# you are not alone



## nancya (Apr 30, 2001)

I found this poem on Hallmark.com, and wanted to share it with you. It expressed what I feel better than I have been able to.

You Are Not Alone

though i may not know you 
though i may not be near you

i am with you in your pain

you are not alone.

though no one can feel your personal sorrow
or intimately know the grief and anger you feel

you are not alone.

the world is grieving with you.
the hearts of many who you may never know
are going out to you, are breaking for you.

you are not alone.

you are my sister, my brother, my neighbor,
my countryman, my friend.
and you are in my prayers, you are in our thoughts,

and we are with you, behind you.

you are not alone.
--Ingerlene Embry

[ September 15, 2001: Message edited by: nancya ]


----------



## m brown (May 29, 1999)

thank you nancya,

the poem at work:

case in point,
i was with some folks at an outdoor event today, one not cancelled, and the singer sang "time of your life" by green day.
i was carrying my young son and i just broke down.
no less than three people came to my aide, played with my child and allowed me a moment to cry.
the moments all of us are having.
we can't get through this alone.
if you see someone crying or angry, let them know they are not alone.
the compassion and out pouring of love has been touching and contagious. 

i said i was going to log out of cheftalk for a few days however the support here just pulls me back in!

i pray for peace and the power of compassion.


----------



## momoreg (Mar 4, 2000)

It's always great to see you here, mbrown. The CT cafe is an amazingly tight community, considering most of us have never met. But we are all friends, and you can't stay away from those positive vibes for too long. Take good care of yourself.
Michelle


----------



## kylew (Aug 14, 2000)

Although it may not always sound it, from some of my posts, I am nnot a complete war monger. The sentiments expressed in the poem are how I see a lot of my fellow New Yorkers behaving towards each other and it warms my heart


----------



## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

i know it probably isnt the place to discuss this, but does anyone think there is going to be a full scale war?

it just concerns me big time, thats all.


----------



## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

Hi Nick, I'm glad to see I'm not the only one who believes that is totally possible. My family scoffs at my case of nerves. I DO believe there will be a full scale war, but we MUST avenge ourselves, and we MUST win it. I believe that all of us are in for some bad times. Thank God that the American spirit of togetherness reigns.


----------



## kylew (Aug 14, 2000)

It's a lock. Why else call up 50,000 reserves. We don't need to avenge ourselves. We need to protect ourselves. It is the only way to stop him.


----------



## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

i understand the tremendous feelings of loss that all must feel, like i said in previous posts, i can empathise.

I do feel, also, that a horrendous conflict is at hand.

Therefore, i cannot feel at ease with what is going on. There is so much at stake.

I think also that like many others associated in some way with the armed forces, a call up may come

[ September 16, 2001: Message edited by: Nick.Shu ]


----------



## nancya (Apr 30, 2001)

I've said several times that I think we need to find peace. I'm afraid, however, that peace is going to cost us a great deal. While my role is to carry the burden of sadness and to speak of grief and healing, it is not realistic to to think that we are going to avoid war of some sort. I very much fear the national and global ramifications of this war, but it is my hope that we will all find peace eventually.


----------



## cape chef (Jul 31, 2000)

Nancya,
Thank you sharing that poam with us.
Mbrown, I am sending you hugs and good wishes
cc


----------



## coolj (Dec 12, 2000)

Thank you Nancy.


----------



## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

YOUR Chief in Command said that he would be patient! Let's all hope he does JUST THAT!!!

I fear him a great deal!

BTW, Thanks for the poem Nancya.

[ September 17, 2001: Message edited by: Kimmie ]


----------



## nick.shu (Jul 18, 2000)

i must admit that the upcoming campaign (if not diplomatically resolved) would probably be based on black-ops. However, it is disconcerting to see recruitment adverts for infantry in a catering college (all be it for the reserve)


----------



## kimmie (Mar 13, 2001)

I believe that INTELLIGENCE is the ONLY way to irradicate these fanatics. Just analyze how their plan was carried. Like a syncronized ballet!

And that the US along with the rest of the world will have to understand, learn and master the footsteps...

No bomb, reserve or infantery will do the trick. These fanatics must not be underestimated, they are very smart and above all, DISCIPLINED. And it's their discipline that the World will have to master, which is not a small task!


----------



## foodnfoto (Jan 1, 2001)

I received this letter the other day from a friend of mine. I think it provides and interesting and poignant perspective. 

