The other twin towers that collapsed tuesday were market orthodoxy and high-tech idolatry.
--Yesterday I heard a remarkable interview with the father of a young man who was killed in the Panam bombing over Lockerbie (sic) 13 years ago. First, the WTC/Pentagon terrorism occurred on the birthday of this father's son. His wife and he had just come back from an early morning church service (apparently in his son's memory) and turned on CNN only to see this. The NPR reporter asked him about his role as the head of an arganization of Lockerbie survivors that monitors FTAA enforcement of security regulations and lobbies for greater seriousness of enforcement of regulations that are already on the books. He went on to explain that the US is the only country in the west that doesn't have an agency that takes responsiblity for airport security. Rather it is primarily the job of individual airports and airlines to handle security. The tie-in between his remarks and the issue of privatization was clear enough, though not elaborated on. He could just as well have mentioned the high turnover rate of those in this industry. But the message was there in any event, reliance on the market (i.e. privately owned airlines companies, airports..) are not gonna meet the demand for greater security as efficiently as government will. Then, on a personal note, the NPR reproter asked this man if he was an angry man. His answer was superb and well worth thinking about when we find ourselves swayed by the argument that we are obliged to support retaliatory measures by an appointed right wing president, namely that he is not an angry man, for the last 13 years his ofganization of survivors has been engaged in intense counseling efforts to not fall victim to anger so that they can, indeed, survivve tragedy and live. Otherwise he said, anger only increases the likelihood of early deaths by cancer, heart attacks, etc. which thrive on anger in lieu of constructive response to tragedy.
Steve
Stephen Philion Lecturer/PhD Candidate Department of Sociology 2424 Maile Way Social Sciences Bldg. # 247 Honolulu, HI 96822