A Moment To Reflect
September 11 2001 to January 20 2009
Category: Life
When I got up this morning I couldn’t help think of my mother and my father. She died in 1996, he died in 1966. I remember amid all the sorrow of September 11Th thinking that as much as I missed her I was happy she had not lived to see that day and I was glad that my father had not seen that attack first on New York, then on the Pentagon. They loved America and had a certain vision of what America was and of what it could be. They had great hope for America and that day was not one full of hope. Now with the inauguration of Barack Obama I am sorry they are not alive to see this day. I know they not only would have rejoiced, they would see what a triumph this represents for our nation. Mom in her verbose way that I inherited and Dad in his quiet manner that always baffled us. It says we are growing up. It says that the good Doctor King’s promise was coming to pass. That the day is dawning where the content of a person’s character rather than the color of their skin was how our body politic was passing judgment. What a moment to be alive.
I know that there are people out there who are indignant over the amount of money being spent from public AND private coffers to fund the celebration. I say to them this is a unique landmark and needs to be set apart as such. Besides, if we are going to all have to pull in our collective belts and buck it up for at the very least the next four years can’t we at least have this time to rejoice? Not that there won’t be times of rejoicing within the next four years but I’m thinking those times will be ones of personal triumphs, community progress, and a growing together that can be expressed without having to make a big ceremony about them.
by June Williams
V.P. Buzzy Multimedia
Perhaps not the best place for me to get up on my soap box, but I’m gonna.
I remember when the towers fell, and I watched the TV for two days straight. I lost family there. They were cousins I seldom saw, but knew, and became aware I would never see again. I am amazed by our country that we did not nuke them and how every man woman and child on 9/11 wanted action, and with the passing of time fingers began to point every which way. After the terrorist attacked, we turned on ourselves. WE assisted them by becoming a nation divided, we looked weak and perhaps we became weak.
George W. did not make the “mess” we currently are in. It was not something that began the day he took office and did not as suddenly end two days ago.
I hope that the current president will achieve one third of the campaign promises he made to get elected. I hope that he was elected for the content of his character and not the color of his skin. I have hear so many people cry out “we made it!” and yet there has not been a Jewish president, a woman president, a homosexual, Italian, Latino… you get my point.
I never bought into the whole “it takes a village to raise a child” school of thought; I feel it take a Mother and a Father. We cannot rely on the government to bail us out, the President has already said that only those people who have been unemployed for more than two years, and they cannot be a white construction worker. Umm, what up with that!
I am sorry for the loss of your parents, I am glad they only knew America as the proud super power it once was and this sorry, broken land it has become.
Ah Lomax ! Who exactly who would you have nuked? I remember a client coming into my office the week after the Towers were attacked FOR THE SECOND TIME. ( Why oh Why was our response so lame after the first bombing ) He said we should do what Americans do best. Blacktop it. Every square mile from Khartoum to Islamabad, from Yemen to Damascus. I understood the feeling and laughed at the thought with him. Laughed because before I could respond to his “cure” he had followed it up with saying “You’re going to tell me of all the innocents that will die with the guilty and I’m going to say so what?” He knew he was being over-the-top and we both understood the anger and frustration of seeing our home being under attack yet being able to do very little to stop it or hurt those who had planned it.
So we went into Afghanistan to root out the Osama and Al Quaeda and the nasty to women Taliban. We weren’t able to track down a 6 foot 4inch skinny guy with kidney and liver disease. So instead of shoring up the Afghan government and rebuilding schools and hospitals and roads that we had destroyed and attempted to bring them into the 19th century, we moved on to Iraq where we knew BinLaden and Al Quaeda were NOT welcome because heck they had there own brutal dictator in power there that we had put on his secular throne while we were playing chess with the Russians. Yummy. And of course we made a big show of things but didn’t have much of a plan…again, to fix what we broke and have a stable government in place. Before we entered Iraq we had a fair amount of the population that liked us, even hoped we could help them get rid of Saddam, his sons, and the whole Fascist Bath party. A few years later and now they pretty much all not only want to see us get out of there, they would ALMOST welcome back the Bath party or perhaps the Taliban. Real progress.
George did not create the mess and he was well intentioned. He wasn’t willing to tell people that when you have a war you have to pay for it and not just run a tab like you were Norm on Cheers. Unfortunately he was the kind of guy you want in charge right after the big war. Right after WWII he would have done very well. Only history will be the final judge of his administration. And I know I could be way off base.
