September 11, 2006
Remembering the victims of 9/11 and the subsequent wars in Afghanistan and Iraq
Federal Building, Akron, Ohio
Read the article from the Akron Beacon Journal...
INTRODUCTORY REMARKS AT AKRON VIGIL TO COMMEMORATE 9-11 - Greg Coleridge
We come together tonight to commemorate the lives lost on September 11, 2001:
- the 2602 lives lost at the World Trade Center
- the 88 lives lost on American Flight 11 that slammed into the WTC
- the 59 lives lost on United Flight 175 that also slammed into the WTC
- the 125 lives lost on American Flight 77 that crashed into the Pentagon
- the 40 lives lost on United Flight 93 that was destroyed in PA
All told, nearly 3000 people were killed 5 years ago today
We also come together tonight to commemorate the lives lost as a result of US initiated military attacks in response to the September 11, 2001 attacks:
- the 336 US military lives lost in Afghanistan
- the 140 other military lives lost in Afghanistan
- the 3000-3400 Afghanistan civilian lives lost in Afghanistan
- the 2669 US military lives lost in Iraq
- the 233 other military lives lost in Iraq
- the 5365 Iraqi military lives lost in Iraq
- the 194,000 (updated medical journal Lancet estimate) civilian lives lost in Iraq
All told, over 200,000 people … and counting … have been killed as a result of the US initiated military attacks in response to the 9/11 attacks.
We make the connections between 9/11 and especially Iraq not because there actually were or are any connections between Iraq and those who planned the US assaults. The report by the Republican-led US Senate Intelligence Committee released last Friday reiterated what many have said for years - there were no connections between Osama Bin Laden or Al-Qaeda and Saddam Hussein or Iraq's government. None.
We, instead, make the connections between the killings of 9/11 and those of Afghanistan and Iraq to show the fallacy of violence being a just response to violence, of killing being an effective response to killing. An eye for an eye, Gandhi said, only makes the whole world blind. It doesn't work. It only makes conditions worse - military, political, economic, social.
Those in political leadership 5 years ago squandered an opportunity to focus on justice rather than revenge, to precisely identify and capture those directly responsible for the atrocities rather than bluntly bomb entire towns, villages, regions, countries for oil and empire.
5 years later, we mourn the deaths and injuries in this country 5 years ago. We also mourn the death and injuries of US troops, and of Afghani and Iraqi civilians, Finally, we mourn the continued ignorance of alternatives to violence, of exploring the possibilities of nonviolent actions by people and nations to resist violence and bring those who commit violence to justice.
In closing, I ask that we take a moment of silence both to honor all those killed and to reflect on what more we each might do where we are to work for peace and justice - to end war, to end militarism and to end violence.
