Yesterday was September 10th, 2010. It was Rosh Hashanah, the Jewish New Year. There was prayer and joy and talk of hope for a better future.
Tomorrow is September 12th. The National Football League begins the 2010 season with 15 games. There will be joy and celebration among many Americans across the nation.
Yet today, sandwiched in the middle of all these positive vibes, is the specter of September 11th.
http://www.bostonherald.com/news/opinion/op_ed/view/20100911radical_islam_winning_clash_of_civilizations/
http://www.nypost.com/p/news/opinion/editorials/beyond_mourning_qPqXGbgFcDbaohqpCCSDEK
I have tried to “move on.” I can’t.
Every time I see those towers come down, I well up with rage.
I was just at Ground Zero a few days ago. I was also at the Ground Zero Mosque.
3000 of my fellow New Yorkers were murdered on that day.
The American way of life was attacked. Everything we believe in as creatures of God and lovers of liberty was under assault.
For those who want to understand why the Radical Islamists did this, it really is that simple.
They hate us.
They hate us because we are free.
They hate us because we are a beacon to the world. We provide freedom and liberty.
I said in 2002 and then again when I began blogging in 2007 that the way to fight back was to live our lives.
I fly every 9/11. I try to fly into or out of New York. I try to be in the air at 8:46am.
I stay calm, but inside I am shaking my fist. Third world genocidal Islamofascist lunatics decided that they prefer barbarism to civilization. They waged war on America.
Americans are a peaceful people. We hate war. Yet when the chips are down, Americans…and New Yorkers…will fight to protect what is decent and right in this world.
I will be beginning the day in New York. I will be flying from New York to Chicago, changing planes, and ending up in Omaha, Nebraska.
I will then drive an hour to Onawa, Iowa.
A multi-thousand person rally called “Freedomstock” will be taking place.
After the rally I will be driving from Onawa, Iowa, back to Omaha, Nebraska.
I will then be flying in the evening from Omaha to Denver, changing planes, and then finally landing in Los Angeles.
On most days I prefer that the airplanes be half-empty. It provides me more room.
On 9/11, I want every plane packed to capacity. If that means I sit in the middle seat in the back row, then so be it.
When we fly, we are free. Some people have not flown since 9/11. I pray that these people one day spread their wings and fly again.
I cannot think of a more appropriate way to spend 9/11 then to fly coast to coast and stop in the heartland.
From New York to Chicago to Iowa to Nebraska to Denver to Los Angeles, I will salute soldiers, thank police officers, firefighters and emergency medical technicians, embrace friends, shake the hands of new ones, and play a small role in helping preserve the American way of life.
Days before he left office, in his final televised address to the nation, President George W. Bush said, “Many of you went back to leading normal lives after 9/11. I never did.”
I never did either. I have tried, but that world is gone forever.
I cannot picture 9/11 without picturing remarks that President Bush made on 9/14. He picked up that bullhorn, and next to that firefighter, said “I hear you, the rest of the world hears you, and the people who knocked down these buildings are going to hear from all of us!”
Most importantly, I hear President Bush on 9/20, when he spoke to the nation. He delivered a message that should be replayed every day for as long as America lives.
“We will not falter, and we will not fail.”
Whatever one believes, today is a day to acknowledge that on one awful day, evil triumphed over good.
The final chapter of 9/11 has not been written yet. After 9/11, Americans of all stripes dug down deep and showed the world our very best.
Rudy Giuliani became “America’s Mayor,” and New York showed why it is comprised of the best people in this world. If any city represents the character of the best of the globe, it is New York.
From Brooklyn to Staten Island and Queens, people stood solidly with Manhattan. From Los Angeles to Australia and New Zealand, we were all New Yorkers.
Yet too many people went back to normal.
We have lives to lead. Yet we must never forget that day in 2001.
Freedom is not free. People have died for it. Those alive must fight to protect it.
On this day, our greatest responsibility is to again dig down deep, find out the best of what we are made of, and do whatever it takes…yes, whatever it takes…no matter what the cost…to give future generations what Ronald Reagan called this shining city on a hill called America.
So many people are doing much more important things than me. I am doing my small little part.
Radical Islam struck the first blow, but I know the character of the American people. I will bet on America…especially my fellow New Yorkers…every single time.
From coast to coast, and deep into the heartland, I am prepared to be one of many people who will remind the world one simple message.
These colors don’t run.
I am ready to fly.
God bless the U.S.A., now and forever.
eric
Lets roll
“For those who want to understand why the Radical Islamists did this, it really is that simple.
They hate us.
They hate us because we are free.
They hate us because we are a beacon to the world. We provide freedom and liberty.”
Oh brother. Here we go again. Every year I read and hear this nonsense, and every year our collective IQ goes down another point.
They don’t care about our “freedom” and “liberty” (we’re not all that free anyway), they don’t care about whether we’re a “beacon to the world” (for much of the world, we are not). They struck us because we made ourselves an easy and obvious target for terroristic demagogues to make a unifying enemy for their cause – to remake some great Mohammedan Empire that never really was anyway. Just like our conservatives here today, these “Islamist” schucks want to bring back a past that never was and acheive glory and power through fear.