The problems didn’t end with Barry ( that’s really what his grandparents and friends called him while he was growing up) taking the oath of office…either time. He knows that, the American public knows that, the world knows that. What did happen is the possibility of moving forward. Of fixing some things. I’m sure he’ll make his own mistakes. We all do. I am also sure that he will be disappointed as all those ‘attaboys he is getting from foreign governments turn into empty gestures when he tries to get them to chip in and do their part in Afghanistan and other hot spots around the globe. Good luck Barry. Hope all that experience in being a neighborhood organizer does some good. I know he is smart. This guy was not the nice C student that just headed home for Texas. Not that George was stupid but he wasn’t the kind of person who could think on his feet.
“there has not been a Jewish president, a woman president, a homosexual, Italian, Latino… you get my point.” Is the point that the group whose ancestors labored on this continent as slaves for centuries, were as late as the mid 20th century being lynched for speaking or looking at a white woman, who 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation had to fight to the death to gain the right to vote, who gave their lives for this country in a segregated arm forces and whose service wasn’t acknowledged till a generation later…that they need to wait till a Jewish person, a female person, a homosexual person,an Italian American person and a Latino person becomes President first?
I don’t believe that the government is a substitute for parents. I don’t think that is the belief held by the new guy at 1600 Pennsylvania Avenue either. If he remembers his own words”
The question we ask today is not whether our government is too big or too small, but whether it works — whether it helps families find jobs at a decent wage, care they can afford, a retirement that is dignified. Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end. And those of us who manage the public’s dollars will be held to account, to spend wisely, reform bad habits, and do our business in the light of day, because only then can we restore the vital trust between a people and their government.” “For as much as government can do, and must do, it is ultimately the faith and determination of the American people upon which this nation relies. ”
I thank you for your sympathy on the loss of my parents. I would like to believe that they would have been among those that rallied to the call and would have hope for the future. After all it my parents stayed on when almost every white family had fled the south Bronx so that they could help the Puerto Rican immigrants who spoke little English fight the slumlords who more than those immigrants destroyed the Bronx. Those were the creatures that would take a 2 bedroom apartment, break it in two, jam in 6-10 people into the new 1 bedrooms and charge 3-4 times the rent they had been allowed when the Jewish/Irish/Italians had been in those rent controlled apartments. Services? What services? And the government looked the other way.
PS If the U.S. is serious about winning then legalize drugs. All drugs. Let the chips fall where they may. People may choose that form of suicide but we can make sure that as long as they don’t kill other people by driving while under the influence we can let them take as much drugs as they feel like. No law against drugs. No drug money. No money for terrorists and the Afghans will have to learn to grow food, crochet great covers and export not poppies. We can grow our own darn poppies.
Yes Ms. Williams,
I would have nuked them. I would have turned that part of the word into a plane of hot glass killing everyone there, man woman and child, and who knows how many more in the fall out to follow. I was not talking politics. I was saying that if I were “the powers that be” I would have acted in anger and used the launch codes in that briefcase that is never more than a few feet away from me. But that is not the right question to ask. What you no doubt meant to ask me is “Would I today, right now?”
The Towers were attacked a second time, as you pointed out in all caps, because the previous administration failed in his (their?) sworn oath of office to protect the country. Twice, not once, was Bin Ladin in sniper crosshairs and twice Bill Clinton said not to pull the trigger. There were also four other attacks on American soil during his terms in office, and those assaults went unanswered because they were on soldiers. Killing a soldier of a country who is not an enemy of you or your country is murder at best, terrorism in truth. Please do not say that killing soldiers is OK because they are soldiers. The instances where this soldiers were killed were hardly in a combat situation.
I cannot comment on the situation in Afghanistan situation because I do not know enough about it myself. I can only assume that they like lots of other countries, when they want our help and money will hold out their hand and ask for it. The country is a fair weather friend. I loose track of who hates us and who is our ally as it switches back and forth so fast, and depending on what news channel you listen too… that another story. I do not believe that the people of Afghanistan want the Taliban back; I find it hard to believe that people, husbands, fathers, sons want government run rape rooms, but I could be wrong. I admit I am wrong about many things.
I am glad that you can see that George W did not create the current situation that our country finds itself in, but to say that he was “well intentioned” is disrespectful. He acted with intelligence (as in gathered and collected facts, data) that only the President of the United States is privy to. He receives it without the spin of Bill Mar, Barbra Streisand, Oprah Winfrey, or any of the news affiliate stations. He acted, unlike others. We can only wonder what is not being reported to us on the news. I find it refreshing to occasionally watch the BBC news to see how foreigners look at us and to learn what they are reporting.
