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Warren Piece

Never as much as today is the name for this column more ironic and yet more apt...

Needless to say, there will not be a whole lot about music in this particular Editor's Note. I will say there is a serious pile of great articles in this huge issue and even more being set up for the next issue on November 1st. Our Cover Story this month is with Billy Sheehan, along with founding member and bassist for STYX, Chuck Panozzo as a feature article. Lessons, reviews, articles and interviews abound. 

We thoroughly love creating this magazine each month and will continue doing so for a long time to come. But as one of our contributors has said to me on many an occasion, "this is not brain surgery".  This is a music magazine, informative and important in some ways, but in the scheme of the things that have happened this past month, it's just a magazine. 

I will ask you to bear with me as I add one more thought to the events of September 11th. 

I am an opinionated person, that I will admit.  I know you have been inundated with endless articles, television, newspapers, magazines and radio shows on this horrible event, so if one more comment is more than you can bare, just head off to our articles and interviews. Not a problem. 

*****************

Our articles are prepared for our readers all over the world by people from all over the world. These writers and contributors are black, white, every color. They are both male and female. They are Italian, French, Spanish, Australian, South American, Taiwanese, Welsh, Canadian, Americans, Scottish, English, German, Swiss and as each month passes, more and more from all over the world join us. Knowing these people has given me the supreme gift of not only meeting a great number of wonderful, funny and kind folk, it has shown me that it doesn't matter a rats ass where you live. It is not the measure of a person.

 As well, never once will religion become an issue at Global Bass. If you are a decent person, you can be from any place in the world and you can be of any religion. That is one of the many gifts this magazine has given me. I just wanted to pass that on to you before you tackle what is written below.

 

So can you feel it? 

There is something different in the air. It's in everything we touch and in everything we do. 

9-1-1     An era came to a close, abruptly, in a shower of fire and tears. Ready or not, at that moment a new time began. Like elegant silver arrows the planes pierced the twin towers and the Heart of America.

At that moment, history put an apostrophe into the story of our lives. One more bookmark was placed to mark where we were on a fateful day, a day no living person will ever forget. Somehow, most other events of the previous century pale by comparison. One day children will sit in classrooms discussing this and think, 'Ah, that was the day it all began'.

From the moment that second plane came into view, all of us knew that this was no accident. All of us knew that our lives had suddenly taken an abrupt 90 degree turn in a direction we never dreamed we'd be headed. Now that the unthinkable had happened, no longer could anything be taken for granted. Suddenly all things seemed possible and some of those possibilities were truly frightening.

Now and forever our families seem more dear, our frustrations seem so puerile and for the first time in perhaps forever, for those living in America, being black or white seems so very unimportant. A high price was paid, but lessons were being learned. They still are.

~~~~~~~~~~~~~

A friend of mine told me that her teenage daughter said that what had happened was a wake-up call for her generation. Spoken in the self- absorbed fashion of a teenager, the statement still held much truth. That wake-up call was actually for the whole world, not just that single generation. It was a clarion call for all decent and sane people of every race and religion.

The message is that 'there really are assholes out there'.

These 'assholes' are simple minded cowards without the wherewithal to solve problems by using intelligence, communication and positive action. Even by channeling their millions in wealth to help those they claim to want to free from oppression would at least be a token of their supposed caring. The truly pathetic underbelly to all this is that they are not remotely interested in helping their own people, only themselves. 

They envision that the only path to a heaven lies in violence and terror. 

As a testament to that, they have tried to label this a holy war. For the moment, putting all arguments aside, let's posit that there is a Creator. Would you want any part of an insane monster like that?  No sane person would and that is a key issue here. Calling this a holy war dishonors any thought of a sane and loving Creator. Again the mark of a common mind. It can be found everywhere in this, like rat droppings. 

**************

What lies before us for the foreseeable future is, in fact, not foreseeable at all. Is this over? Sadly, in all likelihood, no. Will there likely be more violence?  In all probability, yes, and it will hurt like hell. Will we survive?  Yes, in a way few of us can imagine.

We were sucker-punched on September the 11th, 2001, but it won't happen again. In my heart of hearts, I believe we will actually be stronger for this.

Good people all over the world are different today than they were before 9-1-1. They seem to be walking a little taller these days. There is a strong feeling of being on the 'right side', the good side of things. Yes, it is time to stand up and be counted. People have been polarized. It's as if their spines were suddenly made of tempered steel. 

Fire and tears will do that, you know. 

Now let's get on with this business of living!

Global Bass Magazine and all its writers, translators and staff would like to extend our condolences to the families of all those who lost their lives in this tragedy. We are honored beyond words that they gave their lives that we might once more be reminded that Peace must always be guarded and oft times be fought for. We are awakened to the fact that there are those that would come as thieves in the night and try to steal it away. 

                                                               

Warren Murchie

Editor 
Global Bass Magazine

October 1st, 2001

 

 

 

 

                                  

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