The Horror
In a post last week I included the following quote from Mary Riddell of the Guardian which bears repeating: "All tragedies have a fulcrum on which horror tilts over to indifference."According to the most recent reports, over 77,000 people in Asia were killed by massive tsunamis triggered by an earthquake. It is so hard to fathom that many people dying at once. The enormity of it makes it hard to grasp what actually happened.
The early reports were that 20,000 had died, and I have to say that I don't feel much different about it now that the number has quadrupled. I do feel terrible about it, but the numbers are so staggering that it is hard to know how to react. If the early numbers had said that a hundred died, and then they found out that it was four hundred, it would almost be easier to comprehend and feel sympathy. I do feel bad about it, but I feel like I can't feel bad enough in proportion to the tragedy.
Not to be all Heavan's Gatey or anything, but this really might be a sign that the end of the world is near. We are all going to die!!! (Well, I guess we were all going to die at some point anyways, but now it seems that we are all going to die soon...and violently...and painfully.)
On a totally unrelated matter, I would like to expound on a 9/11 conspiracy theory (that link goes to a site containing many ideas I disagree with, but the article is well written). In a speech last week, Donald Rumsfeld referred to, "the people who attacked the United States in New York, shot down the plane over Pennsylvania and attacked the Pentagon." Was Flight 93 shot down?
I was always suspicious of Flight 93, which supposedly crashed in Pennsylvania on September 11, 2001 after passengers overpowered the hijackers. I remember thinking that day that it must have been shot down. The government was quick to claim that the heroic passengers helped bring the plane down, and we were given the line "Let's roll!" as a rally call to fight the terrorists.
It makes sense that the government would want to make the public feel like we could fight back and stop such terrorist attacks, so I can't say that I blame them for lying. The timing of Rumsfeld's "slip of the tongue" is curious though. Rumsfeld has been under fire from Democrats and Republicans for weeks now due to his poor planning of the war in Iraq. My theory is that he intentionally let it slip as a warning to the President and others in positions of power that he has information which he could use to expose the administration if they tried to fire him. Bush can't fire him, because he knows too much about the lies perpetrated on the American people. At least that makes more sense than Bush being too dumb to see what a horrible job Rummy has done.
Okay, that's it for conspiracy theories and apocalyptic omens for today. If I have time, I will return later with something more positive.
posted by Skrambled Egghead Reborn @ 10:36 PM
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