9/10

As the first band of rain moves away from Stornoway this evening, I am going through about 50 alerts and the few emails I usually get on my AOL account. Quite a few tributes for the 2996 project, and many people expressing their feelings on the eve of the 5th anniversary of 9/11.

It is an intensely personal time, as we all have to cope with a feeling of deep grief and loss. Not just the thousands lost that morning five years ago, but as one journaller pointed out, the loss of carefree way of life. There is also, as I have pointed out in the past, an element of anger towards the group of people who were supposed to be represented by the purpetrators of 9/11.

In yesterday's Press and Journal, the regional newspaper for northern Scotland, the results of a poll amongst Muslim people the world over were reveiled. The overwhelming majority rejected the methods used by the 9/11-bombers, stating that this was un-Islamic. Unfortunately, this does not take away the fact that there are problems and grievances between the Muslim community in the Middle East and what is often referred to as the West.

This is not the time nor the place to go into the details of those problems. Such extreme acts, like 9/11, are an indication that something is seriously wrong in the world - irrespective of whose fault it is. Rather than going in guns blazing (which has been shown not to work) I repeat my earlier appeal for the decent folk of the world to sit down and work it out with words, rather than the gun.

For now, the attention should focus on remembering the thousands lost in New York, Washington and Pennsylvania on Tuesday 11th September 2001. I shall republish my entry on Norberto Hernandez tomorrow, and replace the earlier entry with a link to the new one. It will be my only entry tomorrow.