BAD Reads
9/11 Again
It's the fifth anniversary.
In New York they're reading the names of the dead. Here, a few miles from my home in Northern VA, they're having a ceremony at the Pentagon, and I know they'll be doing the same in Shanksville, PA.
Georgie B and Dickie Haliburton will lay wreaths, and make moving speeches and do everything in their power to make Americans fear for their lives and vote Republican. Then they'll go right back to trying to justify their war--a war that has killed thousands of Americans, and thousands more Iraquis. They'll keep saying that it's to defeat terrorism in a place that didn't HAVE terrorist before we invaded, and to give the Iraquis democratic rights--the same Democratic rights that they are trying to steal from us, the American people, in the name of security.
Meanwhile the rich get even richer and the poor get even poorer. We pay more attention to Katie Couric on the evening news than to the actual news she is reading over the teleprompter.We watch serious minded stuff like "American Idol" and "Dance With the Stars". Our headlines are filled with vital, world changing information--the latest dirt on Tom Cruise's baby and the drunken ramblings of Mel Gibson.
Americans stop for a few moments, wave the flags and go back to business as usual.
We want to be safe. But we're a fast food nation. We want quick fixes. We want to be safe, but we don't want to have to work at it. We'd rather let the politicians talk us into "Patriot" Acts and wars abroad rather than keeping our National Guard here to keep us safe, shoring up our crumbling infrastructure, and looking for ways to combat the causes of terrorism here and overseas. So much easier to let the men in charge do as they will and concentrate on our own immediate needs and wants. And then at election time, to let them whip up our fears and keep them doing as they will.
But we can't, can't, CAN'T let the politicians use our fears as a way to destroy the things that make us such a wonderful country. We can't sacrifice our hard earned rights in the name of "security." This country was founded by risk takers--people who came here knowing this was not a safe place to be, but came anyway. It was turned into a nation by men who took the risk of defying everything they had known to create something even better. It grew and thrived because of people who knew that their path was dangerous--but dared it anyway, despite their fears.
Over and over again, this country has been defended by men (and women) who knew the freedom and rights this country gives us were worth fighting--and dying for.
And equally, it has been defended by men and women who have used those freedoms to speak out against injustice, even when they knew they might pay a price for what they said.
If we want to honor the memory of the people who died on that bright September morning, we need to ensure that the country they loved remains the strong, free nation it has always been. We need to speak up and defend our rights, and not allow them to be diminished. We can't accept "safety"if the price is tyranny--for us, our children and our grandchildren.
If we let the politicians defile the Constitution in the name of "security" than the terrorists have truly won. And we still won't be any safer than we were.
But don't worry America.Tonight, in Washington, DC, home of our "War on Terrorism",home of all those politicians who mouth the words while doing everything to further their own personal interests, September 11 is being observed with solemnity, with a ceremony truly appropriate to remembering all the pain and carnage that day triggered----
The Washington Redskins are having their opening game.......................
