Anonymous
09-12-2001, 12:01 PM
After 24 hours of news coverage, I have a lot to say. I'm gonna say it and I'm not gonna edit it. I hope some of it makes sense.
Under normal circumstances, on this, a Wednesday morning--right this very minute-- I'd be at my desk, studying for the Course 5 exam. But obviously, in light of the Tuesday's events, to even think of doing so would be nothing less than an insult to the memory of those who died and a slap in the face to the families and to the nation as a whole. Rather than trying to cram more useless lists into my head, I think what America needs today, far more than my knowledge of the fine points of pension funding methods, is a dose of perspective.
Tuesday was a total wake-up call.
None of you on this board have know me.
Like a lot of us, I showed up on the net four or five years ago, and thanks to my ability to spew venom in an amusing manner and (occasionally) to analyze things, I've managed to attain some level of visibility on a few other fora.
For the last few years, I've been apathetic and apolitical. I argue it with people, I'd bash Clinton or Gore, but since I got out of school in '92 and started chasing the benjamins, I really couldn't have given less of a d*mn. Today, all of that changes. I've felt stirrings as I sat and watched the news that I haven't felt in years.
It wasn't that long ago that I was a very different animal. I used to be a hard-core political type. I worked on campaigns from President to the Nebraska Unicameral. It wasn't for power or glory. It was because I used to care enough to want to make a difference. I used to have a tad-bit of idealism. I used to think, from time to time, of how much I had and give thanks for the fact that this nation has provided us with so much freedom and so much opportunity, and the relative security to take advantage of both--that a lot of us have attained things beyond the imaginations of our ancestors when they first hit the shores of Ellis Island over a century ago.
And in return, this country asks d*mned little of us. Pay your taxes. Vote. Teach your kids the Pledge of Alliegance, and if you're inclined, be a good neighbor. A lot of folks really don't do much more than that. But I was always taught that if you have the ability to do more, and the opportunity arises, that you need to step the hell up.
My generation has had it easy. We haven't had to fight WW II or choose Canada or Vietnam. We've had Grenada, and we've had Kuwait. Any by this day and age, war has evolved into a push-button, high-tech Tom Clancy kind of thing. Even if we weren't rapidly hitting the point where we're too old to go, the nature of warfare is such that we likely won't be needed in the same way that we might have 20 years ago.
We may not be called upon to carry rifles or take beaches. So we have to find other ways to step up.
Reasonable men can differ on how we wound up in a posture that would allow a thing like today to happen. It's easy to blame the intelligence community--and frankly, I think some of it has to go on their door--yet, the Israelis, who have the most sophisticated and clocked-in intelligence network on Earth, didn't even know that this was coming. We could blame Clinton or Congress for slashing military budgets and leaving our armed forces and our intelligence community a mere shell of what it was in the 80's--but there is some merit to the argument that the end of the Cold War changed our priorities. And anyway--this isn't the time for pointing fingers. This is a time to pull together.
We should all blame ourselves. We need to be a better-informed, more-involved citizenry. We need to hold our leaders--whatever party they may be--accountable for bad decisions. We need to understand the issues that underly our country's policy--particularly foreign and military policy. We need to quit electing folks who don't have the will to make the tough, unpopular decisions. We could've gone after these *******s long ago. We have the resources. Don't tell me we don't know where Osama Bin Laden is hiding--if JFK Junior could find him to interview him, I;m pretty sure a SEAL team could find his a$$. We just don't want to risk the diplomatic fallout. We could've finished off Saddam Hussein ten years ago--but we were afraid of the world community (like, ahem, the french) disapproving of our actions. I could give a million other examples, but I'm hoping you all get the point by now.
It's time for all of us to quit turning our back on politics, government and the issues that face our nation. Jefferson once said that an ignorant people cannot long remain free--to that effect. We've gotten so accustomed to things being blissful and status quo in this country that a lot of us don't feel like we have to care. I know that for involved as I used to be, I've been a miserable piker of a citizen since roughly July of 1992. But the events of this day should be enough to show us all that now, more than ever, we have to care. We have to be committed. We have to pledge ourselves to do whatever we can to ensure that the things that happened to our nation today never happen again--and, more important, that we don't end up sacrificing our open society and our way of life as the trade-in.
This is not a partisan rant. Whatever party you are, when it comes to the security of this nation and our neighbors, just as it was for so many years, our differences must end at the water's edge.
If you already care, put it into action. And if you've been sleeping for the last however many years, give a d*mn.
