People hearing without listening
Might the best template for the 9/11 memorial 10 years on, be the words Paul Simon sang at the Ground Zero ceremony “People listening without hearing”?
A decade on from the attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and America’s idea of itself, it is striking how little Americans appear to listen to the world. The act of listening is part of being aware – a key survival technique – but Americans seem wilfully deaf. Had they not been so un-listening, they would have picked up on the following:
– the Palestinians’ unceasing cries of pain
– the sound of Israeli jackboots
– the anguish of the Iraqi people, occupied for no reason, no fault of theirs
A decade on from the attack on the Twin Towers, the Pentagon and America’s idea of itself, it is striking how little Americans appear to listen to the world. The act of listening is part of being aware – a key survival technique – but Americans seem wilfully deaf. Had they not been so un-listening, they would have picked up on the following:
– the Palestinians’ unceasing cries of pain
– the sound of Israeli jackboots
– the anguish of the Iraqi people, occupied for no reason, no fault of theirs
