...passion of the moment...

The following is a response to a local column in my hometown newspaper which in so many words blamed--by agreeing with the Reverend Wright--the US for bringing down 9/11 on itself, and said that America is lost, can't think for itself, and that our alliances (especially with Israel), our behaviour, our commercialism, etc., piss Islamist extremists off, and that their agendas are clearer than ours. The column falls just short of condoning the attack. My answer was quickly written (maybe a couple of hours) and maybe more passionate than cerebral, but I let it ride. What ran in the paper was a snippet that didn't do justice to the issue. Here is the whole shmear:

05/05/08

Editor;

The suggestion that the attacks of 9/11 were even remotely justified is not only misguided but dangerous▬and implying in so many words that the murder of thousands of innocent and unsuspecting, hardworking civilians was brought upon themselves by their own behavior as free Americans, is grievous. Coming out of the mouth of Jeremiah Wright▬whose use of rage and invective as a tool for raising consciousness, in this more liberal age has largely outlived it’s validity as an instrument of reform▬it is surprising that this sort of arbitrary judgement evidently maintains its effectiveness among those who should know better, yet who insist on forwarding it as exegesis toward those who are perversely receptive to such calumny (There’s some truth to be found in Wright’s ranting, Sunday, 05/04/08). Senator Obama as a public servant might be in the peculiar position of having to take Wright seriously, but there can’t be a rational human being either Black or White who isn’t shrugging him and his rants off at this moment in American history. The “blues” as political lament have become tiresome to everybody; the senator couldn’t have been the only one sleeping through those sermons, although that only makes him guilty of being in the same league with most American males.

And as of last notice, Osama bin Laden, who orchestrated the attacks of 9/11, had not been conferred with the chairmanship of any government with an international agenda nor any significant religious or cultural group except for a frenzied minority whose chief aim seems to be the murder of innocent people, including a good many of their own blood. Buying the lives of vulnerable young men with nothing to lose, with promises of seven virgin wives in heaven (or that sort of thing) hardly seems the work of a leader or a statesman, or of a creditable minister of God, of somebody with a rational expectation for the future of those he professes to have concerns for.

At the heart of every great religion (including Islam) are grounds for an intractable but benignant individualism that adheres to the faith that if “I,” “You,” or “He,” become a better person, not only I and you and he but the whole world will benefit from it. We see nothing of that in the actions nor the words of Al-Quaida, whose appetite for taking lives and the reasons for it have gone far beyond “spurious” to criminal. And if even plausibility, for egs., the health generally of other Islamists, was ever articulated by that bunch at some point, it was unintelligible (and laughable coming from those who espouse the oppression of women under a hideous, medieval orthodoxy where even execution is possible for minor social mis-steps) to those of us who were paying attention.

To put American motives: the spread of democracy and free markets, popular access to medicine and personal security, etc.▬in the same class with those of Islamic extremists: the complete annihilation of others including Islamists who do not believe as they do, is not only ludicrous, but sad.

And using physical law as a rationalization for the horrors that monsters of bin Ladin’s ilk commit, is over-reaching. Associating WWII (and presumably the rise of Hitler) to Diocletian policies defines “cause and effect” too broadly to retain any meaning of it. The quest for power and the effects of its use appear to be self-generated and more or less a consequence of individual fates, and of coincidence▬a roll of the dice. Humanity in dire need is a Petri dish not only for (the cultivation of*) saviours, but for psycopaths who seem to appear sane under those conditions. Osama bin Laden apparently responds (as can be suspected Hitler did) to the same kind of voice that Son Of Sam did. It’s not every country that is blessed with a Ghandi. The physical world raining down and spinning through time and space is indifferent to what we as men do to each other, good or bad. It is men who should care about the lot of other men; and Americans have always shown that they do: the fact that an almost identical number of Jews (a highly persecuted group as we all know) live in the U.S. as do in Israel is one example that attests to this.

Putting aside religious, historical and demographic kinships▬although some may argue, Israel alone of the Middle Eastern countries does not fund nor sponsor or shield terrorists nor carries out acts of terrorism against innocent civilians of other nations. Israel’s efforts towards economic and political (i.e., peaceful) self-sufficiency could serve as a model of democracy to the rest who are manifestly bent on it’s total destruction without bothering to offer an acceptable explanation as to why this should be so. America’s “unyielding support” of Israel is hardly “ill-considered” and far from “ridiculous.” There is more than a passing suspicion throughout the world that if not for American influence over Israel, much of the Middle East would be in danger of becoming little more than a mound of ashes. Because up to now, despite continued atrocities by its enemies committed upon its (Israel’s) treasured population, Israel has been nothing if not restrained. Americans’ admiration for those relatively few who stand their ground against terrific odds as gallant sentries to what at least 2 billion people consider the most sacred soil on earth, is no big mystery; American love for the Jewish people that live here in this country and in Israel should not have to be explained.

And America is light years from itself being destroyed, from within or from without. “The same, warmed-over, failed liberal policies,” the platform of the “loyal opposition” (if you will) who has spearheaded the fight for the cultural, political and economic growth of our ethnic populations and of women, who once helped save countless young lives by in effect stopping a fruitless war; and has tried to feed the homeless and the hungry, heal the sick and the victimized▬will still be here to at least try to ensure that when the leaders of this nation make sweeping commitments in the interests of its citizens, they will have the “consent of the governed,” who have not yet lost their ability (Thank you very much!) to think for themselves.

* the only addition I made for this blog.

Noe.