Words of hope
The first thing that made me cry Wednesday morning was a note of hope from novelist Liz Gilbert, printed in the letters page at a new online literary journal, Slow Trains.
I was pleased with the note that Clean Sheets erotica magazine put up at the top of their TOC, which I reproduce here in case it gets taken down in a week or two:
There is no small corner of the world distant enough to escape feelings of horror and disbelief at the enormous loss of innocent lives—to escape the attack on democracy and freedom we so often take for granted. We wish to continue to publish as we normally would, standing firm and united in our right to do so. We express deepest sympathy to our readers who find themselves directly affected by this tragedy.
I think it was Jeff who pointed me to a nice editorial from a Madison newspaper.
I think this is an important image to spread, in the wake of the whole "Damn A-rabs dancin' in the streets" business shown over and over on TV: a photo of Palestinians giving blood in Gaza to help out in New York.
Award-winning artist Frank Wu quoted Robert F. Kennedy's comments after Martin Luther King's death (I don't recommend reading the rest of the stuff on that page if you're looking for words of hope, though).
Others quoted King himself: "Darkness cannot drive out darkness; only light can do that. Hate cannot drive out hate; only love can do that."
I don't know why I find this so comforting, but I do: the USPS has been continuing to deliver mail, using ground transportation to take up the slack from lack of air transportation.
Here's a message written (at least supposedly) by someone on the scene.
And finally, a Pakistani Muslim man who worked in WTC building 7 wrote about his experiences on Tuesday. It's been pointed out to me that that message may not be true; and I have to admit that it does sorta have the sound of a rumor or urban-legend or should've-been-true story. I'll have more comments about that later. For the moment, I think it's worth reading on the chance that it's true; we could use more words of hope these days, and I haven't seen any actual evidence that this is fiction.