I will not call the President of the United States “Barry.” I am not one of his friends, his wife, or his grandparents. That aside, I do not like him based on what I see. He had a team of lawyers stationed in several states whose job it was during the running to stymie and sue anyone who wrote anything negative about him. He is yet to produce his birth certificate. He took the oath of office on the much publicized Lincoln bible, but it was not the correct Oath of Office that the Vice President and President take. The American people are just so unaware of their own government’s process that hardly anyone knew. The real oath was done behind closed doors late that evening, not on anyone’s bible, and the press was not invited. All of his speeches, although beautifully written and delivered, say nothing. There is no substance. “We need jobs.” We all know that. “We need change.” What change? Change what exactly? “We will create jobs.” How, and for who, and doing what? “We will build like previous presidents did.” How about a shoe factory? There is not a single shoe manufacture in our whole country. (True, Google it). Those were ready to go plans that FRD implemented; I need to pay the rent this month. My landlord, a lovely lady to be certain, will evict me if I do not pay my rent. “Relief checks are coming.” Again, when, and can you say for who, specifically? Because I have not been unemployed long enough and have somehow managed every month by the grace of God to make my bills and pay my rent, I am to be, not “punished” for my behavior, but also certainly not rewarded either. Because I acted responsibly, I am left out in the cold. Nearly, literally.
And speaking of the American people not knowing their own Government, the prisoners in Gitmo should not be loaded on board a plane and flown to the US to stand trial here. There are lots of personal and impassioned reasons I could give, but let me use reality and cold hard facts:
1. They are not American citizens, they are not entitled.
2. The countries that they came from did not sign the Geneva Convention, so they are not eligible.
3. Pretending that their home countries did sign the Geneva convention to be eligible for the type of trial that President Obama wants to give them the Geneva Conventions itself would deem them ineligible because the prisoners themselves must meet all 4 (four) of the following requirements; the first: Their home country must have signed the Geneva convention; the second: they must be in a uniform; the third; they must at the time of arrest and or capture disclose and surrender all of their weapons; and the fourth: they cannot be a terrorist (and we are not the only country who call those guys terrorists).
And was Bush really a “C” student? Really? And yet, he was smart enough to become President of the Unites States of America. He had a dream, and despite the fact he did not do well in school, and fought against his addictions, he struggled to overcome all odds and become President. We should have more C average recovering alcoholics in the White House. President Obama was born into privilege, was given every opportunity, and he managed to become president too. So, a dumb rich kid can become President as easily as a smart rich kid. Here’s hoping our next President is an autistic heroin addict who was raised by wolves in abject poverty.
“there has not been a Jewish president, a woman president, a homosexual, Italian, Latino… you get my point.” Is the point that the group whose ancestors labored on this continent as slaves for centuries, were as late as the mid 20th century being lynched for speaking or looking at a white woman, who 100 years after the Emancipation Proclamation had to fight to the death to gain the right to vote, who gave their lives for this country in a segregated arm forces and whose service wasn’t acknowledged till a generation later…that they need to wait till a Jewish person, a female person, a homosexual person, an Italian American person and a Latino person becomes President first?
No, my point was anyone; even a stupid person who did poorly in school and cannot think on his feet can become president of the greatest country in the world. And that Obama is not only a half black former Muslim, but also a half white current Christian.
Obama gave a wonderful Inauguration speech, granted. And he said wonderful things. And as soon as he actually says something, gives an example of what he is going to do, I will be happy. For instance: “Where the answer is yes, we intend to move forward. Where the answer is no, programs will end.” You’ve wanted to be President for some time now, you must have given this some thought, name one program here you want to get rid of, one of the really stupid one, like a grant that hires thousands of people to counts the spots on migrating ladybugs. I could get behind that. Name one you want to keep. Name something!
I agree, we should legalize all drugs and hire some unemployed scientist to watch and record the Darwinism effect in action. We should close heroine clinics and force those who are serving time for drug related crimes to complete the remainder of their sentence working on a government marijuana farm. I also would like to see prostitution and gambling legalized as well. These three things will boom our economy. To make kids to do well in school, we need to get rid of the the non-functioning No Child Left Behind, and tell parents, if your kids pass you can a bonus, something like double deductions on your taxes or double the welfare check. Only then will some parents take an interest and see to their child’s education. But, I don’t quite know how this topic came up.
Lomax Lamat
Never one to let well enough alone I find it necessary to go over a few items in your last post.
1.I do not consider it disrespectful to call anyone well intentioned. As to his not having a history of academic excellence or for that matter excellence in the world of business yet ending up at the top of the heap might I suggest family connections and wealth might have had something to do with it and that many people were more comfortable with a President who gave the appearance of being just one of the guys. He was very likeable unless you were one of those that thought that he was dismantling certain civil liberties and was sinking the country into debt.
