Listed below are your views concerning the events that have had a deep impact on our lives since September 11, 2001. A Memoriam to those from the Pioneer Valley that are listed as missing or dead can be found by clicking here. For some links to events, resources and voices of peace please click here.

Thanks to all who made a contribution in this issue of Valley Viewpoint. What lies in the future for us is anybody's guess. What we do know is that we live in a country where we are permitted to express our opinions and concerns freely and openly. Because our lives are being changed on an hourly basis, Valley Viewpoint will continue to give you an opportunity to add your views to this list. 

Feel free to pass this newsletter on to your friends so that they might know how we in the Valley are dealing with these recent events.

Eve Brown-Waite
Lynn Nichols
Don Kruger

(Some of the opinions expressed may not be those of Valley Viewpoint.)

— Eve Brown-Waite — The Lesson 
Like everyone else in America, I have been glued to the television since Tuesday. The scenes are horrific, unbelievable and somehow... familiar. I see the rubble-covered streets and asked myself, where have I seen this before? And a commentator answers by saying "My, God! It looks like downtown Beirut..." or Belfast or Sarajevo, I think.
(click here for more)

— Phil Sosis — Greenfield
9-11-01 - A poem
(click here for more)

— Kirsten Johl — Greenfield
When I first heard the news I was on a planning break at my school where I teach fourth grade. I thought..."oh no problem....a little plane...shades of the Empire State Building...a few floors...an accident...what a mess...hope they're okay..." and other thoughts that allowed me to survive. A colleague came to me in tears an hour later...telling me it was the end of the world...
(click here for more)

— Jacki Dillenback — Franklin County
It is only today that I feel I have the strength to respond to the tragedies engulfing our lives. First of all, it is important in reading my personal views to understand that my husband is on a plane to Bosnia as we speak. He is a member of the Mass National Guard.
(click here for more)

— Emma Stamas — Colrain
I have attached a letter by Ghandi's grandson that explains the reasons for a nonviolent reaction to the terrorism of Sept. 11. I know that many people are too grief stricken or angry to think that this is the way to react, but I think this letter explains some of the ways that violence begets more violence.
(click here for more)

— Bernadette Johnson — Southwick
Working in a newsroom (The Union News) has been very difficult this past week. In addition to not being able to turn on the TV without seeing the devastation, I have had to edit all the stories, national and local, even world, connected to the disaster. 
(click here for more)

— Russ Pirkot — Greenfield
I just learned that one of my oldest and best friends was scheduled to fly out of Logan last Tuesday afternoon, and that gave me a scare. And hearing those big planes fly overhead in our area a few nights ago was frightening too. And I'm still not sure what that was about.
(click here for more)

— Jillian Hanson — Hatfield
My 5-year old daughter's first reaction to this tragedy, when I had given her a watered-down version of the events of 9/11/01, was to ask, "Did the airplanes hit my school?"
(click here for more)

— George Bluh — Greenfield
I commend you on your efforts to bring much needed comfort, soulful comfort, at this time of extreme personal and national loss. We have not experienced such a profound loss of life on our own soil since the War Between the States. 
(click here for more)

— Trystan Dean — Greenfield
I am filled with apprehension at the thought of U.S. military action in the Middle East during this volatile time. However, I also believe that terrorism is truly evil and cannot be tolerated by a civilized world. 
(click here for more)

Some commentary from readers outside the Pioneer Valley:

— Bob Mantler — Franklin County
I have been doing a lot of thinking about what happened on our shores. My first thoughts were that it had finally happened. I am a child of the 50's and 60's and an Air Force brat. My father was in WWII, Korea and Vietnam. I almost made it to Nam myself but the Air Force thought I couldn't lift anything heavy ( they were wrong).
(click here for more)

— Sheila Brown Blei — NYC — (Eve's Mom)
Dear Eve,
I know it is been impossible to get through by 'phone, thank goodness for e-mail. Thank goodness all my kids and your siblings decided to move away from NYC...I thought for a "better, cleaner, calmer life", I never imagined it would be for "life itself".
(click here for more)

— Jill Brody — Providence
We spent the past 4 days in New York. I know that some of you are also New Yorkers by birth, as I am, so you will know what I mean when I tell how important it was for me to go "home" and touch the earth that I call my own. My middle daughter lives there still. She also works for Morgan Stanley, although not in the WTC, and she needed her mom.
(click here for more)

— Roy Shoults — Manchester, NH
I did do a lot of thinking about this situation and the reactions of people which seem to fall into two opposing groups. What appears to be at the bottom of the conflict between the two oppositions is a difference in the very definition or concept of  "man."  Very simply, one side sees man as  having free will and takes him as he is by how he behaves. The other looks at how man could be. So, Side 1 says, "He did this or that, so I must do such or so." Side 2 says, "What do I need to do now to make him behave the way I feel he should?"
(click here for more)