After having a whole lot of whitespace to say about the recent terrorist attack on the World Trade Centre and the Pentagon, I've finally come up with something. I saw an article in yesterday's Boston Globe about a man named Salah El-Ehmeada, of Plymouth, MA, originally from Iraq, and a Muslim. He owns a pizza shop in Plymouth that was torched Saturday morning. The official ruling is arson, and while it cannot be shown conclusively that he was targeted because he is an Arab, there are no other strong motives. The crime was senseless and stupid, but most of you already know that, and I don't want to waste any time talking about it.

What I want to talk about is his reaction to the attack on the World Trade Centre. I would like, if I may, to quote directly from the Globe article:

"Watching on television from his shop Tuesday morning, El-Ehmeada said, he felt the same shock and revulsion as the rest of America, with an additional touch of shame that the terrorist acts may have been carried out in the name of Islam.
"'I felt like a guy who comes from a good family, a great family,' he said, 'and he wakes up one day and his brother is a serial killer on TV.'"

I don't think it's possible to express that any more eloquently or poignantly than this humble pizza maker from Plymouth did. I'd say there are several lessons we can take away from that short passage.

In lighter news, I hear from a reliable news source (I reserve the right not to say whether or not that source was the Weekly World News) that Elvis will be returning from the Beyond on this coming New Year's day. Supposedly, he'll float down from Heaven to turn people again to the Lord in preparation for the return of Christ. Hey, to quote Dudley Do-Right, "If it's in the paper, it must be true!"

Similarly, I hear that Bat Boy just set a new world record for number of get-well cards received. Yes, that's right, folks, Bat Boy is in the hospital. I also may or may not have gotten that tidbit from the Weekly World News.

One final note. I'm very fond of Mayor Giulliani. And I do hope I spelt his name correctly. I don't live in New York, but I like him nonetheless (perhaps the more). Yes, this was brought on for a reason. I was reading the Post this morning (yes, Faux Pas, I was reading the Post; you may feel free to stop by my house to perform an exorsism if you wish ;-}), and I saw a wonderful story about him. It turns out that there is a girl in New York who just a few days ago got married. Her grandfather died earlier this year, and her father a week later. As such, her brother was to give her away. Unfortunately, he was a fireman, and was killed in the Staten Island fire. So she inexplicably asked the mayor of New York if he would walk her down the aisle.

He said yes. This was before the terrorists attacked, of course. Her wedding was planned not veyr long afterwards - a period that, for Mayor Rudy, could be described as "desperately busy." But you know what? He was there. And he walked her down the aisle, just as he promised. And, for some reason, of all the things he has done in his eight years as Mayor of New York, this one impresses me the most.

Dar "Film at Eleven" ien