2.Obama was not born into privilege but Bush certainly was. I should not have to tell you that a boy, who was deserted by his father at the age of 2, raised by a single mother and then by his grandparents was not born into privilege. He got into college by working very hard and getting scholarships. The boy whose grandfather was a Senator from Massachusetts, whose father was an oil millionaire then congressman then head of the CIA all before becoming President of the United States of America was the boy born into privilege. “No, my point was anyone; even a stupid person who did poorly in school and cannot think on his feet can become president of the greatest country in the world. And that Obama is not only a half black former Muslim, but also a half white current Christian.” Obama is not half former Muslim. Religion is not genetic. Neither is he half current Christian. He is Christian. And that is also not genetic. FYI, his birth certificate has been produced and certified correct by the State of Hawaii where he was born. Check Snopes.com about that untrue rumor that has been circulating since it looked like he was a serious contender for the Presidency.
3.Clinton was wrong and I might say has publicly admitted he was wrong. As to the death of soldiers, those deaths were acts of war and we should have retaliated with overwhelming force (not nuclear). I believe that as a nation and as a civilization we are having a problem in that nations are not declaring war against us but factions that know no national barriers are doing so. The “moderates” in the countries where they operate are more scared of them than us plus they look at us as outsiders. We are in a tactical way a bit like the British when they faced the hit and run methods of American Revolutionaries who would not stand up and march out in rows to be plowed down by British Redcoats and artillery.
4.Whether they are naughty or nice when one has not been invited to “liberate” a country and by doing so one has demolished it then one is morally obligated to clean up after one’s mess. This also holds true when you are an adolescent and you have the gang over and they trash the house.
5.a. Signatories to the Geneva convention include Afghanistan who signed on 12/8/1949 and ratified 9/26/1956, Egypt signed 12/8/1949 ratified 1/10.1952, Iran signed 12/8/1949 and ratified 2/20/1957, Iraq 2/14/1956, Kuwait 9/2/1967, Lebanon signed 12/8/1949 ratified 4/10/1951, Pakistan signed 12/8/1949 ratified 6/12/51, Saudi Arabia 5/18/1963, United Arab Emirates 5/10/1972 b. Civilians in an occupied territory must not be subject to collective penalties or any other measures of intimidation or terrorism. (Convention IV, Art. 33). c. Torture is forbidden by the Geneva Conventions, both in cases of internal conflicts (Convention I, Art. 3, Sec. 1A), wounded combatants (Convention I, Art. 12), civilians in occupied territories (Convention IV, Art. 32), civilians in international conflicts (Protocol I, Art. 75, Sec. 2Ai) and civilians in internal conflicts (Protocol II, Art. 4, Sec. 2A). d. The passing of sentences and the carrying out of executions are forbidden unless all the judicial guarantees which are recognized as indispensable by civilized people have been met and a regularly constituted court has pronounced a judgment. (Convention I, Art. 3, Sec 1d) Depriving combatants, prisoners of war, refugees, or medical or religious personnel of a fair trail is a grave breach of the Geneva Convention. (Protocol I, Art. 85, Sec. 4e) The International Committee of the Red Cross in Switzerland said it considered both the Taliban and al-Qaeda fighters held by U.S. forces to be prisoners of war under revisions (http://www.deoxy.org/wc/wc-proto.htm) made to the Geneva Convention treaties in 1977, although those revisions were never ratified by either the United States or Afghanistan. The Geneva Convention treaties also state that “should any doubt arise” about the status of captives, “such persons shall enjoy the protection of the present convention until such time as their status has been determined by a competent tribunal,” and human rights organizations and European nations criticized the U.S. government for refusing to hold such a tribunal. They were also critical of the treatment some of the captives were reportedly receiving, including being blindfolded, sedated, and held in metal cages. On Thursday, 7 February 2002, the Bush administration modified its position and announced that it would apply Geneva Convention rules to Taliban detainees, although it refused to offer the same treatment to al-Qaeda fighters and continued to decline categorizing either group as prisoners of war. It also allowed Red Cross representatives to visit at Camp X-ray to review the conditions there and interview some of the detainees held there, and it implemented some of the recommendations (allowed prisoners to talk more freely among themselves, changing meal times to allow for earlier prayers, allowing prisoners more exercise) made by those representatives. (The relaxation of some of the stricter rules regarding prisoners might also have been a by-product of the fact that newer arrivals were generally less dangerous than those who had been captured earlier.)
e.Either they are soldiers or civilians; neither should be held indefinitely without trial.This is more for our sake as civilized beings than for their sakes. Trials need not compromise national security; they need not have a jury of 12 of their peers. We should have been able to sort out the guilty from the innocent or at least the not guilty in under 5 years. Imagine if you will being innocent and left to languish without even being able to communicate with family or even an attorney all of that time. What a breeding ground to create terrorists.
