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What a war this is. A convoy of reporters on the road to Kabul, four of them pulled from their vehicles and shot.
Executed in Afghanistan. “The Taliban is still here,” say their executioners. Altogether, eight foreign correspondents have been killed in the war in Afghanistan so far, as of this writing.
The Northern Alliance seeks to accommodate its newfound traveling companions early on--a rag-tag army of journalists, situated on the ground long before any ground troops from the Armed Forces arrive.
Reporters inadvertently become an important link to the Pentagon, using laptop computers, hand-held cameras and video phones to relay their stories back to the States, informing them (us) of old Russian tanks, cavalry advances conducted on horseback, and a foreign land where warlords dwell in caves. Our military deploys the most sophisticated smart bombs known to man to blast their dilapidated buildings and desolate mountaintops. Meanwhile, American female journalists cut and dye their hair, don Islamic veils, and slip into villages to interview children of war in their mud homes, and fugitive mothers, former teachers and women engineers holed-up in refugee tents.
Pakistan suddenly becomes a tourist stopover for writers and photographers from around the world, all of them eager to risk their lives to bring us the images of war. Even Geraldo Rivera has left the
safety of his home and family to fly to the front lines.
He wants to be the one to find Osama bin Laden, he says. (Determined, I suppose, to get the first exclusive interview with OBL before he personally bumps him off.)
In a desert halfway across the world, journalists are covering the war front.
Putting themselves in harm’s way to bring us coverage of this strange military conflict in the new war on terrorism. Here at home, of course, I am covering the local economic and social front. Certainly less risky. Yet even the supermarket tabloids, not to mention NBC’s Tom Brokaw, didn’t escape a threat on their lives, now did they?
These are twisted times. Planes are falling from the sky, the U.S. mail becomes a weapon of choice, and nobody really knows who the enemy is.
Afghani citizens in Kabul shave their beards, reestablish their TV station, listen to music in the streets, and enjoy a movie in a local theater for the first time in five years, prematurely celebrating the release of their city from murderous control. Americans, on the other hand, buy gas masks and guns, stockpile survival rations, wear gloves to open their mail, and face armed guards and security checks at airports. Those afraid to fly are rewarded by plummeting gas prices so they can take to the crowded highways and drive to Aunt Ethel’s for Thanksgiving. Our homeland economy continues to struggle, security costs are staggering, unemployment soars in the wake of mass layoffs, common families suffer devastating losses, while the CIA is across the globe handing out bags of cash to Afghani rebels for information leading to the capture of Taliban leaders and Al Qaeda terrorists.
This is called life, post-September 11.
Firefighters and police become national heroes, relief workers become freedom fighters, stockbrokers become martyrs, and a new generation of “young” widows and widowers is born in America. The President signs bills that take away our personal freedom in order to ensure our personal safety. He tells us to get back to normal, in a time when everyone agrees that nothing will ever be the same.
Even the Internet has taken on a new role in this time of crisis.
If the Persian Gulf was a televised war, then this military action is a cyber-vised one. While major networks try to resume regular programming, their web site ratings skyrocket -- offering commercial-free news and information 24 hours a day to the computer-savvy masses. You can pick and choose your news, answer opinion polls, join interactive discussion groups on terrorism. At CNN.com, you can sign up for “CNN Breaking News” email announcements, sent directly to your email box, so you will know that it’s time to stop working and go to their web site for the latest national and international developments. We wouldn’t want to miss anything, would we? After all, it’s our hunger for instant news that feeds those starving journalists the world over.
Which brings me to another point, speaking of the Internet.
For about 48 hours following the attacks of September 11th, it was the first time in recent years that I was NOT deluged with junk email. The silence was deafening.
The relief was instantaneous. It was like a spiritual respite. Suddenly the former 50+ solicitations per day were simply not arriving in my email box. I went
online late in the day of Sept. 11, and again on the 12th, briefly communicating and sharing emotions with friends in California and New York. I was amazed at how the cyberwaves were strangely absent of
foreign intruders and cyber-economic terrorists -- the bulk emailers, spammers, virus spreaders.
