Juxtapositions, and Perspectives

The widely reported discovery of ricin in a Paris subway locker two days before Gulf War II is no longer operative. On further testing (less widely reported), the material turns out to be wheat germ. Damn hippies!

Meanwhile (from Taegan Goddard's Political Wire) this LA Times report: "The independent counsel who spent $9 million to get a misdemeanor plea from former Housing Secretary Henry G. Cisneros nearly four years ago is still in business ...". (In 1992 and 1993 FBI interviews, the former HUD Secretary misstated the amount of hush-money payments to a former mistress.)

In 47 B.C., Julius Caesar torched ships in the port of Alexandria, and fire spread to the Great Library (known contemporaneously as "the Museum"). Later on (391 A. D. ), "riots instigated by fanatical Christians damaged the collection heavily" And in 641 A.D. "the Caliph of Baghdad exhibited the same spirit of religious fanaticism" as the restored collection was burned to heat the public baths.

Few of us know the date (or even the century) offhand, fewer still could name the players or detail the political circumstances, much less care who won ... but we remember and regret the event whereby civilization lost irreplaceable clues to where we came from and how we came to be.

You all know the story of looting at the National Museum of Antiquities in Baghdad (known contemporaneously as "the Museum"). But how big a story it is won't sink in for centuries.

Two thousand years from now, few humans -- or whatever comes next -- may know the date (or even the century) offhand, fewer still could name the players or detail the political circumstances ... but they'll remember and regret the event whereby civilization -- or whatever comes next -- lost irreplaceable clues to where they came from and how they came to be.

Finally, for those who would govern New Iraq, a recommended reading -- "You Won, Now What?", by Political Wire's Taegan Goddard.

Also recommended for those won something in 2000, and have not yet picked up the mantle of governance.

RonK, Seattle

Posted April 13, 2003 09:57 AM | Comments (80)