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Got a wake-up reading the archives...



Dave,

Seeing that post again brought a lurch to my heart, a lump to my throat and 
tears to my eyes. I remember it well. I was at work and chatting away with a 
friend about bettas in the Yahoo Club Riotfishdude's chatroom. All the TV's 
in the office were turned to the various newschannels CNN, BBC etc. 
Simultaneously they all switched to the WTC and the live footage of the 
disaster. When I returned to my e-mail there was one message "Goodbye all"" 
The chat died then and there...

Over the ensuing weeks Angie-a NYC based RN and other members of the club 
kept us posted as to the situation, the publication that I worked for did 
its part sending donations and a crew of Tokyo firefighters to help. The 
world came together.

And then we screwed it up!

The news networks focused on the "American disaster" they ignored the people 
from Pakistan, Saudi Arabia, Yemen, Kuwait and other Islamic contries who 
had lost loved ones and missed a chance to show our solidarity and 
compassion with/for people from the Middle East who had lost family and 
friends. We lost a chance to be more than we were.

A  month later we were at war with the Taliban, shortly after I was over 
there with the Asahi Newspaper Group. But, that's a different story.

Edward Venn


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