Comments exchanged yesterday…
An online conversation I had yesterday about the significance of that day:
Jeff: Do you know what today is?
Peter: Yes, it’s Tuesday.
Jeff: You know what I mean dumbass.
Peter: I do, but I don’t care.
Jeff: You don’t care?
Peter: Well I care a bit, but no where near as much as these bleeding hearts out there…
Jeff: So you don’t care about the people who died on this day?
Peter: I do, but I also care about the people died in other events that no one gives a rat’s ass about. Why should I give out a special day to this event when there are worse tragedies that get no recogintion at all.
Jeff: Such as?
Peter: I’ll take Rwanda for $400, Alex.
Jeff: How many people were killed there?
Peter: Close to a million… and most of them were butchered with machettes.
Jeff: Damn that’s nasty.
Peter: Not as nasty as what we did…
Jeff: Which was?
Peter: Nothing.
Jeff: Nothing?
Peter: Sweet fuck all. The so called superpowers just sat back and let it happen. That makes us all just as responsible for what happened there. The blood is on our hands…
Jeff: didn’t anyone step in?
Peter: Eventually… but by the time the sides were split up, the damage was done. That my friend is a real tragedy. Compared to that horrific piece of genocide, 9/11 is a fart in the wind. Yet for some reason the lives of those who perished in the towers are apparently worth more than the million who perished in Rwanda. Go figure…
Jeff: No kidding. Kill a million africans and no one gives a shit but take out only a few thousand bankers and brokers in New York and hell hath no fury.
Peter: Exactly.
I was tempted to post a huge commentary on the day, but realized that some really good writers here in OD beat me to it (Thanks to Popeyechicken and dear_gertrudeperkins for some kickass commentaries). I thought this quick exchange I had with a buddy was enough to point out where I stand on the issue of yesterday’s anniversary…
I think that’s all the time I’m going to use on that issue. See ya around…
Peter
My cat’s name is Pete(r), for the High King Peter in The Lion, the Witch, and the Wardrobe. Anyway. Nice name you have there. And a good point in your entry. Hi ho,
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Good to see you are educating people one person at a time. Keep up the losing battle.
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How many people died in the Boxing Day tsunami? It’s time to declare a War on Water.
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way to go!
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What’s worse about Rwanda isn’t that how we (the west) let it happen. It wasn’t as though we consciously ignored it. It was worse. There was a UN peacekeeping force in the country and the leader (Dallaire, as I’m sure you know) asked for double the troops (and extra 2500 men) and a mandate to act because he was sure to nip it in the bid. Instead, the Security Council slashed his force by 90%
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So the west’s letting it happen wasn’t simply a bury your head in the sand and pretend it’s not happening thing. It was a deliberate, conscious, well-debated decision to say NO, which is even worse. Worse still is that this was done in circumstances where saying YES was easily feasible since the peacekeepers were already there with the consent of the Rwandan government.
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Incidentally, I post a remembrance essay on Rwanda every year on April 6.
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Exactly! I was thinking of Rwanda and the tsunami yesterday too.
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People are still memorializing 9/11?! Umm… why? *looks around paranoid* Uh oh, now I’m going to have those Patriot Act goons all over my tail. Better not check out or buy a copy of the Quran either!
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