Date: Tue, 04 Dec 2001 02:26:08 +0800
Subject: RE: The Hierarchy of Death


Richard Knox wrote:

Are you troubled when people drive past a guy at the side of the street holding up a sign that says "Will Work for Food" in order to be on time at a meeting to discuss the importance of having dogs spayed so that their puppies don't need to go to the pond?

Um...what?

and Richard Knox wrote:

"There are children right here in the US that could use more aid. Do you know - for example -that in Washington DC the infant mortality rate is twice that in Cuba? Might the money spend on DNA testing of body parts be better spend on ameliorating that problem - for example."

We all know that the U.S. has enough money and resources to conduct its DNA testing on 9/11 victims (as well as all the related search/rescue related activities) AND address the infrastructural issues that create poverty and high infant mortality rates in its cities/counties/towns (not to mention internationally)--this isn't an either/or proposition (ie, if the U.S. does one thing it can't afford to do the other).  

But the suggestion that Americans shouldnt be able to "bury" (such as it is)  their dead and seek closure in this way simply because they're American is prejudiced and afterall really runs against the grain of what everyone on the list keeps insisting--that people are people, that there shouldnt be divisions and compartmentalizations.  The insistence on this set of double standards (the international community can mourn the loss of innocent lives, so long as they're not Americans who worked at the WTC) is really perpetuating the kind of us vs. them thinking that the list purportedly wants to fight against and eliminate.  

Others on the list have commented that Aussie firefighters went to help (but where did this info come from?).  That's so fantastic, and whether or not they got there in time to actually be in the worst of the tragedy is beside the point, for me (it's the show of solidarity that counts--solidarity that needs to cut every which way, to connect everyone).   




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