Anyone who thinks otherwise is a sucker and exactly the reason the terrorists attacked us in the first place – because they knew we’d react so stupidly, exactly how they wanted.
JMJ
Heh, Jersy talks about “collective IQ” and all hes does is march to the liberal mantra of “were not that free” and the rest of his moonbattery only to be concluded with his opinion that anyone not in lockstep with his idiocy is an idiot.
Classic
“because they knew we’d react so stupidly, exactly how they wanted.”
As a matter of fact moron we tolerated many attcacks before we finally decided to bitch slap them into a frenzy.
Be nice for once if you got off your f***ing high horse and told them that they picked a fight with the wrong dude.
This is not the day for your “Americas fault” bullsht. Have some class for a day at least
Micky, I’m being as “nice” as I can be. I’m really sick and tired of you conservatives whining and moaning over 9/11. You made us a target, you reacted in exactly the way the terrorists wanted, you still whine and moan to this day – NINE friggin’ years later with no end in sight and still can’t see the error of your ways. This isn’t about “fault.” This is about acting like the grown-up in a room full of reactionary adolescents.
JMJ
“Micky, I’m being as “nice” as I can be. ”
Coming from you that doesnt say alot.
“I’m really sick and tired of you conservatives whining and moaning over 9/11.”
Tough sht.
” You made us a target, you reacted in exactly the way the terrorists wanted, you still whine and moan to this day ”
Right, we made ourselves a target. I’d just love to see you make that argument coherantlly anf factually. You cant. Any effort would render me placing your a$$ in your hands.
Thats like saying the good looking chick that got raped asked for it.
You’re an a$$hole.
” NINE friggin’ years later with no end in sight and still can’t see the error of your ways.”
You know, if it werent for your moniker you’d sound just like a radical Islamic terrorist ?
” This isn’t about “fault.” This is about acting like the grown-up in a room full of reactionary adolescents.”
Right, hey, dipsht, I got news for you.
You have absolutely not one bit of business calling anyone “adolescent” or “reactionary”
The crap you place on your blog is about as predictably infantile and knee jerk like a freeking bobby soxer in heat.
Oh, by the way you self conflicting moron. If its not about fault then stopping placing all the fault on everyone except those responsible.
DUH <3
if you really wanted to be “as nice as you can be”
Take the day off and shut the hell up
If I was being as nice as I can be, I’d remind you guys that 9/11 was a tragic day, not an excuse for hyper-nationalistic vitriol.
JMJ
So, you’re not being as nice as you can be ?
Whether you like it or not this a day that many Americans set aside as a testimonial to their lost loved ones and the nations grief you insensitive a$$hole.
Just save your dismissive idiocy for some other day you classless prick.
By your asinine logic we should just sht can all days of remeberance ?
D day ?
I guess that was our fault too ?
Pearl Harbor ? After all, we did make ourselves an easy target, didnt we ?
You’re amazing. You pontificate yourself as a student of history yet when we choose to keep moments in history alive by any other means than your stupid renditions were all being adolescents and reactionary jerks.
You’ve really topped your usual idiot self today, really.
That includes your asinine attack on Eric over at your blog.
The bile is actually tickling my throat right now
JMJ;
” hyper-nationalistic vitriol.”
See here
http://www.nydailynews.com/ny_local/2009/09/11/2009-09-11_mourners_gather_at_ground_zero_to_remember_victims_of_september_11_attacks.html
My buddys wife died on flight 93
guess she made herself an easy target too.
Christine Snyder, 32, of Aikahi Park in Kailua, Hawaii, was an arborist who worked for Outdoor Circle, a forestry organization. She had married Ian Pescaia 3 months ago. “People like that don’t come along every day,” he told the Honolulu Star-Bulletin. “I hope the president steps up and does the right thing and asks no questions and takes no prisoners. These people are all dead for nothing.”
Jersey, This has to be good… how did “we”, as in conservatives, make us a target? What were the errors of our ways? And how does a grown-up act in a roomful of reactionary adolescents?
I’ve lived with Muslims in Iraq and in Afghanistan. Some of them seem to be great people. Many of them follow the strict guidelines of the Islamic faith, and that takes discipline. But in preparation for Eid El Fitr, many of the Afghans were excited about the “boy toys” they could share after a month of celibacy…now, I may have a log in my eye, but they’re nothing like the splinters people get from straddling the fence on whether it was “right” or “wrong” to murder thousands of Americans who just happened to be in a building…
Sometimes the adult needs to knock out the reactionary adolescents. Sometimes the adult needs to knock them off. And, turning this back around on me isn’t going to fly… Ghandi, MLK, and Mother Theresa were great people and will get their “just rewards”, but they didn’t build nations to be protected. The camel’s nose is already under the tent, and no matter how often or how loudly people scream that this is not about a War against Islam, they need to look at it from the other perspective and truly know that it is, indeed, an Islamist’s War against the infidels…it will be fought through deceit, attrition, birthing Islamic babies 4 to 1, and by using our own logic and desire for peaceful negotiations against us. Sneer at me now, but look at where “we” were 10 years ago…and look at where we are now…change is upon us…and I’m not talking about the kind our current administration can keep…