In a message dated 9/19/01 9:40:26 PM Central Daylight Time,
[log in to unmask] writes:

> A Message to Members and Supporters of Amnesty International from Bill
> Schulz, Executive Director of AIUSA
>
> Sometimes death comes in the dark, in the dead of night.  But not this
> time.  This time the day could not have been brighter or more beautiful.
>
> Sometimes death comes when we are by ourselves.  But not this time.  This
> time it came to those who were surrounded by friends and colleagues.
>
> Sometimes death comes on a battlefield or in a prison cell.  But not this
> time.  This time it came in commercial airplanes and pleasant office
> buildings.
>
> And sometimes death comes after a long struggle and much anticipation.
> But
> not this time.    This time it came in an instant.  And it appears to have
> swept in its wake family members of our staff and volunteers, friends of
> members of our Board and doubtless a good many Amnesty International
> members themselves.
>
> Now that it has, you and I have work to do.  Not the kind of work that
> sorts through rubble or loads up body bags, thank God.    Those who do that
> work deserve a thousand tears of gratitude.  Our work is of a different
> order but just as important nonetheless.  The work of anger, to be sure,
> but an anger tempered by wisdom.  The work of grieving, absolutely, but a
> grieving that pays homage to suffering.  And the work of justice, no
> question about it, but a justice of which every one of us can be proud.
>
> To get to grieving, we must go through anger.  And to get to justice, we
> must go through grieving.  Because, as the theologian Sam Keen so
> eloquently put it, "Every day we are not mourning is a day we will be
> taking vengeance" and vengeance is different from justice.
>
> Those who died on September 11 represent the best that is in us as human
> beings, as citizens and as a people.  The best that is in us knows that
> individuals are responsible for this crime -- not anonymous masses of
> people. The best that is in us knows that the guilty deserve to be punished
> -- not those who share their names or their language, their skin color or
> their religion.  It knows that blind hatred corrupts the hater.  It knows
> that the greatest power evil has is to entice the innocent to mimic its
> practices.  It knows that every action has unintended consequences.  It
> knows that the truly strong never forget that in the heart of every
> stranger lurks a reflection of our own.
>
> Those who died on September 11 represent the best that is in us, the
> calling of our highest selves.    We owe them anger; we owe them grieving;
> we
> owe them justice.  But everything that we do now must reflect the best, not
> the lowest, of our humanity.  We pay those precious souls their rightful
> tribute only by leveling a wise justice, only by exhibiting a tender
> righteousness.    We pay them tribute only by understanding what brought
> about their deaths and hewing to those principles that call us to a more
> abundant life.
>
> Toward those ends, Amnesty International will mourn the victims; we will
> speak out against impunity for the perpetrators; we will demand that those
> innocent of crimes be protected and respected; and we will insist that
> justice is not justice if it fails to adhere to international human rights
> norms.    Both the International Secretariat of Amnesty International and we
> in AIUSA have appointed Crisis Response Teams to work together in a
> coordinated, unified response to this tragedy and its aftermath.  We will
> be determining as soon as possible how best our membership can help advance
> our common goals.
>
> For death has come in an instant.  And now there is work to be done.
>
>
> Bill Schulz,
> Executive Director
> AIUSA
>

----------------------------------------------------------------------------

To unsubscribe/subscribe or view archives of postings, go to the Gambia-L
Web interface at: http://maelstrom.stjohns.edu/archives/gambia-l.html
You may also send subscription requests to [log in to unmask]
if you have problems accessing the web interface and remember to write your full name and e-mail address.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------