Re: A Plea For Tolerance - please forward if you wish

Hello Denise,

I am chocked by your sentence

. The former government of Afghanistan has pledged the
> entirety of its 15,000 troops to support the United States.



It is impossible in the same contest to say something  like above and citate
people as Ghandi, who are  against every  kind of violence...

Greetings
Ineke van der Maat

----- Original Message -----
From: "Hewitt, Denise" <Denise.Hewitt@idea.com>
To: <sigia-l@asis.org>; <w3c-wai-ig@w3.org>
Sent: Tuesday, September 18, 2001 9:14 AM
Subject: OT: A Plea For Tolerance - please forward if you wish


> I apologize for  this being off topic to what we do - but my friend & I
> wrote this because of all the recent incidents in Texas and elsewhere in
the
> aftermath of the WTC attack. And also because of incidents that have
> happened to people I care about.
>
> Dear humans,
>
> This is a plea. This is a cry for awareness. Please read this.
>
> "Even though people look different, I see the reflection of the same
> God in all of them." (Sikh)
>
> Kicking and screaming their way through the smoke and rubble of this all
too
> tragic event are angry and scared people - a dangerous combination.
>
> "Cultivation of tolerance for other faiths will impart to us a truer
> understanding of our own." (Gandhi)
>
> We, the American people, have been faced with a devastating attack, one
that
> appears to be tied to a man named Osama bin Laden. He was granted
sanctuary
> in Afghanistan, a country currently run by the Taliban. The Taliban is a
> very hard-lined council that has uses military power to keep the former
> government away. The former government of Afghanistan has pledged the
> entirety of its 15,000 troops to support the United States.
>
> "What we see depends mainly on what we look for." (John Lubbock)
>
> Life in Afghanistan is hard for its people. To give you a better idea of
the
> situation, this is a quote from a Tamim Ansary, a reporter in San
Francisco
> of Afghan descent.
>
> "But the Taliban and Bin Laden are not Afghanistan. They're
> not even the
> government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of
> ignorant psychotics who took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a
> political criminal with a plan. When you think Taliban, think Nazis. When
> you think Bin Laden, think Hitler. And when you think "the people of
> Afghanistan" think "the Jews in the concentration camps."
>
> Also think of David Koresh - while he called himself a Christian, he was
not
> representative of Christians. While he called himself American, he was not
> representative of Americans.
>
> "Unto friends And unto foes alike in tolerance;" (Bhagvad Gita,
> Chapter XIV)
>
> What we have here is a group of people who hold a country hostage and
share
> a common religion. That religion is a specific sect of Islam and with a
> definitively hard interpretation of the Islamic laws that makes them stand
> apart from the sect they are based off of.
>
> "You are all my witnesses." (Isaiah 43:10)
>
> With all of this being said, we would like to move on to the scared
> people... those we are trying to reach with this message.
>
> o Please realize that killing a person in Arizona just for
> wearing a turban or having a beard is wrong!
> o There are 500,000 Sikhs living in America -
> some families have been here for more than 100 years. The Sikh people
> originate from India, our ally. They are our friends, neighbors, and
fellow
> citizens.
> (http://www.salon.com/news/wire/2001/09/16/arizona_attack/index.html)
> o Do you realize that burning down a store owned by a
> Pakistani-American is wrong?
>
(http://www.click2houston.com/hou/news/stories/news-96210820010916-150931.ht
> ml) Pakistan is willing to go to war with Afghanistan, a country up until
> now they have considered an ally, and allow us to stage our military from
> their country! In addition, many of the Pakistani people who live in the
> United States came here as political refugees so that they could bring up
> their children in a free country, a country where they would not fear.
> o Do you not realize that a Sikh American is no more related
> to the Taliban than you or me? (<http://www.sikh.net/AOA/sikh911.htm>)
> o Do you not realize that making such generalizations and
> acting out on your rage and your pain in such a manner makes you no better
> than those who brought this rage and this pain to you?
> o Please think before you act. Think of the many lives lost in
> the World Trade Center. Think of the many people, families, children who
> have lost loved ones. Think of that pain and sorrow. Then think of your
> fellow neighbors, co-workers and friends. Would you wish to add to their
> pain?
>
> "Lord, make me an instrument of your peace;
> where there is hatred, let me sow love;
> when there is injury, pardon;
> where there is doubt, faith;
> where there is despair, hope;
> where there is darkness, light;
> and where there is sadness, joy." (Prayer of
> St. Francis)
>
> If your need for revenge is too strong, then you must deal with it,
because
> that is all we can do right now. If your need for blood is too strong,
then
> try your hand at the armed forces. Perhaps you will be lucky enough to act
> out on your feelings, with someone intelligent who is able to determine
the
> proper target for you.
>
> What we really need is empathy. We need to realize that anyone living in
> America (whether they own a gas station in Arizona, worship at a mosque in
> Dallas, or believe that the universe is owned and operated by a supreme
> alien being named Xalnak) has been touched by this attack. Have you been
> touched by this attack? Do you now wonder what the next target will be?
Will
> you be in that building? Now try to imagine the same feelings, and add to
> them the dirty looks and the open hatred that your FELLOW AMERICANS greet
> you with on the streets, at work, and everywhere you go. Try to imagine
what
> it would be like if someone decided to focus the blame on you. Try to
> imagine not only how you feel now, but if you also had to live in fear as
> well.
>
> "When they came for the socialists I did not speak out
> because I was not a socialist.
> When they came for the homosexuals I did not speak out
> because I was not a homosexual.
> When they came for the Jews I did not speak out because I
> was not a Jew.
> When they came for me there was no one left to speak out."
>
> This is what scared fearful people are doing.  We are asking you to please
> send this message to everyone, everywhere so that it will spread, and in
the
> hopes one frightened person will read this, and realize we are all
> Americans, we are all children of God, we are all united together by what
> has happened.
>
> "We must indeed all hang together, or, most assuredly, we shall all
> hang separately." (Benjamin Franklin)
>
> And please, delete the headers to this message before forwarding. Nobody
> likes to scroll through a list of 1000 email addresses to get to the
> message. Except for spammers who want email addresses.
>
> -=rev=- && -=| denise |=-
> http://www.reverendphil.com/
>
>
>
>
>

Received on Tuesday, 18 September 2001 17:51:18 UTC