There Are No Words (K. Donohoe, 2001) there are no words there is no song there is no balm that can heal these wounds that will last a lifetime long and when the stars have burned to dust hand in hand we still will stand because we must in one single hour in one single day we were changed forever something taken away and there is no fire that can melt this heavy stone that can bring back the voices or the spirits of our own all the brothers all the lovers all the friends that are gone all the chairs that will be empty in the lives that will go on can we ever forgive though we never will forget can we believe in the milk of human goodness yet we were forged in freedom we were born in liberty we came here to stop the twisted arrows cast by tyranny and we won't bow down we are strong of heart we are a chain together that won't be pulled apart56 responses total.
corny postings like that just cheapen the memory specifically the last verse... "we were forged in freedom we were born in liberty" bullshit, unless the writer is a the CEO of some multinational.
Sounds like somebody is unappreciative of the genius of democracy! :)
i happen to think BRUSE is "the genuis of democracy"
Kitty Donohoe isn't the CEO of a multinational but she is a rather good folk singer who wrote this the day/night of the 9/11 tragedy. I happen to like it and don't think it's corny at all. It makes me cry every time I hear it.
Look upon it as a cry of anguish. It isn't meant to be logical.
Thank you Rane, for that. It is exactly what it is. It was recorded by the weekend of that week, and I can hear the pain whenever I listen to it. (The recording was sold as a fundraiser for the Red Cross.)
re4 so it's effective propaganda, the final verse anyway.
My thoughts are probably a little different than maybe Joe Average so I don't get moved by stuff like this, really. It's a complex issue that's so many shades of gray and not black and white for me. A great tragedy, yes. But I don't feel indignation or certain passionate patriotism-- I see warring cultures that fail to understand each other, that at their worst cry to their God for vengeance and blood. I do not see this as a single event: we have had other terrorist attacks. One was committed by an American-- Timothy McVeigh. I also feel that this may be a type and a shadow of things to come-- or at least, this is a warning sign. I was at a 9/11 remembrance service today for work. I patiently waited through the stuff I felt was dogmatic and such, but the representative from the local Islamic Society seemed to have an impact on me, and I had a good feeling about his words. He came to bring a message from his community condemning the attacks and comforting the victims. Of course not all Muslims support the terrorists-- some are very supportive of this country. The shadow issues still lie there... how do we support them, they that are in this country? Do we still believe in peace? Will we have a vengeful heart?
good questions.
I felt more for the New York skyline losing the Twin Towers. If I had lost someone in the attacks, I may have felt differently today
Re #4: Perhaps if I heard it sung it would be more moving. I tend to find lyrics pretty flat when I just read them and don't know the tune behind them. Just don't make me listen to "Have You Forgotten" or "Iraq and I Roll".
Heh. #0 reminds me of nothing so much as bad teenage angst poetry.
Discompassionate Liberalism???
no...just lyrical tripe.
Agreed, that it's probably more emotionally engaging heard, but it does work as a song. Believe you me. I can still hear it in my head after reading the lyrics. (And I also listened to Neil Young's "Let's Roll" yesterday. I won't bore anyone with the lyrics to that.)
/cues "Proud to be an American"
Re #10: you care about urban skylines? I care about natural skylines - mountains and such, but urban skylines? They will all be imploded some day and people will be glad to see out the old and build the new.
I'm an urban kinda girl. Maybe you give me the reason that I care about them. They're alway changing, but you expect to see the same skyline for most of your life, not for just a brief period. And most urban skylines change to show progress, the addition of a skyscraper here, the pulling down of an decrepit one there. New york's change did not mark progress. The buildings took 12 years to build, stood for 27 years and took next to no time to collapse. Maybe that's what I'm angry about. And the skyline doesn't look that cool anymore *shrug*
The WTC was built after I moved out of New York, so it was never part of the skyline of "my" NYC. I'm sure I would notice the gap, however, if the Enpire State building was taken down. But that's just a change from the familiar. I have no emotion invested in the Empire State building. But even after they were built, I thought the WTC looked incongruous. The NYC skyline was made up of lots of different building, but most of which had some investment of architectural inventiveness. The WTC had none: two incongruously large parallelpipeds, out of all proportion to anything else in the city.
