Digital BW, The Print

Although this list is ostensibly about art and printing,  I find,
especially with some Castilian blood flowing through my veins. that I
cannot blithely ignore the brutality and senselessness of yesterday's
attack in Madrid.  Nine Hundred and eleven days ago, an attack on
civilians cost the lives of well over 3000 in New York City. In the
immediate aftermath of that attack, a singular refrain erupted from the
mouths of leaders and everyday people the world over: "we are New
Yorkers."  The civilized world put aside for a moment, their petty
differences, in recognition of the fact that the death of everyday
innocents, simply trying to make their individual ways through life,  to
promote any political, religious,  or social cause, was not simply
unacceptable but denoted an inherent and fatal flaw in the fabric of any
philosophy that supposedly and ostensibly concerned itself with morality
and the rights of man.

Today, some two and one-half years later, the people of Madrid, and all
Spaniards, know all too well the feelings such unspeakably depraved
callousness towards the value of human life can bring to the hearts of
many.  Catalans, Andalusians,  Castilians, Basques, Aragonians, and all
the people of the Iberian Peninsula mourn with the people of Madrid.
Today, and for the foreseeable future, they all are citizens of Madrid.

 From Malaga to San Sebastian, from Barcelona to Merida a thread of pain
and sorrow binds them all together. Yet, I know that the Spanish people
shall survive, the resolve symbolized in the stone of Gibraltar, the
will and backbone denoted by the steel of Toledo, and the soaring spirit
of the Pyrenees are untouched.  That stone will not crumble, that steel
shall not fail, and that spirit will not be forced down from it's dance
with the Iberian sun.

As an American, and as a "New Yorker," I know only too well the pain
many Spaniards are now feeling.  But, I also know the resolve and will
that such depraved indifference to human life can kindle in the better
angels of our nature.

Terrorism, attacks upon non-combatant civilians, is the killer virus of
our age.  Although other causes may rob the world of greater numbers of
people each year, terrorism of the sort seen yesterday in Spain, when
practiced, infects and poisons the souls of those on all sides.
Whether born of  misguided religion, poverty, or hate, such cruelty and
disregard for one's fellow human beings is nothing less than monstrous
and misanthropic in the extreme. No cause, can ever justify the reckless
disregard for morality that such an attack displays.  No attack can ever
justify the cowardice such an attack confirms.

Some 30 months ago, Spaniards became New Yorkers and poured both support
and sympathy to the people of New York and America.

Yesterday, in a few brief moments, in a train station station filled
with commuters, the world once again found itself reeling from a
blackness of soul and darkness of aim, that is unfathomable to any
feeling being.

Today, for a moment, time and politics once again stand still, as I,
other Americans, and indeed, all right-minded citizens of the world say
"I am with you in this moment of national and international tragedy, for
I too am a citizen of Madrid."

Now, all those of honor and good will must stand together with the
people of Spain, in strength, determination and resolve, but without
succumbing to the desire for revenge engendered by the rage such acts
provokes. For if we do not stand together with Spain, in unity of
purpose, integrity of spirit, and belief in the potential of man for
good; those whom would so cavalierly kill so many have already won.

-- 


Keith Krebs

"Just some guy," caretaker of the Multiverse's largest EPSON printer
User Community (highly recommended by Vogon Poets and MegaDodo
Publications), at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/EPSON_Printers/
and  the Multiverse's largest Canon printer User  Community at:
http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Canon-printers
"For the rest of you out there, the secret is to bang the rocks together
guys"