I've been hearing a lot of talk about 'bombing Afghanistan back to 
the Stone Age.' Ronn Owens, on KGO Talk Radio today, allowed that this 
would mean killing innocent people, people who had nothing to do with 
this atrocity, but 'we're at war, we have to accept collateral damage. 
What else can we do?' Minutes later I heard some TV pundit discussing 
whether we 'have the belly to do what must be done.' And I thought about the 
issues being raised especially hard because I am from Afghanistan, and even 
though I've lived here for 35 years 
I've never lost track of what's going on there. So I want to tell anyone who 
will listen how it all looks from where I'm standing. 
I speak as one who hates the Taliban and Osama Bin Laden. There is no doubt 
in my mind that these people were responsible for the atrocity in New York. 
I agree that something must be done about those monsters. 
But the Taliban and Bin Laden are not Afghanistan. They're not even the 
government of Afghanistan. The Taliban are a cult of ignorant psychotics who 
took over Afghanistan in 1997. Bin Laden is a political criminal with a 
plan. When you think Taliban, think *****. When you think Bin Laden, think 
Hitler. And when you think 'the people of Afghanistan' think 'the Jews in 
the concentration camps.' 
It's not only that the Afghan people had nothing to do with this atrocity. 
They were the first victims of the perpetrators. They would exult if someone 
would come in there, take out the Taliban and clear out the rats nest of 
international thugs holed up in their country. Some say, why don't the 
Afghans rise up and overthrow the Taliban? 
The answer is, they're starved, exhausted, hurt, incapacitated, suffering. A 
few years ago, the United Nations estimated that there are 500,000 disabled 
orphans in Afghanistan--a country with no economy, no food. There are 
millions of widows. And the Taliban has been burying these widows alive in 
mass graves.? 
The soil is littered with land mines, the farms were all destroyed by the 
Soviets. These are a few of the reasons why the Afghan people have not 
overthrown the Taliban. 
We come now to the question of bombing Afghanistan back to the Stone Age. 
Trouble is, that's been done. The Soviets took care of it already. Make the 
Afghans suffer? They're already suffering. Level their houses? Done. Turn 
their schools into piles of rubble? Done. Eradicate their hospitals? Done. 
Destroy their infrastructure? Cut them off from medicine and health care? 
Too late. Someone already did all that. 
New bombs would only stir the rubble of earlier bombs. Would they at least 
get the Taliban? Not likely. In today's Afghanistan, only the Taliban eat, 
only they have the means to move around. They'd slip away and hide. Maybe 
the bombs would get some of those disabled orphans, they don't move too 
fast, they don't even have wheelchairs. 
But flying over Kabul and dropping bombs wouldn't really be a strike against 
the criminals who did this horrific thing. Actually it would only be making 
common cause with the Taliban--by raping once again the people they've been 
raping all this time. 
So what else is there? What can be done, then? Let me now speak with true 
fear and trembling. The only way to get Bin Laden is to go in there with 
ground troops. When people speak of 'having the belly to do what needs to be 
done' they're thinking in terms of having the belly to kill as many as 
needed. Having the belly to overcome any moral qualms about killing innocent 
people.? 
Let's pull our heads out of the sand. What's actually on the table is 
Americans dying.? And not just because some Americans would die fighting 
their way through? Afghanistan to Bin Laden's hideout. It's much bigger than 
that folks.? 
Because to get any troops to Afghanistan, we'd have to go through Pakistan. 
Would they let us? Not likely. The conquest of Pakistan would have to be 
first.? Will other Muslim nations just stand by? You see where I'm going. 
We're flirting with a world war between Islam and the West. 
And guess what: that's Bin Laden's program. That's exactly what he wants. 
That's why he did this. Read his speeches and statements. It's allright 
there. He really believes Islam would beat the west. It might? seem 
ridiculous, but he figures if he can polarize the world into Islam and the 
West, he's got a billion soldiers. 
?If the west wreaks a holocaust in those lands, that's a billion people with 
nothing? left to lose, that's even better from Bin Laden's point of view. 
He's probably wrong,? in the end the west would win, whatever that would 
mean, but the war would last? for years and millions would die, not just 
theirs but ours. Who has the belly for that?? Bin Laden does. Anyone else? 
Tamim Ansary


----------



## kylew (Aug 14, 2000)

I cannot begin to imagine the feelings of Afghan people around the world. I think it is very important not to use a broad brush these days. The taliban does not reflect the views and beliefs of the Afghan people. Nor does bin Laden represent anything that has to do with Islam. That said, it seems that the ****** are beginning to show in the taliban armor.  They don't want anything to do with this a**hole either. And as for Pakistan, they're with us


----------



## w.debord (Mar 6, 2001)

Thanks for sharing your mail footnfoto, I thought it was very interesting. If I'm like everyone else we're all trying to understand the bigger picture...did any of you watch the show last night from BBC on the Discover channel about understanding why they hate us?

It's all so complicated. When we reached out to help in Africa we only created more dislike and further polarized us westerners from Muslems. I'm more than a little confused. Should we not answer the plea from starving people? As the current Afgan citizens flea into Pakistan they talk about needing help to feed the refugees. Who will do that if the Americans don't? 

When you don't have a gun to defend yourself, we supply them too, with training. Should we let you be slaughtered? Is any other country respondsible for their own well being?


Every move we make is wrong....we should open our pockets to the world help all the needy and be critized for it? Who was rising to the needs of the hungry? The US citizens give more to charity than any other country. We are the parents of the world, which rich Saudi country gives as much as us? Should we only look after our own interest from now on?


I'm confused why the now wealthy and educated citizens who reside in the US from other countries don't take care of their own homelands? I know that's not a "nice" thing to ask but I think it's in the back of MANY Americans minds. 

Maybe these people and your friend footnfoto could become bridges between the cultures of their homeland and their houses in the US. Perhaps people like your friend will stand up and show us the way, it's time.


----------



## pastachef (Nov 19, 1999)

I loved your post, foodnfoto. My son and I were just discussing the same things this evening. I am now very worried about the innocent and poor people of that country who have nothing to do with all of this. How horrible this situation is.


----------

