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Ricardo Goncalves is a Presenter / Reporter for SBS World News Australia
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'Dear President Obama ... '
03 May 2011, 18:17 PM | Source: Kathy Novak, SBS
'Dear President Obama ... '
In late September 2001, I held my friend Allison’s hand in a Greenwich Village tattoo salon, as she had a red, white and blue ribbon inked onto her ankle.
Almost a decade later, she isn’t among the crowds chanting "USA" over the death of Osama Bin Laden.
But her Facebook status simply says:
Dear President Obama: as someone who watched the towers fall in front of her, as a New Yorker and as an American, I thank you for a perfect speech and for bringing justice and closure to our nation.
On the morning of the 11th, we were in our downtown New York University dorm. Allison had a clear view of the Twin Towers from her balcony, and when we heard the first plane had hit, we went out there to see what had happened.
While my family watched the event unfold on television back home in Australia, I saw it first-hand with Allison. Without the news commentary explaining exactly what was going on, it took us a while to realise how serious it really was. Once we did, we were shocked.
Other students came around to tell us we had to evacuate the building. So we joined the growing number of people in the streets and walked uptown. Shop owners were handing out water and food to people covered in dust and ash. This was New York City. Strange things happened all the time. But none of us had ever seen anything like this.
We weren’t allowed back into our building for several weeks. After spending a night on my friend Barbara’s floor, I went to stay with my aunt in Queens. I remember watching nothing but news and tributes on television for days, sad and incredulous. It felt like the world had stopped. It also felt like every other person in New York understood.
Eventually, we went back to our dorms. Classes resumed and things started to go back to normal. But something had changed and we hadn’t forgotten. For months I left a packed overnight bag by my door, just in case I needed to leave in a hurry again. In 2003, there was a major blackout in the city, and once more, we thought the worst.
This September, I’m going back to New York to be a bridesmaid at Allison’s wedding. It will also be the month when we mark 10 years since the attacks. For many, commemorating that milestone will be different, somehow more complete, now that Bin Laden has been killed.
His death can’t bring back the lives lost. It remains to be seen whether it will ultimately make the United States and the rest of the world safer.
But for some of those who lost loved ones, and others who were forever touched by the attacks, it has brought some comfort. For them, the man responsible has been brought to justice.
As former New York City Mayor, Rudolph Giuliani, put it, “Revenge isn’t a noble sentiment, but it’s a human one”.
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watever
"I think it's deeply troubling if we are indeed moving to a place where you can have a global assassination policy for those who are perceived to cause trouble, the norm should be that terrorists be dealt with as criminals, through legal processes of arrest, trial and judicially decided punishment. Actions taken by states in combating terrorism, especially in high profile cases, set precedents for the way in which the right to life will be treated in future instances”.
Doublechecking Loose Change
If there were no questions, no suggested conspiracy Bin Laden might have been arrested, and questioned, and Court Marshalled .without a doubt. But, now being killed, or executed, I suspect, that there may have had answers to questions that only he might have had answers to. The information might also have been embarrassing for others. His death prompts rechecking Loose Change utube videos once more. .
An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind
Bin Laden's death was unfortunate, I think. Necessary, probably, given the circumstances, but unfortunate. Regardless of how atrocious his crimes were, he had every right to be brought to trial. There is no justification for revenge killing - that is why law exists: to control "human sentiments" so they do not undermine the liberty of others and their right to life and a fair trial. If anything, Bin Laden's death is more likely to spark actual revenge attacks than if he was tried by a court.
Yes, it was terrible & evil, but!
Great justification for Americans behaving as inhuman as Bin Laden, in fact worse. The Americans never asked W?y, Why ? would some one choose to do this ( destroy the towers )??? Could it be that selfish American foreign policy was the cause? No one goes out and KILLS because the are having a BAD DAY. Americans do not reflect on this, the answers they suspect would be completely unpalatable. The USA believes it's own BS, many others don't & are deeply ashamed of involvement with these warmongers
justice?
Kathy, Although this personal account is easy to relate to, i feel the situation and various responses around the world warrant some serious soul-searching. Giuliani is right to say that revenge is a human sentiment, but revenge isn't justice. The role of civilisation is to control basic and ignoble mob urges and to guide people on a path toward humanity. As people we can be excused for reacting with base sentiments, but for a civilisation to react this way is the path to destruction.
Bin Laden
I'm relieved this evil man is dead. For those who critize and say he should have been brought to trial I would ask Why? He openly admitted his crimes. There is no doubt that he was responsible for the deaths of thousand of innocent people - none of them armed and or given a choice of life or death. It's a blessing that he is no more. Justice has been done. Not everybody deserves a trial to find guilt or innocent. From his own mouth he admitted his crimes so why waste money?
Mr.
Watching the events unfolding in New York on 9/11, I said to my Wife Eileen and Son David, that the World will never be the same again. With my Daughter Kathy being near ground Zero, it was a very worrying time until we found her to be safe. Kathy´s blog sums up many of my own feelings now that "the Evil Doer" (to coin George W´s words) is dead, good ridence once and for all.
Ms
, “Revenge isn’t a noble sentiment, but it’s a human one”. Indeed. Which therefore should make us even more aware of WHY 9/11 happened in the first place. While the USA continues its misguided policies of propping up tyrants willing to do their bidding in the Middle East... there will ALWAYS be some Islamic group hell bent on revenge. An eye for an eye may be good practice for an Old Testament God... but all it results in is collective blindness.
So killing is justice?
If killing this man brings justice and closure to the people in New York - what must the villagers in Laos do, after they were bombed for 9 years? What should the people in Vietnam do, considering millions of them were killed by the USA? What do the Egyptians do to get justice and closure after the USA backed a corrupt regime for decades? The Palestinians? The Libyans currently being bombed? What about people who have been poisoned by USA corporations, or have been evicted from their tradit
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