Hold Congressmen and Senators accountable. It has to be about more than who produces the better commercial.
Under normal circumstances, on this, a Wednesday morning--right this very minute-- I'd be at my desk, studying for the Course 5 exam. But obviously, in light of the Tuesday's events, to even think of doing so would be nothing less than an insult to the memory of those who died and a slap in the face to the families and to the nation as a whole. Rather than trying to cram more useless lists into my head, I think what America needs today, far more than my knowledge of the fine points of pension funding methods, is a dose of perspective.
Tuesday was a total wake-up call.
None of you on this board have know me.
Like a lot of us, I showed up on the net four or five years ago, and thanks to my ability to spew venom in an amusing manner and (occasionally) to analyze things, I've managed to attain some level of visibility on a few other fora.
For the last few years, I've been apathetic and apolitical. I argue it with people, I'd bash Clinton or Gore, but since I got out of school in '92 and started chasing the benjamins, I really couldn't have given less of a d*mn. Today, all of that changes. I've felt stirrings as I sat and watched the news that I haven't felt in years.
It wasn't that long ago that I was a very different animal. I used to be a hard-core political type. I worked on campaigns from President to the Nebraska Unicameral. It wasn't for power or glory. It was because I used to care enough to want to make a difference. I used to have a tad-bit of idealism. I used to think, from time to time, of how much I had and give thanks for the fact that this nation has provided us with so much freedom and so much opportunity, and the relative security to take advantage of both--that a lot of us have attained things beyond the imaginations of our ancestors when they first hit the shores of Ellis Island over a century ago.
And in return, this country asks d*mned little of us. Pay your taxes. Vote. Teach your kids the Pledge of Alliegance, and if you're inclined, be a good neighbor. A lot of folks really don't do much more than that. But I was always taught that if you have the ability to do more, and the opportunity arises, that you need to step the hell up.
My generation has had it easy. We haven't had to fight WW II or choose Canada or Vietnam. We've had Grenada, and we've had Kuwait. Any by this day and age, war has evolved into a push-button, high-tech Tom Clancy kind of thing. Even if we weren't rapidly hitting the point where we're too old to go, the nature of warfare is such that we likely won't be needed in the same way that we might have 20 years ago.
We may not be called upon to carry rifles or take beaches. So we have to find other ways to step up.
Reasonable men can differ on how we wound up in a posture that would allow a thing like today to happen. It's easy to blame the intelligence community--and frankly, I think some of it has to go on their door--yet, the Israelis, who have the most sophisticated and clocked-in intelligence network on Earth, didn't even know that this was coming. We could blame Clinton or Congress for slashing military budgets and leaving our armed forces and our intelligence community a mere shell of what it was in the 80's--but there is some merit to the argument that the end of the Cold War changed our priorities. And anyway--this isn't the time for pointing fingers. This is a time to pull together.
We should all blame ourselves. We need to be a better-informed, more-involved citizenry. We need to hold our leaders--whatever party they may be--accountable for bad decisions. We need to understand the issues that underly our country's policy--particularly foreign and military policy. We need to quit electing folks who don't have the will to make the tough, unpopular decisions. We could've gone after these *******s long ago. We have the resources. Don't tell me we don't know where Osama Bin Laden is hiding--if JFK Junior could find him to interview him, I;m pretty sure a SEAL team could find his a$$. We just don't want to risk the diplomatic fallout. We could've finished off Saddam Hussein ten years ago--but we were afraid of the world community (like, ahem, the french) disapproving of our actions. I could give a million other examples, but I'm hoping you all get the point by now.
It's time for all of us to quit turning our back on politics, government and the issues that face our nation. Jefferson once said that an ignorant people cannot long remain free--to that effect. We've gotten so accustomed to things being blissful and status quo in this country that a lot of us don't feel like we have to care. I know that for involved as I used to be, I've been a miserable piker of a citizen since roughly July of 1992. But the events of this day should be enough to show us all that now, more than ever, we have to care. We have to be committed. We have to pledge ourselves to do whatever we can to ensure that the things that happened to our nation today never happen again--and, more important, that we don't end up sacrificing our open society and our way of life as the trade-in.
This is not a partisan rant. Whatever party you are, when it comes to the security of this nation and our neighbors, just as it was for so many years, our differences must end at the water's edge.
If you already care, put it into action. And if you've been sleeping for the last however many years, give a d*mn.
Hold Congressmen and Senators accountable. It has to be about more than who produces the better commercial.