Ed Kinane
Voices in The Wilderness

Oct.6, Monday

Chilliest night so far. In the wee hours I put my winter undershirt on. On the roof my thermometer registers 69 degrees Fahrenheit. Neville is up and about in these wee hours; we greet and pass on, understanding this isn’t palaver time.

WEIL ON AFFLICTION, RISK
At our morning reflection Neville reads a passage from Simone Weil’s essay, “Human Personality.” It’s relevant to Voices:

Affliction is by its nature inarticulate. The afflicted silently beseech to be given the words to express themselves. There are times when they are given none; but there are also times when they are given words, but ill-chosen ones, because those who choose them know nothing of the affliction they would interpret.

Ed Kinane
Voices in The Wilderness
Baghdad
September 29, 2003

Letters to the Editor
The Syracuse Post-Standard

Dear Rep. James Walsh,

Via the Post-Standard website I learn that you’ve been visiting Iraq. I try to imagine what this must be like for you. When you venture out of the Coalition Provisional Authority’s armored bubble, I picture you always attended by CPA handlers and translators. And by men with guns.

Your experience of Iraq and of the Iraqi people will inevitably be a world apart from that of those of us working here without such accompaniment. It will be a world apart from that of those of us who work and live among Iraqis.