A husband's tribute to his late wife killed in Paris

[marylander1940]

[+ stevenkesslar]

 

 

WOW!

[+ deej]

WOW!

 

Indeed.

[tyro]

Hellz yeah. Every just so often, humanity doesn't suck. Thank you, Antoine.

T

[+ deej]

Hellz yeah. Every just so often, humanity doesn't suck. Thank you, Antoine.

T

 

A sane and considered response is refreshingly unusual, ain't it?

[+ purplekow]

I teared up at this yesterday. Could not imagine his pain.

[rvwnsd]

I truly don't know what to say.

[Brian Kevin]

crying.

[+ honcho]

It is a bit paltry for me to say this; I cannot "like" the post.

 

From the bottom of my heart I thank Marylander for sharing it and I totally endorse the sentiments.

 

On the evening of 9/11, the San Francisco Lesbian Gay Freedom had a concert scheduled. So did many other arts organizations. The big ones downtown went black.

 

We performed ours. An email had gone out soliciting who felt that they would not be able to participate.

 

My sentiment that was that if we did not go about our lives as if nothing had happened, then "they" would have won.

 

The motivation of the conductor was that making music was her spiritual practice, and that under such horrific

circumstances, she wanted to be around the people she cared about, her extended family.

 

Out of the 35 ish members at the time, only 3 felt they could or should not participate, and there were no hard

feelings between us as a consequence.

[+ stevenkesslar]

My sentiment that was that if we did not go about our lives as if nothing had happened, then "they" would have won.

 

Hold that thought.

 

Steven Colbert interviewed Bill Maher on the Late Show this week. It was a weird interview, but there were two seemingly contradictory thoughts Maher expressed. First, we can't win by "wiping out" these people using a "body count" strategy. It didn't work in Viet Nam, and it won't work here, he said. Part of the reason why, to use the words of a Republican consultant Maher had on his show recently, is that so much of our "wiping out" of terrorists depends on drones, and the intelligence behind it often sucks, she said. The Republican's point is that the Israelis tend to use human intelligence (people) when they target and "wipe out" bad guys, so they tend to be more accurate. We rely on drone strikes that may be ordered from half a world away, so we end up bombing wedding parties and hospitals as well as ISIS leaders.

 

Maher's second point is that part of the reason we can't "wipe out" these people is that maybe 20 to 30 percent of Muslims (his numbers, not mine) subscribe to a set of ideas that liberals should give "no quarter" to - that people who leave their religion should be killed, that women are second class citizens, that Gays deserve to be hanged. His views are controversial, and there is a difference between religious fundamentalism and terrorism. But whether you buy the way he links these things together or not, his idea is still good: what needs to be wiped out are bad ideas, not bad people. We can't "wipe out" 20 to 30 percent of the Muslim population.

 

That is what makes this so heartbreaking. What happened in Paris makes it painfully clear we are at war, whether we want to be or not. But if Maher is right, and winning the war in part depends on wiping out bad ideas, we don't accomplish that by giving up our principles of freedom and becoming as barbaric and murderous as they are.

 

It is very hard to hold that thought when the wife you fell madly in love with was just "wiped out." I think we are speechless because Antoine taught us something profound.

[marylander1940]

What happened in Paris makes it painfully clear we are at war, whether we want to be or not. But if Maher is right, and winning the war in part depends on wiping out bad ideas, we don't accomplish that by giving up our principles of freedom and becoming as barbaric and murderous as they are.

 

yes, it's WW3 and Isis is poking us to invade them all over again. What should we do?

[+ stevenkesslar]

yes, it's WW3 and Isis is poking us to invade them all over again. What should we do?

 

I'm hoping the JD thing is settled. That way we can get Mary Poppins to focus her full attention on the matter.

 

I think she has all the right qualities to lead us to victory: a kind heart, a firm disposition, clarity of purpose, and that little something extra

 

[mike carey]

Not so poignant as the video atop the thread, but still hard to take in, this interview with the father of a young man who was killed in the Bataclan.

http://www.abc.net.au/news/2015-11-19/father-of-bataclan-victim-dedicates-himself-to-sons-memory/6953620

[marylander1940]

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OrMTlNZpv_U

 

Conspiracy theories already...