Where were they? Were they, in fact, feeling this tragedy in their hearts, too, and coming to a standstill like the rest of the country? Was there an unspoken agreement not to plague the populace with their invasive practices during a time of mourning? It was amazing.
But within days, the annoying email began to arrive again. Perhaps they took the President’s plea seriously -- to get back to normalcy.
It was business as usual, and as usual I was offended by the nonstop banal messages.
And we wonder why the Arab world dislikes us.
Aside from our longtime allegiance with Israel, could it perhaps be because we incessantly, even in times of death and war, religiously worship the god of Capitalism, beyond all others? I was incredulous that this abrasive email began to flood my computer again, so soon after our national tragedy ... and even today, when we are trying to refocus our lives, reassess our priorities, and, for many, find God in our hearts again. What’s the matter with people, anyway?
I wrote this quip to a friend not long ago, and it holds true today. It is a sample of an average email “In” box on any given day....
Want to make a million $$$$$$ from your home?
Tired of the 40x40x40 plan? Try Viagra. Exploding online business! You have a chance to win $50,000. Or a fun-filled vacation. Or Free Ebay software for life! Click here for cute nude Japanese school girls! Earn 42% annually guaranteed! Sweet Sensations! The #1 best selling 100% all-natural aphrodisiac in America. Drive your web counter ballistic! Copy any DVD Movie! Melt away inches! University diplomas from prestigious non-credited universities. The Internet Spy and You 2001, Vol. II. Amazing new software lets you find out anything about anyone. Get ready for a Financial Breakthrough. Play at the Casino with the best pay-out odds online. Play Vegas in your own house. Home mortgage rates have dropped. Save money every single month. Change your life in 10 minutes. Do you want to work from home? Do you want to choose the hours you work? Make money while you sleep! Sexually attract women instantly with nature's secret weapon - Pheromones. Internet Marketing Works! There are 322 million people online worldwide. How many of them have you contacted? Spam your way to the Bank! Really!! Read our Bull & Bear Market newsletter now .... and then go beat up your spouse, shoot your dog, burn down your house, jump on the back of a Harley and ride off into the sunset, preferably off some high cliff over the ocean while screaming "I'm mad as hell and I'm not going to take it anymore!" because all this junk email has finally--literally--driven you over the edge!
Enough said. I think we should start a war on cyber-terrorism and get the CIA to hand out bags of money to American rebels who can provide information leading to the capture of these irritating email
intruders who are bombarding the psyche of our defenseless computer users worldwide. (Yes, I declare world war! On terrorists of all kinds, even the subtle ones,
everywhere. Let’s convince the Al Qaeda network to take on some real enemies -- cyber invaders - anti-religious economic warlords who live and hide in mental caves.
Put us out of our unsolicited misery. Afterall ... they shoot journalists, don’t they? Poor men and women who are just trying to do their legitimate job of reportage, albeit a little aggressively or recklessly sometimes.) Don’t get me started.
I know, I know.
If you can’t stand the heat, get out of the kitchen. If you can’t stand bulk email, then don’t dial up the Internet. If you’re not willing to risk your life, then don’t be a foreign journalist. If you want peace and homeland security, then you might have to make some sacrifices.
Okay, okay.
Look, I’m just a writer here. A two-bit journalist on the social front lines of a small community, navigating the treacherous borders of my imagination and, on occasion, the minefields of local political-correctness. The only risks I take are financial, and my life is threatened daily by my own bad habits. But I do have a message to deliver, words to write, photos to take, reports to file, social and cultural news to present to the public.... How am I supposed to think and write with this racket going on? Bombs of reality exploding within earshot, day after day,
interrupting my thought flow. Like I said, these are twisted times. And I can get twisted with the best of them.
Thank God (and I mean that) that I live in a quiet desert community on this side of the world ... and that I have the option to “turn off” the unwanted assaults on
my senses, whenever I want.
Recently, I have done just that. Practiced my own form of counter-terrorism efforts. Turned off my TV, radio, computer, phone and cell phone more often, and spent more time outdoors ... enjoying my children, my animals, the late autumn weather, and cherishing the peace and security I am allowed to feel in my small remote community. The desert never looked so good.
Vickie Waite, Editor, The Sun Runner Magazine - Twentynine Palms, CA USA
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