Samizdata

Carla Howell seems to have made a major breakthrough. She will be in the Massachusetts Governor’s Debate. It’s going to be awfully hard to ignore her after this (from her press release):

“Carla Howell is in the October 1 Governor’s Debate. ABC, CBS, NBC, and New England Cable News TV. The Boston Globe. The Boston Herald. The Worcester Telegram & Gazette. It will be simulcast on the internet. Moderated by CNN’s Judy Woodruff. Shannon O’Brien, the Democratic nominee for Governor, and Mitt Romney, the Republican nominee for Governor, will both debate Carla Howell face-to-face.”

After she’s done with Boston Tea Party II, could we talk her into throwing one over here too?

Glenn Reynolds links to an an article on the anti-jewish riots at Concordia University in Canada. The Board of Governors are apparently gutless wonders who don’t remember World War II. They have not yet (to my knowledge) punished the rioters for attempting physical harm against the persons of elderly holocaust survivors.

I don’t have Windows here (I won’t either!) so I can’t actually view this video myself. Regardless, I’ve heard enough descriptions of the incident to wish I had been there just to kick some Nazi arse like my daddy’s generation did. They may call themselves Palestinian sympathizers: but if it looks like a Nazi and acts like a Nazi… perhaps it is a Nazi. After all, Mein Kampf has been selling briskly in the Middle East…

Am I mad? You bet. Anyone who tries this kind of crap in my presence, will get hurt.

I have finally, at last, got my all-you-can-eat-at-no-extra-cost adsl www connection, and am finally free to go awandering and not be frightened of getting too interested.

The best story I have found so far on my travels has been this from Asparagirl last Thursday, about a ship with a dirty bomb on board, or maybe just some mildly radioactive ceramic tiles, ready to destroy New York on the anniversary of you know what, or maybe just add some tiles to it. Don’t miss the comments. (And I do love comments. Where would Samizdata have been on 9/11/02 without them?)

My take is: it was perhaps a fuss about nothing, but it was still a fuss, and it is depressing to me – as it was to Asparagirl – how completely governments can damp down media reports of such things, simply on account of the sheer volume of news that governments themselves generate and can accordingly threaten, selectively, to withhold.

Asparagirl noted that the big story they did go with that day was a washed-up half-dead whale. Said she scornfully: “Whoop-dee-doo.” Said one of her commenters, elbowing his way past conspiracy buffs, conspiracy phobes and bomb-making experts: “You’ve obviously never been downwind of a dead whale. It’s news, lemme tell you.”

Why do you repeat, time after time, that we are terrorized? We are not. As a people we grieve our dead; we wish life for ourselves and our loved ones, but we are not “terrorized”. Is it perhaps your own coping mechanism, your own cowardice?

Why do you repeat, time after time, that we feel vulnerable? We have always known that. Have you already forgotten all but the youngest adults among us grew up knowing holocaust was 15 minutes away, every minute, every day, every year of our lives? Is it perhaps a realization that you too could die that makes you cry out your cowardice in our name?

Why do you repeat, time after time, that we have lost our innocence? We have long known and lived with the nightmare that some day an American city would see a mushroom cloud in its’ center. However terrible and unexpected the events we have survived, they are as nothing to what we understand we will have to survive and overcome in the future. Is it perhaps your own ignorance or failure to believe the reality of those risks that make you appear as cowards in our eyes?

Why do you repeat, time after time, that we are uncertain about our future? We are not. We will overcome any attack, no matter how deadly, and we will have the resolve to punish those responsible, to hunt them down to the ends of the Earth and kill or imprison them, even if they are crippled old men by the time we find them. Is it your own short attention span that leaves you incapable of understanding that others might take on a task of decades? Is it another sign of your lack of moral fiber and perserverence?

We are none of the things you say in our name. It is your own mirrored image you speak and write of, not ours. Do not speak for me. I am an American; I am proud of that fact; I grieve for my dead and I feel pride in the bravery and spirit and individualism shown by our heroes of that day… but I do not cower in fear and neither do my fellow countrymen.

Silence your fear-palpitated hearts and palsied hands. Listen to our voice. Listen to our spirit and share our strength….but never again tell us we are afraid or uncertain.

First, let me extend a truly heart felt thank you to people all over the world who shared a moment of silence today. As Perry’s pictorial post shows, although the loss was centered on America, the grief and the support is global.

One of the things they teach in the modern American corporate culture is Franklin Covey’s Seven Habits of Highly Effective People. Habit number 5 is Seek First to Understand, Then to be Understood. Over this past year, I have struggled to apply that habit to the September 11 attacks. Albeit simplistic, this is so far the best I could come up with.

It came to me this morning as a local radio station played some school children reciting the Pledge of Allegiance, which ends “with Liberty and Justice for all.” That in a nutshell is what America is all about. A fact verified by the millions of immigrants who arrive destitute on her shores and build a life of peace and prosperity within her borders. And that, in a nutshell, is what her enemies hate. It is not just that we own color TVs, drive big cars and live in relative peace in nice houses. It is that ANYONE, regardless of race, color, creed, sex, political inclination or background, ANYONE who comes here can, with a little effort, share that same life.

These terrorists know in their hearts they can never contribute anything positive to the world and instead hate all those who try. Like the vandal with a sledgehammer defacing a statue, they have decided it is easier to destroy than create. Instead of swearing allegiance to a nation that values its citizens, they swear allegiance to a crazed individual who lashes out at the world to fulfill a personal vendetta.

What they have yet to realize is that reducing tall buildings to rubble and snuffing out innocent lives does not make a profound political statement. But it does speak volumes about the tiny, hateful, cowardly minds that conceived of and carried out the destruction. Evil minds that, once eradicated, the world will neither long remember nor ever lament.

I’m in a serious state of sleep deprivation and it is all the fault of the Internet for supplying such incredible information. I’ve been on the net since the 70’s and I still have a sense of wonder at it all. I sometimes feel I am living in the Science Fiction novels of my youth.

This item on the history, archaeology and conservation at Pearl Harbour is absolutely guaranteed to keep any naval history buff up for the night.

There is a more serious side as well. This quote, found in the above referenced document, is something for our enemies to consider well and long as we approach a solemn day of remembrance:

“. . . viewed the United States as an essentially pacifistic nation, one that inevitably would sustain the first blow in any war. Once aroused by that shock, the nation could overcome virtually any obstacle to victory. Because of that characteristic, it was unavoidable — even necessary, in Preis’ view — that this nation suffer the initial defeat at Pearl Harbor. He meant his design for the memorial to be a reminder to Americans of the inevitability of sustaining the initial defeat, of the potential for victory, and the sacrifices necessary to make the painful journey from defeat to victory” – Michael Slackman

We will never forget. There will be wreaths laid on a Pennsylvania field for centuries if not millennia into the future.

In a thousand years there will be those among the stars who trace their ancestry to America as Americans do to England. As the history of England is an inseparable part of American history, so too will the terrible events of last year – and of December 7th, 1941 – be part of the soul of those who come after us.