all the promises
to strike at the heart of America, to cut off the head of "the American
snake'' we took for empty threats. How could a backward, conservative,
undemocratic and corrupt group of regimes and small, violent
organisations fulfil such preposterous promises? Now we know." 

-- Brighid

-----Original Message-----
From: Terry L. Neill [mailto:t_neill at hotmail.com]
Sent: Thursday, September 13, 2001 9:26 AM
To: Atlantia at atlantia.sca.org
Subject: [MR] A caution


> > Terrorist scum sucking Vomit licking Pigs
>
>Fiends, yes.  Evil, rotten sons of bachelors, absolutely.  Scum sucking
>vomit licking pigs, even.  But, let's not imagine that our enemies are 
>weak,
>stupid, or craven, lest we be rudely surprised.


While I agree with the feelings behind these sentiments; I caution us
all.

Let us not reduce these people to less than human.  Although the acts
they 
have committed are unspeakably evil, they are still *human*.

To try to reduce our enemies to less than human, is to deny the humanity
in 
ourselves.  And it also makes it easier to hate.

I profoundly hope that the legacy of these terrible atrocities is a 
*strengthening* of our own humanity.  That we look to our core beliefs,
as 
laid out in our Constitution, and hold deeply to them.  It is easy to
accord 
rights to our friends.  It is transcendent to insist they be applied to
our 
enemies as well.

- Anarra

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