Jay et al.

I am not a monster. The human loss was profoundly upsetting, as it always is. But the loss of the museum was more shocking in the unexpected nature of it. Shock as in surprise. Not shock as in upsetting. Semantics, again, but there you have it. In times of war we expect human loss - although it doesn't make it any easier. I, perhaps naively, did not expect the looting of the Museum.

In the meantime, I stand by my assertion that museums are important to the fostering of civil society and citizen participation, and that as a site of great beauty the Museum of the Antiquities would have been one (granted of many) places where the Iraqi people could find a sense of hope and, literally, respite from the wars. This was the main point of my post. Gene's point is certainly well taken, but I do grieve most sincerely not so much for the pots themselves, but for all that they represent both to that nation and to humanity. And though, unlike the loss of human life, the museum can be rebuilt, its loss contributes substantially to the despair.

If I mis-spoke or over simplified the situation, I apologize. The despair over the war and the human loss and the horrible conditions are too big for me to get my brain around - the museum is something that I understand.

Kristen

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