"I heard someone say on TV this morning that the eagle was selected as a symbol because the eagle wasn't afraid to fly during a storm.
"We have tears, but we're still flying!"
SPECIAL SECTION: "AMERICAN DREAMS: The World Reacts" - The above quote and the accompanying graphic were forwarded to us, without attribution, by Loyal Reader John H. in response to our Readership Poll in the tragedy of Tuesday, 11 September, 2001. Like many of the wonderful responses we received from members of the G21 Mailing List it expresses sorrow, but also resolution. Best of all, from the perspective of The World's Magazine, the message neither assigns blame nor encourages hatred and death.
We had hoped that all the responses from our international readers could have followed that example, but we live in a diverse and complex world. Thus, if you are already emotionally exercised by these horrible events and the drumbeat of war that is rising in the land, we recommend that you NOT read this Special Section now. Much of what is said by our readers and other contributors could be considered offensive, not simply controversial; for that reason, we have striven to respect the anonymity of some respondents. There's already too much hate in this world.
What follows are the raw, unedited responses of our Mailing List members immediately following last Tuesday's terrorist attacks in New York and Washington, D.C.:
FROM SCOTT M., Rhode Island, USA:
Rod,
It was a very sad and very scary day today. I am 31 years old and I have never been as scared as I was this morning during those few hours when it was all going down. I hope we hunt down whose responsible and kill them.
Scott
FROM LINDA S., (No City Provided,) USA:
Dean Koontz types and I probably shared a few moments now and then on this deadly day ... wondering if this was Osama Bin Laden and his boys, or that mysterious segment of the dark side who arrange events to boost their portfolios ...
Mega fortunes were made today in the price of gold and oil in the world.
Another cynicism I shared with my 16 year old son, Jess, as in our separate places during the day, we occasionally, with conviction, knew that someone we know would be celebrating like a happy Palestinian to know that the WTC was destroyed. It was a sickness in our bellies to find out at the end of the day that we'd been right.
Richard, where my son works, was doing a happy dance.
I was too eaten away inside already to tend to the look I saw in my son's eyes. I let Jess think it through on his own.
Perhaps Richard will come to see what a jerk he's being on his own, cuz if anyone tries to tell him, he'll double his blindness and refuse to think.
My grief is a physical thing inside me.
A friend was trapped in a building near the WTC for hours before the doors were pried open. I fear for what met his eyes when he came out.
Another friend hasn't checked in.
Neither live in New York.
A third friend lives there and until recently worked daily in Manhattan.
I think it's worse for those who live there.
Someone made the point today that suicide for honor is not a Muslim trait, it's a perversion of a faith that abhors suicide.
What's the attraction of a hundred virgins at your beck and call after death for the cause, anyway?
Linda
FROM MARIAN S., (No City Provided,) ROMANIA:
It is not an attack against USA. It is an attack against civilization and the whole civilized world must respond and take action against those who did it and against all forms of terrorism.
M.S.
FROM STEVEN C., Tainan City, TAIWAN:
This is what I think:
The death toll from the terrorist attacks will be massive, it seems - but far lower than the number of murders each year in the USA. I'm betting, however,
that the US government and society will act with far far greater rapidity and decisiveness against the terrorists than it ever has against handgun proliferation and other causes of day-to-day, "mundane" murder.
Steven C.
FROM *BRAD BALFOUR, New York, NY, USA:
Tragedy
At 9:03 Monday morning I saw a part of my world destroyed.
I was watching Good Morning America and saw an airliner hit one building of
the World Trade Center. I have an office less than 20 blocks away on Franklin
and Broadway in Tribeca. But I have been in Cincinnati dealing with the death
of my father. So It seemed more unreal than happening downtown.
I have friends who work down by the World Trade Center. My business
associates have offices by the building.
I got on the phone; I didn't know what else to do. Was photographer Roger
Wong-- my office mate -- running down the street to take pictures when that
plane crashed? I couldn't through to his cell.
I called Nick Giordano at the Digital Evolution office on Fulton Street six
blocks away from the base of the World Trade Center. I got him on the phone.
"Are you all right."
"Brad You can't believe it.
I was standing out there when the second plane hit.
I could fell the pressure of the explosion hit me.
It was like nothing you could every believe.
I don't l know what to do -- stay in the office or go out on the street."
I mumbled something about "stay there its probably safer and how could you
move around anyhow." Then I hung up.
That was about an hour before the top of the building sheered off and crashed
to the concourse below. I grabbed the phone as I watched. I tried Bill Coupon
whose office is on the east side on Water Street straight across town from
the World Trade Center. I couldn't get through.
I tried phoning again. The circuits were busy. And the tragedy turned out to
be far worse than that one crash I witnessed as it happened.
Now I can't reach anyone and I feel at a loss-- a void. These are people I
know well; I have worked with them and hung out with them.
I've traversed that concourse many times. I have been top shows and
conferences. I was at a Buddhist seminar no more than a month ago.
Now life in New York -- as far away as to me now -- will be changed. Utterly
different.
What will happen I can't say?
But I am sure friends and associates are hurt--maybe dead.
Ironically, the worse part of it all is that I want to be back there in New
York, there to help, to work, to save people...and to mourn.
I can't believe this could happen--that the much vaunted protector of the
modern world the United States, and its infrastructure of government and law
-- couldn't have prevented this. What feeling of impotence that everyone must
be feeling.
I think the worse part of it is being here--unable to do anything but right
this quick take on how it feels to see this so close and so far away.
I still haven't been able to reach Nick or Lynne Shannon--one of my fellow
editors--by phone but she e mailed that she made it home.
I did find out Bill Coupon was safe. and Roger left word that he was okay.
But I have no idea when I will find out about others in the days to come.
Or what I will when I return. This act renders so much else meaningless and
makes death ever present. We must find a new way to look towards the future.
Brad Balfour
*NOTE: Brad Balfour is a New York writer with whom our Publisher shared an apartment on the Upper East Side of Manhattan. He has written three articles for the G21.
FROM RAKESH A., Bhopal, INDIA:
Dear Rod
I really sympathise with the Americans in their moment of grief and tragedy. The terrorist attack sends shivers in tons. Who is safe if this could happen in
the USA? Perhaps US would understand our predicament in Kashmir better.
Rakesh A.
SPECIAL SECTION: "The World Reacts" Continues (Stay with us!) 
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