Two kinds of September

The benign kind, showing a Father's bias hear!

Early today, fine weather and Desi much inspired, I sms-ed sunny boy, 22-going-on-21, to wish him another "how time flies"-by anniversary. "Len, happy n peacefool Bdae. Wl Aweways remember A special kind Kind of September."

Try To Remember
-Brothers Four

Try to remember the kind of September
When life was slow and oh, so mellow

Try to remember the kind of September
When grass was green And grain was yellow

Try to remember the kind of September
When you were a tender And callow fellow

Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow, follow

Try to remember When life was so tender
That no one wept except the willow

Try to remember the kind of September
When love was an ember About to billow

Try to remember and if you remember
Then follow, follow

Deep in December It's nice to remember
Although you know The snow will follow

Deep in December It's nice to remember
The fire of September That made us mellow

Deep in December Our hearts should remember
And follow follow follow

___________________________________

DESI: Amore to follow when Desi breaks for an urgent assignment, be back
when the Great One up dare allows me to writHe about the
other kind Kind of September...

Not so benign, also not yet a malignant cancer because
Man is born to be hopeful or there is no living
Born to be positive or there is paralysis
Born to be moulded in God's image
Though we often times stumble even fall
We shall continue to Strive
For happiness and success does not come easily
after awe.

~~ 9.11am --
Do you steal or remember the time, the date the year?
I aweways do Cos my sonny boy reminds me to.

UPDATEd @12.12pm:


Before Season 3 of The West Wing flagged off, a stand-alone episode appealing to Americans to donate to the American Red Cross relates an episode clearly inspired by 911 of 2001 -- do you still remember what happened that day?

When Desi watched the 45-minute story-telling, I am amazed that the TV script-writers could so quickly spinned a sotry to mark the "momentous" event that took place just 3 weeks earlier as the broadcast date of October 3, 2001 shows.
I am also often "silently admire" the Ameerican spirit when the citizens all come together -- across political partisna lines -- when the nation is besieged by "nation-threatening" forces, put aside their differences to "face the enemy" united as one voice, in the main.

With Malaysians, when do you think we can arrive at such a crossroads when we can proudly stand up as a united nation to face the "external" enemy, with one voice, in the main.

"In the main.." as a qualifier as there will always be those minority nutty cases who will not see the forest for the trees (The Big Picture, yes?).


+++++++++++++++++++++ Isaac and Ishmael ++++++++++++++++++++++

Writer: Aaron Sorkin, Director: Christopher Misiano
Broadcast: October 3, 2001
Query: What are the stories of Isaac and Ishmael as told in the Judeo-Christian and the Moslem traditions?
Query: Can you cross into Vermont from Ontario, Canada?
Query: What was that music at the end?

Thanks to Google, Desi reprises some details of the plot so that my ER can glean some significant feature. I recommend you view the tapes yourself!

From "Isaac and Ishmael": Main protagonists:
Rob Lowe as Sam Seaborn, Richard Schiff as Toby Zeigler, Bradley Whitford as Josh Lyman, Allison Janney as C. J. Cregg

During a "crash" ("means there has been some kind of security break: No one in or out of the White House"), Josh talks to some high school students who had won a trip to the White House through Presidential Classroom. Josh assures them that there is nothing to worry about. "We've been having these crashes once a week." Most of the security problems, it seems are due to Islamic extremists. But Josh emphasizes that the problems are not due to Muslims in general.

Josh gives these high school students an SAT kind of question:
"Islamic extremist is to Islam as _______ is to Christianity."
After hearing from the students, Josh writes down his answer: "KKK. . . . It's the Klan gone medieval and global. It couldn't have less to do with Islamic men and women of faith of whom there are millions and millions. Muslims defend this country in the Army, Navy, Air Force, Marine Corp, National Guard, Police and Fire Department."

When he runs out of other things to say, Josh calls in friends.

First up:Toby.

"...there's nothing wrong with a religion whose laws say a man's got to wear a beard or cover his head or wear a collar. It's when violation of these laws become a crime against the state and not your parents that we're talking about lack of choice." He goes on to say that "The Taliban isn't the recognized government of Afghanistan. The Taliban took over the recognized government of Afghanistan. . . . When you think of Afghanistan, think of Poland. When you think of the Taliban, think of the Nazis. When you think of the people of Afghanistan, think of Jews in concentration camps."

Toby then goes on to tell a story told to him by a friend of his father's who had been in a Nazi concentration camp.
"He said he once saw a guy at the camp kneeling and praying.
He said 'what are you doing?'
The guy said he was thanking God.
'What could you possibly be thanking God for?'
' I'm thanking God for not making me like them.'"

Then Toby says, "Bad people can't be recognized on sight. There's no point in trying."

Later a student asks Sam:

"...what do you call a society that has to just live every day with the idea that the pizza place you are eating in could just blow up without any warning?"
"Israel," Sam answers.

When C.J. joins them, Josh introduces her by saying:

"C.J. has a bizarre affection for the intelligence community."
C.J. comes back with "We need spies. Human spies. . . . It's time to give the intelligence agencies the money and the man power they need."

Meanwhile, Leo takes part in the interrogation of an Arab American whose name corresponded to a name given by a terrorist who was caught entering the country from Canada. There are some circumstantial indications that the man, who is on the White House staff, may not be totally loyal to all U.S. policy in the Middle East.
The young man says, "It is not uncommon for Arab Americans to be the first suspected" in terrorist activities like bomb threats. Leo, being so very protective of the President and the Presidency as well as the country, isn't sympathetic.

Josh's parting advice to the students on how to relate to the terrorists is:

"...remember pluralism. You want to get these people? I mean, you really want to reach in and kill them where they live? Keep accepting more than one idea. It makes them absolutely crazy."

Leo has to face some pretty unpleasant things about his responses to all this. At the end he is so confused and embarrassed that his apology is some of the most realistic dialogue ever written. It is so realistic that like much of what each of us says when we are under a great deal of emotional distress, it is nearly incoherent.



Two contrasting commentaries extracted 'selectively' by Desi:

New York Daily News columnist Eric Mink was impressed: "In a very real way, Sorkin and his team--producing this episode on an astonishingly tight schedule--provided a service similar to the one David Letterman did for his fellow comics and late-night TV hosts: They demonstrated that it is possible to deal with terrorism in a fictional drama, possible to do so in a sensitive, sensible and intelligent way and possible to do it now."

"A crashing and often condescending bore," writes USA Today's Robert Bianco. "You could be forgiven if you began to fear that a quiz would be given at the end of the episode."

AmendeD @2.34pm:

DESI after a goode lunch with Mr Coww who also educated me on aMore Isaac and Ishmael, amyhaps I'd elaborate tomolo, G'ODwilling...

Only in that Land of the Impossible Dreams called USA, do readers get a whol;e spectrum of Commentaries covering the Left, Right and all the shades in between -- mGf the late MGG Pillai used the word, Chiaroscuro! -- and that's why
I like American democracy -- and I don't apologise for it!. They tolerate dissenting views the spirit of engage ala +++Thoreau's dictum which Desi often promotes and which Malaysians should emulate!:):

+++"I may disagree with what you say but I will defend, to the death, your right to say it."

And the quote I treasure most cometh from Josh, a message which I hope Malaysians, above race, religion and colour would do well to Try to remember, viz:

"...remember pluralism. You want to get these people? I mean, you really want to reach in and kill them where they live? Keep accepting more than one idea. It makes them absolutely crazy."