Prayer Is
Not The Answer,
It Is The Problem
[name withheld]
From: [name withheld]
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: RE: A Beacon for Survivors (Heroic Stories)
Date: September 12, 2001 12:22 AM
This morning was hard to take. My wife, kids, and I have bronchitis accept for one child. We were all sitting in the living room at 8:00 this morning looking at the burning building and hearing arguments over whether it was a plane or a missile. Since I was watching ABC, I missed seeing most of the plane since they had so much information at the bottom of the screen. But, there was no doubt that a plane was flying into the building. As soon as I saw the plane, I knew that there were many people on board.
Later, I was talking to my doctor on the phone and noticed one of the buildings was missing. It is estimated that each building starts the day off with more than 15,000 people and we know from the last blast that it takes over eight hours to evacuate the building by the stairs. I estimate that less than 4,000 people made it out of the first one and 5,000 from the second one. I was watching as the second building went down and was able to see a new problem with steel frame buildings in the age of terrorism.
Flames 20 to 30 stories went up the center of the buildings. Once the steel fasteners approached about two thirds of the melting point, the steel, weighing many tons, fell on the weakened level below snowballing until the the steel made it to the bottom. The drywall was instantaneously pulverized by the shockwaves of the many tons of steel breaking each layer as it fell. The dust from the drywall is probably still settling now. I suspect that there will be deaths from people in the surrounding area just from breathing problems from the dust.
I don't blame the structural engineers for this. They designed the building to take a hit from a very sturdy plane of that era. But, now that this vulnerability is known, we may have to alter some of the superbuildings to withstand jet fuel fires by using old techiques instead like interlocking supports instead of so many fasteners.
We may have to rethink our society to be ready for bio and other attacks too. Perhaps we should push a more web active society. Many of the jobs performed in the trade centers could have been handled over the internet except for the lunches.
I was also offended by the prayer the acting US President mentioned. I am sure that those pilots were spewing prayers to Allah (or to whatever the Michigan militia worships) when they hit the building. Where was God when those possibly 20,000 people were killed.
I wish I could remember who I heard make the following statement. It may have been you.
Give a man a fish, he eats for a day. |
Prayer is not the answer, it is the problem. As soon as you find out that I don't pray to your god, you want me dead.
From: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To:
Subject: Re: A Beacon for Survivors (Heroic Stories)
Date: September 11, 2001 11:54 PM
Where was God when those possibly 20,000 people were killed.
I've been saying all day that unfortunately, only a minority of us realize this.
As for my own coping, I am taking this very hard because of the PSA crash in 1978. That one took years for me to get over. In fact, I now realize that the day-long promotions of the annual "remembrance" coverage of that incident which would come upon us with no notice -- complete with footage -- is a big reason behind my never having bothered to own a television. I had just become an adult, having reached drinking age by the end of 1977. It wasn't until 1984 that I flew again, and then over great protests. In other words, we drove home. In 1992, I had learned Cognitive Therapy and had used it to successfully overcome my fear of flying -- but I must do the exercizes each time I fly. As limited as it is and as much as it's based on bullshitting yourself, Cognitive sure helped me to fly again.
Cliff Walker
Positive Atheism Magazine
Six years of service to
people with no reason to believe
From: [name withheld]
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: RE: A Beacon for Survivors (Heroic Stories)
Date: September 12, 2001 1:59 AM
I believe that my instructor in Human Factors Psychology had a boss on the PSA flight. That was in San Diego, wasn't it. One of my uncles was also on the investigation team.
From: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
To: [name withheld]
Subject: Re: A Beacon for Survivors (Heroic Stories)
Date: September 12, 2001 1:32 AM
The PSA came down in San Diego and was flying in from the Bay Area. My Mom was flying in from the Bay Area that morning, so I spent a few moments in fear of that. Dad was at his desk already by the time it happened (shortly after 9:00) and so I was able to call him and verify that it wasn't her flight.
For years afterward, I relived as if I had been on that flight, just a tape loop going round and round as if we were all falling down out of the sky and I could see the ground approaching. Then they found the Black Box and played the tape of the pilot's final moments and his chilling last words.
"Mama!"
Over and over. I stopped wanting to be a journalist after seeing just how sadistic I'd have to be to please the desk and keep my job.
I am now convinced that that played a big role in my not liking television: year after year, with no warning, we'd have to sit through promos of the "anniversary" of that thing. (I'll bet September 11 becomes a national holiday so we can relive this thing over and over again.)
Today I am not reliving as if I were anywhere in New York. Perhaps I've changed or perhaps that comes later, I don't know. I'm hoping that I finally learned how to grieve without it destroying me. But the PSA crash affected me deeply for years afterward. Yesterday, when I watched the building collapse virtually live, and while we still weren't sure this was all that was going to happen, that was scary. I was "quite prepared to die," as the song goes.
Cliff Walker
Positive Atheism Magazine
Six years of service to
people with no reason to believe
From: [name withheld]
To: "Positive Atheism" <editor@positiveatheism.org>
Subject: RE: A Beacon for Survivors (Heroic Stories)
Date: September 13, 2001 3:31 AM
I have lived through some strange stuff. [John Wayne] Gacy was as assistant scoutmaster when in my brother's Scout troop when I was younger. Another Scout leader was caught molesting a kid and Gacy moved to Illinois where he killed dozens of kids before he could be implicated. There was at least one Scout missing in my brother's group. I used to park my bike in Gacy's back yard when I went to Henry's Hamburgers for an afternoon snack.
I've been in one airplane that lost both engines in flight but we landed safely. I have also been on a commercial plane where the nose gear failed on landing. These things happen rarer then shark bites. To me it is far more scarier to be in a room full of religious fanatics. I wouldn't even think of living in some southern states
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