October/November/December 2003 Seed Catalog
I guess that s what we all more or less are, gullible travelers, unable or unwilling to think the unthinkable,
wanting to believe the best, denying all the rest. Consider the cinema parable, INDEPENDENCE DAY,
in which an overwhelming alien force is launching an invasion of earth from the dark side of the moon.
The whole world is suddenly at the mercy of beings that have none. All they want is for the human race to die,
so they can take over. Most folks in the film cannot immediately wrap their minds around the possibility of
unmitigated, universal annihilation. Even after major cities around the world have already been obliterated,
a big party to welcome the aliens takes place on a Los Angeles rooftop where people are holding up signs
that say, Take us Away, while a humongous space pod is poised overhead to demolish the building.
New York Times columnist Thomas Friedman said the following about the war in Iraq on 11/30/03: The primary
focus of U.S. forces in Iraq today is erecting a decent, legitimate, tolerant, pluralistic representative government
from the ground up. Unless we begin the long process of partnering with the Arab world to dig it out of the
developmental hole it s in, this angry, frustrated region is going to spew out threats to world peace forever.
From Bali to Istanbul, we are seeing the birth of a virulent, nihilistic form of terrorism that seeks to kill any
advocates of modernism and pluralism, be they Muslims, Christians or Jews. It is the most serious threat to
open societies, because one more 9/11 and we ll really see an erosion of our civil liberties. Ultimately, only Arabs
and Muslims can root out this threat, but they will do that only when they have ownership over their own lives and
societies. Nurturing that is our real goal in Iraq.
The truth is that we re already in World War III, but it seems like a continual holiday back here in the USA. All we ve
been asked to do, really, is to go about our lives as we normally do and just keep on shopping. Decent people
everywhere have really demonic enemies who would not hesitate to incinerate every one of us in pursuit of their
self-righteous cause. And yet, I see posters at peace parades equating the star of David with the Nazi swastika,
I hear speakers claiming that our president is the worst terrorist of all and that the biggest threat to world peace is
Israel! I fervently wish there could be no more war, but it seems to me that savage, merciless brutality must be
realistically confronted and forcibly quelled, otherwise there is no peace or justice or security for any of us anywhere.
-- Bill Joyner