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ONE YEAR LATER |
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 Andy Murcia is based in Sherman Oaks, CA |
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of TheColumnists.com
Everyone knows that what occurred on 9/11 was the event that brought us all together. Our great USA was attacked, and in true American tradition we all banded together. Regardless of anything else, we were Americans first.
For weeks and even months after 9/11 our flag was displayed everywhere and on everything. I saw a guy driving a tractor on a main road, holding up traffic for a mile, and not one horn sounded. The tractor driver had our flag on the back of his tee shirt. Sure, he was holding up traffic, but he was one of us--American!
We witnessed the leaders of the Democratic party posing for photos standing behind our Republican Pres. George W. Bush. We watched as our police and fire departments were consoled, honored, and our hearts went out to their loved ones as they were buried. We were reminded exactly what our police and fire department members did for us. They put it all on the line for all of us, and as a result, there are heartbroken married souls missing their soul mates, as well as children missing a parent. There was a newfound respect for fire and police personnel. This respect was not solely for the NYPD & NYFD; the good will and honors went out across the nation to all departments.
I never thought I would see the day that a con like Al Sharpton would stop bad mouthing cops, but he did, if only for a short while. But I knew he was just lying in the weeds until he thought the coast was clear. Well, Al’s back at it again, still feeding his big tummy high line chow, as he feeds yet another well meaning cop to the “slow news day” media.
But he’s not the only one. The other politicians are at it again, too. The Democrats are trying to figure out a way to knock down President Bush’s high approval rating, and the Republicans are trying to defend it. Somehow we kind of know that an election is not too far off. The argument rages on in the media: Should we put an end to the Hitler clone, Saddam Hussein, once and for all, or should we wait until he gets his nuke act together and blasts us first? You think the politicians would all stop and think about their conduct and how it makes us look in the eyes of the world. Let the politicians go behind closed doors to discuss sensitive issues, instead of in the media, at least until the war is over.
But the war is NOT over, we must cohere and maintain our resolve against the terrorists and be on guard for their sneak attacks.
Let's not show a divided profile to the world community during wartime. It makes my blood pressure rise when I see the Democrats' top headhunter’s, Sen. Tom “Find A Crack” Daschel, Joe “Cry Baby” Lieberman & Al “Dead Head” Gore, along with some others who go after our President Bush on a daily basis. Hoping to find a hole they can crawl through to lower his stature in hopes of winning a political job. How can these fellows be doing their jobs for which they were elected when they spend so much time nit-picking our President?
Wartime is not the time for this kind of crap! Why it’s nearly subversive if you ask me. Better they should all be thinking how to better protect America. They should be standing shoulder to shoulder with our President and present one undivided, strong face to those no good cowardly bastards who killed our people before, on, and after 9/11.
I know there are millions of us Americans who feel as I do, that we must stick together now. I mean, it’s only been a year, for God’s sake, and I see us coming apart. How quickly some forget and go back to “business as usual.” Surely, they must realize that when they knock our President it borders on giving aid and comfort to our enemy.
You’ve only to watch the daily news to see the politicians planting their Political Science 101 seeds, hoping to win this seat or that position. How insignificant this is when compared to our country being at war and our people risking their lives for us.
Can’t we remember what our bumper stickers said: “We will not forget"? Can’t we still remember how angry we all were on 9/11? And how bad we all wanted to go get those who perpetrated this tragedy upon us. It felt good, watching all our people become of one mind-set against our attackers. Why, I think everyone in the USA even loved each other, if only for a time! We had found a way to put all our differences behind us.
Well, guess what? I see American flags lying on the side of the Ventura freeway, bumper stickers peeling off, and we are all worrying about our dollar more than our lives. It’s politics as usual, and once again the public is led to think that cops are brutal dirt bags, and the bad joke about the only two people who earn a living in bed being firemen and hookers is back.
Like the old Righteous Brothers song says, “You’ve Lost That Loving Feeling.” Like it or not, all our differences are back in vogue. Once again we easily can find fault with one another. The financial crooks who “cooked the books” secretly under Clinton’s watch are only now being brought to justice under Bush’s watch before they tear down our economy all together. Seniors and others have had their pension funds raped by crooks and we see the bums now being forced to give the bucks back and led off in handcuffs.
On "Good Morning America" I watched three pilots' widows complain how United Airlines had docked their deceased husbands' paychecks because their flights on 9/11 were not completed. How they had to get the pilots' union after United in order to get the full paycheck. They told about their loss of discounted flying benefits from United, and I thought to myself how could a billion dollar airline forget these poor guys so soon?
And the bleeding hearts of our great USA are now out in force, with time on their hands to inquire and investigate how the USA could take prisoners out of a war zone, from a cold cave, without food or medical attention, and bring them to a warm climate like Cuba’s? The USA fed and gave medical treatment to these dangerous prisoners who would kill our people in a second while we Americans got to pay for their care with our hard-earned bucks. Won’t someone ask these fools who suffer greatly from idealism, which side they are on in this war?
The “bleeders” in Seattle protesting against our President on behalf of their main man Saddam Hussein and how we should not invade and check this guy's arsenal. They make no mention that this nuthead chased the U.N. inspectors out of Iraq every time they get close to his stash. The protesters don’t seem to care if he’s stalling until such a time as he has his nukes and chemical warfare game ready to spring on us. It does not sit well with me that these “Casper Milktoast” types invoke their right to protest their own country, while it’s at war yet, but especially as we still mourn the victim’s of 9/11. Shame on these protester’s! Somehow, it all smacks of Jane Fonda sitting on that commie tank many years ago.
Our mass media must choose up sides. As it appears now, their revenues are so far down that they will do anything to get ratings. Don’t they think the videotapes “left behind” were “planted” by the terrorists for us to find and broadcast? I believe that by our media broadcasting those tapes, they are bordering on issues of aiding and abetting the terrorists. The terrorists have a need to further train their operatives who live right here in the USA, and what better way to show these people how to make a bomb than by airing their videos. It’s psychological warfare when the enemy can display what they think will scare us. Even though we recognize it as a poor bluff consisting of low-grade weapons, why one of our big tamales would blow them off the planet. Wake up, folks; this isn’t Tokyo Rose broadcasting to us! This war could be the last one if we let these jerks get their hands on nukes. We’re talking about the killing of mass populations. What’s wrong with an “ounce of prevention” here?
Please, let's all get behind our President and help him make secure, as quickly as possible, our great USA. Once this is accomplished, we can go about settling any differences we may have, at a safer time.
We are fortunate to have this very experienced team of leaders in our White House during this time of war. Some of my lifelong Democratic friends said that to me after 9/11, and I couldn’t agree more. I trust that Mr. and Mrs. George Bush Sr. raised their son to lead, and lead us he is during perhaps one of the most perilous times in our country’s history. We have the very wise Donald Rumsfeld & Colin Powell, and with Dick Cheney, they are experience personified.
We need to stick together
not just for a year, but also until this war is over. Lets all
unite as after all, isn’t that how we first became the United
States? We owe this and much more to those lives that were taken
on 9/11, as well as to those lost in all our other wars that
have kept us free. Lets not “lose that lovin feeling.”
I, for one, was enjoying it so much.
© 2002 by Andy Murcia. The logo illustration is © 2001
by Jim Hummel.
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