A friend told me to be careful, when it comes to what I write in my diary. As you may know I have received a lot of diary comments and guestbook entries on my anti-war message here in my diary, they haven't been threats, but I know I should be careful. I have been aware of the dangers of taking my freedom to express myself on the web. The web is a large communication place and the human relations consists mostly of words, people can often mistake personal expression for propaganda. I never wanted to get into all this fighting with war supporters, it's just that this is my diary and I have very strong opinions, it's difficult for me to not answer them back.
I never planned to tell you this. I have received an extreme amount of death threats over email. They started to come after I wrote about the war in Iraq for the first time, I believe it was before the war even started or had just begun. The threats are mostly sent by American individuals, but there have also been some coming from what appears to be people from the middle east. Some emails said they came from organisations, I will not name them. These organisations told me that they "remove" difficult individuals from all around the world. These individuals are seen to be a danger to their philosophy and leaders. All the emails warn me and tell me in different ways that my life is in jeopardy, if I continue to express my anti-war opinion on the web.
I decided to ignore them and I decided to not say anything about it and continue with my anti-war message. I dont want to listen to or bargain with people of violence. In a way they inspired me to write even more about how I feel about the war. The threats grew in size, many of them seem to come from the same sources as the earlier emails, so they are obviously watching my updates. Who knows, maybe some of them are even on my mailing list (the one you can join to get diary updates). A lot of people joined my mailing list after my first entry about the war.
On the positive side, I have never gotten so much positive feedback on my writing as I have lately. There have been so many people saying they agree with me, that I have almost felt it as my responsibility to speak on behalf of other people. I have friends and a family that feel like me, a lot of them dont like to write the way I do. I speak for myself, but in this case I also speak for those that are not so good with this medium. As a person I'm quite shy with people I dont know, I'm not good with crowds or groups, but I'm not shy with written words. As I have said before; there is a medium for everyone.
Sometimes I have seemed very hateful in my comments I guess. I dont hate America and I never will. I dont hate Bush and I dont love Hussein. I dont hate anyone, I just dont like some of the political systems in this world. I have American friends on the web aswell as I have friends from other places. I write because I care, not because I hate. I also understand that the war supporters can be good people and that they mean well with their opinion. I also mean well with my opinion.
Talking about death threats. They did kill Jesus, but he came back.
Lately there have been a lot of talk about that modern freedom of speech. In the modern world of today, people has to say that they agree with freedom of speech for those that are not on their side. But behind the scenes the support of freedom of speech is really underestimated.
And when the bomb smoke fade to nothing and the people of Iraq finds their smile again, then you who threatens my life can enjoy the hailing and all the good words about America. Then you should know behind all your great things, that the only thing that truly makes you a better man is a small aggressive girl in the north...
To forgive is not to forget.
The merit lies in loving in spite of the vivid
knowledge that the one that must be loved
is not a friend.