WTC Brothers
- A tribute to movie World Trade Center

Who would hear you
If you screamed
From the depth of living hell?
Not God, nor any angel
But your brother
Who was also buried in darkness

Who was also terribly damaged
And saw his end approaching
Who was also kept awake by acute pains
And was helplessly lying
Beneath the mountain of dead rubbles

His voice would keep you alive
His warm breath penetrated the air
With a touch of companionship
So you know you would live
If he lives, and if you would die
You are not dying alone  

You are men of same quality
Who knowingly walked to your doom
You are brothers of equality
Who arouse beauty at the end of terror
Something has spurted from the hearts
It is courage that makes you truly human

好诗，喜欢。

Who arouse beauty at the end of terror
Something has spurted from the hearts
It is courage that makes you truly human--好!

I saw World Trade Center this weekend and during the movie I almost cried from beginning to end, it isn't only because the vivid scenes brought me back to one of the darkest days in my life (probably in human history too) - and the revisiting sure was emotional and unbearably sad -  but because the heroism demonstrated by those common people moved me deeply. The firemen and cops would rush to rescue when they were fully aware that they may die if they go in, and later some other no namer rescurer would risk his life to jump into the rubbles to pull people out, simply after asking a colleague to pass a message to his wife "I love you". These are just common men, knowing nothing about art or philosophy, but I have to say they have more of my repsect than a bunch pundit men acting without courage.

Again, this poem stole a couple lines from a past master (though my beginning lines have totally different meaning) - Rilke's Duino Elegies The First Elegy, here's a traslation version of the first canto -

Duino Elegies
by Rainer Maria Rilke
Translated by Stephen Mitchell

The First Elegy

Who, if I cried out, would hear me among the angels' hierarchies?
and even if one of them pressed me suddenly against his heart:
I would be consumed in that overwhelming existence.
For beauty is nothing but the beginning of terror, which we are still just able to endure,
and we are so awed because it serenely disdains to annihilate us.
Every angel is terrifying.
And so I hold myself back and swallow the call-note of my dark sobbing.
Ah, whom can we ever turn to in our need?
Not angels, not humans, and already the knowing animals are aware
that we are not really at home in our interpreted world.
Perhaps there remains for us some tree on a hillside, which every day we can take into our vision;
there remains for us yesterday's street and the loyalty of a habit so much at ease
when it stayed with us that it moved in and never left.
Oh and night: there is night, when a wind full of infinite space gnaws at our faces.
Whom would it not remain for--that longed-after, mildly disillusioning presence,
which the solitary heart so painfully meets.
Is it any less difficult for lovers?
But they keep on using each other to hide their own fate.
Don't you know yet?
Fling the emptiness out of your arms into the spaces we breathe;
perhaps the birds will feel the expanded air with more passionate flying.

这是“美国精神”，当时开放新大陆时养成的。

只有前面，没有后面。

I like this one, Bravo! It shows how beautiful is the brotherhood and humanity in a desperate moment, just like the war time, soliders were not fighting for a political slogan, instead, they fought for each other.

As a famous poet said, Death is not going from one room to another, there is such a thing like a good death!

Very good, Ada!

I am not sure if I'd like the movie, however.  The movie is of typical Holywood - sentimental but superficial, and trying to avoid the real issues that led to 9/11.

well, I have seen the documentary movie 911, which is far less objective than this one.

From a humanity point of view,no matter what lead to 911, the WTC and the innocent people inside it don't deserve the attack, just like the people in Southern Lebanon don't deserve to die. I guess the movie didn't touched upon the issues of middle east and other causes that lead to the attack, not only
becasue of the action-driven style, but also becasue the attack itself is not justifiable. think about another good movie -Schindler's List, you don't see the background and the rationale that tells why Nazi  did such horriable things, because the story speaks for itself.

This movie isn't about politics, not even about terrorism, it's about humanity and heroism at the time of catastrophe, that's what makes it touching. I like what the NYT reviews said, "In the Sept. 11 of “World Trade Center,” feeling transcends politics, and the film’s astonishingly faithful re-creation of the emotional reality of the day produces a curious kind of nostalgia. It’s not that anyone would wish to live through such agony again, but rather that the extraordinary upsurge of fellow feeling that the attacks produced seems precious. " and that fellow feeling, is what we call brotherhood, the heart and care for others.

Then, I don't think the movie is superficial, it's more a realism style - to display what has happened rather than to explore and explain. And afterall, heroism itself isn't sophisticated, it just outbursts from a brave heart (yeah, something we Chinese rarely see . It's simple - if you grow up in an environment that fosters human feelings and courage, you have it; if not, you don't ~~

I beg to differ.  Fire fighters are basically soldiers.  Soldiers are prepared to die to carry out missions.  This is true everywhere.

Chinese firemen or soldiers also die willingly in war or in disaster relief operations.

