September 11, 2010
Hard to believe it's been 9 years since the September 11th attacks:
This year's anniversary seems much more fraught than it has been in years, what with the Ground Zero Mosque and Koran burning controversies. They really shouldn't be controversies at all. There was once a time when American politicians of all stripes would have recoiled at the thought of a mosque at Ground Zero, or American media would have treated a marginal "reverend" planning to burn a Koran as nothing more than a crank. Not anymore!
While the vast majority of Americans still view 9/11 with a combination of mourning and fury, our spineless progressive elites are determined that we not remember at all. Thus, the public discussion of 9/11 has grown increasingly dislocated from the event itself. The only 9/11 families we ever seem to hear from are "Jersey Girl" types who wanted to bash Bush or Giuliani. The only 9/11 survivors we ever hear from are suffering from some undefined respiratory ailments. A mere 3 years after that terrible day, a jackass from Hollywood misappropriated 9/11 for the title of a meretricious film filled with lies and character assassination. We've been lectured over and over again that we must not give in to hate - as if Americans are ready to rise up and march on Dearborn because they're too dumb to know the difference between a jihadist and an ordinary person going about their business.
Imam Rauf and his mosque are the latest and worst manifestation of this. None of us had ever heard of him before this summer, but now he's going on Larry King making veiled treats of violence if we don't let him build his mosque exactly where and how he demands. As a sign of unity and peace, of course. And, despite a nationwide consensus that such a mosque is wholly inappropriate, not to mention ghoulish, our potentates are moving heaven and earth to give Rauf everything he wants, even as these same leaders would deny Americans a choice in the salt in their food, the lightbulbs in their homes, and the health care they purchase. We've come a long way from the days of a resolute Bush, or an ash-covered Giuliani, that's for sure. Even George Pataki could rise to the occasion. Does anyone think David Paterson could do the same?
9/11 has not really been a "tea party" touchstone, but it could be. The 30% of Americans who are presently running the country on behalf of the 70% are certainly determined that we "forget" or at least remember it on their terms - as another opportunity to don the hairshirt of American "crimes" like poverty and inequality. All I can say is: never again.
