The naysayers are beginning to find their voice again. It was only a matter of time. After enduring what must have been an agonizing several weeks of flag waving, patriotism and general good feeling in this country, the anti-American crowd is desperate to make us understand that a bunch of nut cases flying airplanes into tall buildings and killing innocent people is somehow our fault. Only in America!
The height – or depth – of USA-bashing came from Bill Maher of ABC’s “Politically Incorrect.” From the safety of his studio in Los Angeles, some 3000 miles from ground zero in New York, he described the United States as “cowards” and the terrorists as “courageous.” He later clarified his comments by saying our soldiers weren’t cowards, just our government. Gosh, I’m glad he cleared that up. I feel better already! If reincarnation really happens, I hope this self-important snob comes back as a bug so I can have the pleasure of squashing him.
Frankly, I am kind of glad the naysayers are making a comeback because they are proving a point they would just as soon not make. This nation they think has so much wrong with it protects their right to trash it. Ironic, isn’t it? Many countries would cut off the protesters’ noses and feed them to the pigs. We choose to hold our noses and listen.
If naiveté were anthrax, we would all be dead by now. The naysayers need to leave their dream world more often because they show an abysmal amount of ignorance about the world. Terrorists are genuinely bad people who want to destroy us. They only understand brute force. They will be back to blow up more buildings or poison our water supply or spread God knows what kind of disease on loyalists and dissenters alike. We have no choice but to root them out and be rid of them. Although some people can’t accept the notion, now and then the majority knows what is best for the country. In this case, the majority is tired of living under a constant terroristic threat. We are demanding that our government stop it once and for all.
I would respectfully suggest the naysayers quit worrying about face time on CNN and go down to Camden County or up to Union County or over to Madison County or into Monroe County and make their case with Middle America. Tell the rest of us face-to-face what is wrong with us and with our country. Convince us the United States is the only country that has ever committed a wrong in pursuit of its policies. Tell us about all the other countries that have something akin to our Peace Corps. List the countries that have a culture of citizen volunteering like the United States. Give us the names of other nations that work harder at equality for all of its citizens. Yes, we fall short but at least we keep trying. Give us your suggestions on what you would do to stop terrorism in the United States but be willing to have your opinions questioned because I guarantee you, there will be questions.
You are going to be asked about your insistence that innocent people not be killed. That doesn’t resonate real well right now with us, because you haven’t talked much about the innocent people we lost. War is not neat and war is not pretty. In fact, to quote a subject matter expert, William Tecumseh Sherman, war is hell. But if we wanted to deliberately kill innocent people, we would do like the terrorists and wipe out a bunch of them. Instead, we will do as General Norman Schwarzkopf said we did in the Gulf War; we will put our own soldiers at risk to avoid taking innocent lives. Be sure and tell us all the other countries that make that kind of effort.
So, keep it up, naysayers, because your babbling reminds us all of just how odious free speech can be at times and that only great democracies allow your kind of dissent when we need unity. Our tolerance is one of the qualities that make us unique. And we will go to war to preserve your right to try and make us feel bad about ourselves and to make cowards seem courageous. Only in America!
Leave a Reply