同意八兄，

别人在往外跑，只有他们往里冲，因为他们是被“纽约”赋予责任的。

另外，请你们尽量用中文。难道不想让黎京等人看到？

尊为力之命，用中文。

八兄所说的情况－即中国战士和消防队员很勇敢，如果是用在多年前，也许适用，但现在就不一定了（况且以前是因为听从命令要立功而勇敢，还是真正出于人道原因勇敢不得知），近年来，倒是看到很多新闻，人落水后岸上围观的很多，但无人救助，内中甚至有士兵。现在的士兵没有以前的理念或者军纪，也没有西方现代的人道观念，所以是否能那么勇敢，值得怀疑。

这八兄傻了吧，偏要扯出中国的事。辩论大忌，以后要注意了。：))

是吗？我还以为自己是在跟随花色出牌。;)

白兄见得是。中国人的人性堕落已经快要没有底了。

并不光是警察和救火队员，我在逃生的路上看到好些民众也往里跑的，他们清楚知道去了可能会送命，但还是说要去救人。

中国的救火队员有多勇敢，我不知道，据说那次克拉玛依大火烧死的多是最不勇敢的幼儿。兵们有多勇敢我也不知道，从甲午海战到抗日，好像纪录不是很好，打内战可能勇敢一些。

中国人的血性和勇气，可能确如立蒙兄说，鞑子入关时有血性的都杀光了，勇气成了稀有之物～

对不起，回晚了～～

“With a touch of companionship
So you know you would live
If he lives, and if you would die
You are not dying alone”

A companionship like this would not just make the most tender of human hearts throbbing, but also make the most weathered soul resonating. That moment the plane merged into the building, from that moment on, 911 was all about humanity unfolding, that I had only realised later. Watching across the ocean the famous towers collapsing to their foundation I was totally seized with a feeling of Armageddon. I guess it was this companionship that had held humanity standing upright on the Ground-Zero. Without the companionship, what would be the value of our civilisation? We would not even be more civilised than a pack of wolves. Good poem, I want to say it again.

谢谢况也。才知道你在英国，怪不得和兰若是死党~

列维-斯特劳思在《忧郁的热带》里提到人类之爱，我想就是这种companionship，我在多年前也遇到过一次，那就是戒严之后屠杀之前的北京城，那种面对灾难来临人和人之间的真诚关怀和无私相助，那种温暖之情，让我至今想起还落泪。

可惜，这些珍贵的时刻在人类生活中并不能持久，因此值得留恋~

我们与纽约同一个时区。九一一那天正在上班，一个同事对着电脑喊叫起来，一架飞机栽进了大楼，我立即下楼走了几个街区，到新落成的美国大使馆前面。没有几个行人，连警察都没来。过了好一会，来了警察，来了新闻记者，架起了摄像机。

我回来的路上，随身携带的收音机里说第一栋大楼已经倒塌！这一天大家都用电脑看新闻。成千架次民航飞机无法降落美国，转往加拿大东部。国会大厦旁边的建筑物上也出现了阻击手的身影。

下班没有回家，再次来到美国大使馆。人很多了，大门附近摆满鲜花，我一个一个地接着看过去，看那鲜花上面贴着的纸条。我看到了几个玩具熊，难禁热泪盈眶。

那天天气很好，云淡风轻，仰脸看天空，蔚蓝无际，使人有了融化在里面的冲动。连夜写了一篇散文，<<911备忘录>>，发表在当地中文报纸上，收到很多读者反映。后来听到访美的某国新闻记者为大楼的倒塌拍手称快，隔不多久，又写了<<卡特的哭泣>>。再后来我就不愿听这方面的消息，有时竟有"我到坟前愧姓秦"的羞惭。这部电影我一定不看！

最近在国内网站读到一篇介绍一位勇敢的穆斯林妇女的文章，批判伊斯兰宗教，言辞极其尖锐。这位来自叙利亚的女姓名字里面好像也有一个阿达(？)。

伊斯兰有严重的问题，思想观念和生活方式还停留在几世纪前，无法融合现代生活，但变革必须来自内部，外部力量强行变革它只会导致暴力冲突，然而在专制社会内部改革又谈何容易。这种两难很难突破。

伊斯兰妇女的社会地位低下（不是家庭地位，八十一子注意了：）有目共睹，不久前看了电影Osama，真是让人心酸。所以这位阿拉伯阿达的愤慨我能理解。阿达是英语中女子用名，我知道犹太人女子也有叫阿达，现在知道阿拉伯女人也有叫这名的，看来阿达是属于世界的~

对不起回晚了，这几天忙~~

阿达有空时翻翻这本书：
Title: No God but God: Egypt and the Triumph of Islam
Author: Geneive Abdo
Publisher: Oxford University Press
ISBN: 0195157931
作者Geneive Abdo是女性，美国出生的阿拉伯人，基督徒，在 Princeton 受的教育，受 Georgetown Univ 资助在埃及做了五年研究，写了这本书。她描述了一个由妇女带头、声势浩大、西方媒介闭目不见的和平伊斯兰主义运动。