2 minutes of silence on Nov. 11, 2005
We know warfare, tyranny, and strife. We have pitted neighbor against neighbor, tribe against tribe, nation against nation, and faith against faith. We have seen tensions rise. We have seen hatred boil over. And we have seen peace won at terrible costs.
Now we are faced with a global conflict that is so nebulous, so ill-defined and ill-conceived, that it may never end. All we are told is that there is our side, and there is the other side. That our way of life is at stake, and we must triumph at all costs. As the coffins multiply, we grieve our own losses.
But the horror of neverending war brings with it the chance for a truly global resistance.
And so we will create a new side – the side that wants to understand, the side that seeks out the root causes of our struggle, the side that will triumph over conflict itself.
We will devise a ritual to transcend the double-standard of grief, to transform their dead into our dead, and our dead into theirs. And then we will challenge those around us to do the same.
Two minutes is all that we need for this global ritual of reconciliation. On November 11th, fall silent for two minutes in honor of all innocent victims – in London, in Afghanistan, in New York, in Iraq, in Chechnya, in Madrid. Two minutes of silence, of remembrance, of reflection, to consider the choices that we have made and the path we will follow into the future.
Now we are faced with a global conflict that is so nebulous, so ill-defined and ill-conceived, that it may never end. All we are told is that there is our side, and there is the other side. That our way of life is at stake, and we must triumph at all costs. As the coffins multiply, we grieve our own losses.
But the horror of neverending war brings with it the chance for a truly global resistance.
And so we will create a new side – the side that wants to understand, the side that seeks out the root causes of our struggle, the side that will triumph over conflict itself.
We will devise a ritual to transcend the double-standard of grief, to transform their dead into our dead, and our dead into theirs. And then we will challenge those around us to do the same.
Two minutes is all that we need for this global ritual of reconciliation. On November 11th, fall silent for two minutes in honor of all innocent victims – in London, in Afghanistan, in New York, in Iraq, in Chechnya, in Madrid. Two minutes of silence, of remembrance, of reflection, to consider the choices that we have made and the path we will follow into the future.
posted by Geneva Gamez at
2:06 PM
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