We differ on that. I thought they tied in everything very nicely.
Kitty won a Grammy for that song, and it's been recorded by Paul Stookey.
I've never thought the WTC towers were good looking buildings. They showcased the totally unimaginative, functionalist nature of architecture at the time, as well as the arrogance of the Port Authority. It's tragic that they fell the way they did, but they don't represent any kind of artistic loss. I think it's been long enough since the tragedy that we can start admitting to ourselves again that they were ugly firetraps.
re21: it was probably ORDERED to happen by clearchannel.
I didn't know Kitty won a Grammy. Good for her!
AND JESUS WUVZ CLEARCHANNEL!
22: The buildings were pretty damned ugly, the Port Authority was dead on in its arrogance in the end.
Matter of opinion.
What features of the buildings did you find particularly attractive, munxcat?
I liked the clean lines, and the fact that it was made for functionality, rather than beauty. Also they were built with the idea of making them the tallest in the world. And as I've mentioned before, I thought they added a lot of character to the sky-line.
like a pair of legos in an art deco mural. they were almost a dada statement or something.
dada statement?
yep. like a pie in the face during a christening instead of holy water.
Well, that could be said, yes.
I thought they looked pretty at night when some of the lights would be on but not all of them. I also think that they added something to the NYC skyline as a whole even though they were pretty ugly when taken just by themselves.
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If it doesn't have setbacks, it does not belong on the NY skyline. I also think the Citigroup building is pretty ugly.
Is that the one that looks like a giant lipstick?
Yes.
Something making the rounds: Since America is typically Represented by an eagle, Saddam should have read up on his Muslim passages... The following verse is from the Quran (the Islamic Bible): Quran (9:11) -- "For it is written that a son of Arabia would awaken a fearsome Eagle. The wrath of the Eagle would be felt throughout the lands of Allah and lo, while some of the people trembled in despair still more rejoiced; for the wrath of the Eagle cleansed the lands of Allah; and there was peace."
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the real text.. [9.11] But if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, they are your brethren in faith; and We make the communications clear for a people who know.
The real text is in Arabic.
11. Fa-in taboo waaqamoo alssalata waatawoo alzzakata fa-ikhwanukum fee alddeeni wanufassilu al-ayati liqawmin yaAAlamoona picky, picky, picky...
The script is wrong.
May Allah strike you dead and down, bru, for your transgressions against Islam. The Koran must be published only in original Arabic.
http://www.hti.umich.edu/cgi/k/koran/koran-idx?type=DIV0&byte=282392 [9.11] But if they repent and keep up prayer and pay the poor-rate, they are your brethren in faith; and We make the communications clear for a people who know. As usual, you're being lied to but are too lazy to actually find out the truth for yourself.
isn't that what I said in 41 scott? If the Quran is only published in the original arabic, they will get no converts, adn they will die out in time. Allah is forgiving, so I am told.
Converts will learn Arabic or go to Arabhell.
Oops, missed bru's #41 somehow. Same text, anyway. The Koran *should* be published in many languages! A lot of the fanaticism comes from the idea that only Farsi-reading specialists should read, let alone interperet, the Koran. Sort of like the Catholic Church in some cases?
Islam needs a modern day Martin Luther to challenge the leadership. "Print the Koran in ALL lamguages."
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The Qur'an was/is written in Arabic, not Farsi. Part of Islam's claim to inerrancy is that the text has never been translated and so is not subject to "lost in translation." Still, interpretations in other languages are available; I have one that has both the Arabic text and an English interpretation. And interpretations have been quoted above.
Here's what I started wondering later last night: I first did a search for "eagle" in the online Koran I posted. No hits at all. Hey, I bet the eagle is not native in that part of the world...
Based our recollections of readings about Israel, we believe Mr. scott would lose that bet.
And Allah can see everything.
/puts tinfoil cap on head
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