Where did we go wrong?
In a post 9-11 world, we seem to be under attack -
but are we under attack by Terrorists or by forces from within?
First, let me state my position - I chose to become a US Citizen. In
the tradition of American history, I am an immigrant who went through
the incredibly tortuous and drawn out process needed to become a citizen
and I finally made it. I love America and want nothing to harm it and
will, to the best of my ability, defend it with my life.
Which America?
The "America" I wanted to live in was a country that was
brash and wild and mildly scary. It covered the New England style in the
North East and the golden beaches (and blondes!) in Southern California.
It contained the Wild West of Texas and the frozen reaches of
Alaska. But the real attraction of "America" was its
people. Americans were known as wide eyed children wandering around the
world sight seeing and not knowing the basic rules of Europe. Never look
anyone in the eye, don't attract attention, don't be friendly.
That was "civilized" behavior in the "Old
World" and the naive Americans just didn't know and
understand. They were friendly, talkative and happily awed by the
age of everything and its "history".
When I finally made it over here, I discovered something else, they
were open hearted, prepared to take you at face value and incredibly
generous. Exactly the opposite of the "civilized" Old World.
It was a serious culture shock but I made it through.
America also had one thing that nowhere else seems to have - a
culture in which winning is everything. From Little League to Business
its a war to win. If one enters a contest, the ONLY reason is to win and
everyone in the family is recruited to make it happen.
Its taken me a while to get over the old English aphorism "Its
not whether you win, its how you play the game that matters". Its
simply not true in America - winning is the first, last and everything
in between - who cares how you played if you don't win?
That attitude permeates everything in the USA. When we lose it
damages our national confidence and we go through periods of self
analysis and negative comparisons.
Even politics - something that in Europe is viewed as an amusing
spectacle of lunatic proportions by the populace - is very serious here
and, again, winning is everything. When a side loses, it almost dies of
apoplexy. The rage is amazing to an outsider and sends many away shaking
their heads at the crazy Americans.
Despite all this, Americans are naturally open hearted and
friendly. That's the spirit that built the USA - despite the bad
things that were done to minorities.
The Nay Sayers
There is a faction in American Society that compares everything
American unfavorably with somewhere else. "Japanese schools are
better." "Europeans are culturally more advanced."
That's true in every society and one just needs to take them with a
grain of salt. It only become dangerous when people set themselves up as
Oracles of Truth and claim to be trying to save America from destruction
unless you do it their way.
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Its even more destructive when they claim
Divine Authority and insist that God told them to tell you. These are
the voices that will lead us all to destruction. Its EXACTLY that method
used by the Mullahs to drive the Muslims into committing suicide in an
act of terrorism.
The actual terrorists are just people who were indoctrinated from
birth by these maniacal "Voices of God" and become incapable
of thinking their way out.
We have our own - they become bombers of Abortion Clinics, assassins
of Doctors, people who blow up Federal Buildings. And who indoctrinates
them? We have our own "Voices from God" from the Aryan Nations
Church to fundamentalist preachers raging against "issues".
These people are extremists - they are the source of danger to us
all. It is extremism that drives what would otherwise be a calm society
into a frenzy of rage against some external force. Its the same
technique used by the Nazis against the Jews and Eastern Europeans and
provided justification for the extermination camps.
We cannot allow it here
We cannot, must not, dare not allow any leader, priest, pastor,
government to create the kind of society in which extremist views become
the norm.
Right now, our government is using the events of 9 11 to try and
create a continuous atmosphere of suspicion and fear. Rather than
rebuild our confidence as winners - they are telling us we could lose. A
statement that pre 9 11 all Americans would have treated as laughable.
Well, let me make a statement that many would disagree with. WE DID
NOT LOSE ON 911. WE WON.
How can I say that when we lost thousands? Let me explain...
We won because they are so afraid of us that they had to try and
destroy a symbol of our power. Winners don't have to resort to
acts of terror to do that.
We won because most of the people in the World Trade Center escaped
and the incredible heroism of New York's Firefighters and Police was an
example of American community.
We won because of the incredible generosity of ordinary people to the
victims even if our charitable institutions couldn't handle it.
But, despite all that, our "Voices of God" rage against the
"Evils of Islam" mirroring the cries of the "Great
Satan" by the Mullahs and our government creates institutions and
policies designed to instill fear into our hearts.
Its no longer acceptable, according to the new extremists, to take
people at face value, we need to examine all neighbors of darker skin
and foreign accents to make sure they aren't terrorists. We need
to "sweep" young people - students, refugees and people of
"suspicious" origins to make sure they aren't secretly
building nuclear devices.
These actions are aimed at destroying the American Psyche. Stop
Ashcroft and Ridge from making you afraid. We are WINNERS - we don't
need to be convinced we can lose.
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