6.I never said or in any way intimated that the Afghan people as a whole are longing to have the Taliban back in control although the years of living without regular electricity, clean water etc has taken its toll on popular sentiment. Nor do I believe that the Iraqi people want rape rooms. Unfortunately an increasing large segment of the populations of these two very different populations are angry at what we’ve done to their countries. Not that we need their love but neither do we want to leave them more willing to have terrorist training camps on their soil. Had we elected to periodically have surgical air strikes on terrorist strategic targets instead of full blown invasions followed by occupations it would have cost us far less in blood and money.
7.You say Obama is vague and makes promises without plans. This means you have only listened to speeches and not read the plans he has outlined with a fair amount of detail. You can find those plans at http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/energy_and_environment/ and http://www.whitehouse.gov/agenda/defense/ and well there is information on plans at the whithouse.gov site on Civil Rights, Defense, Disabilities, Economy
Education, Energy & Environment, Ethics, Family, Fiscal, Foreign Policy, Health Care, Homeland Security, Immigration, Iraq, Poverty, Rural, Seniors & Social Security Service, Taxes, Technology, Urban Policy, Veterans, Women and more.
8.You need not call him Barry. No one else is doing so. It amused me and I have a feeling a few people might not realize that was the name he mostly answered to while growing up.
9.I’m sorry that Chief Justice Roberts made a boo-boo while administering the oath of office. When the Chief Justice started to say the second portion of the quote “… that I will faithfully execute the office of President of the United States,” the top judge instead put faithfully at the end of the sentence. Obama, who apparently had memorized the oath, looked at Roberts, who then realized his mistake and repeated that portion of the oath correctly. Obama then repeated the oath in the incorrect order. I also know that taking the oath is purely optional as he became President at 12 Noon before the oath was administered. In taking the oath a second time he hoped to dispel any doubts and although the press pool that covers the white house was present the networks were complaining because video cameras were not present. Of course if they were present then some people would have complained that he was taking up to much air time.
Ain’t it great to be President? .
In response to your response to my response to your blog
1. It has been my experience that people who were not born to money are resentful of those who were. There is never enough charity that can be given or goals that can be reached that the have-not’s will say “he did it with his money.” I agree, money can buy everything, want to say his money bought Bush the White House, OK. What President didn’t get elected without money and connections? Name one.
2. Obama-fanatics need to stop it already with the song and dance that he was a poor little black boy, abandoned by his father, then grandparents, and became the President of the United States. All that does is lessen the achievements made by others. A lot of children were abandoned by their parents and are being raised by their grandparents, who are not “middle-class” or better. Are all of these children to be made to feel less than adequate if they do not become President? I worked hard all my life, paid for my own school because my parents couldn’t and I did not qualify for student loans. I have worked all my life
3. Snopes.com is not a reliable source of information. Is it better than Wikipedia? No, Wikipedia alerts you where a source has not been cited or is being disputed. It encourages thinking. I can see now where a lot of your misinformation is coming from. These were also the new agency that claimed that Joe Biden was going to drop out of the Vice President position because he no longer agreed with Obama. And if Obama’s birth certificate has been produced, which it has not, it was an electronic copy. The law of our country demands that the actual paper certificate be produced. It wasn’t. Me and Photoshop can also produce official papers. And if there was an actual birth certificate produced, which it was not, than the 7 states that have open cases awaiting his birth certificate which has been subpoenaed to be produced are still waiting. If Obama was born in Hawaii why not just produce the paper, why is he-who-claims-to-want-to-stop-government-silliness dragging this out in numerous courts? Sounds fishy to me.
And I would argue that religion is a matter of genetics. Is it not true that Jews are only born to Jewish women and that although one can convert to Judaism, only a woman born of a Jewish mother can give birth to Jewish children?
$. We were not at war when those soldiers were killed, ergo, it was not an act of war. If I were to kill a soldier in, say, the Spanish military, I would be a murderer because America is not at war with Spain. And if it were, as a civilian who killed a soldier, I would be a murderer. You can hardly compare the actions of a people who declared war and that declaration was recognized by the country it was claimed against. Our minutemen did have something like a uniform and acted as soldiers. They did not find the wives and children of British officers and kill them, so please, do not even pretend that the actions of the people who fought for and won their independency are the same as those terrorists.
5. I stand corrected. The terrorist’s country did sign the Geneva Convention. Now if only they would follow the damn rules they agreed to abide by. If you don’t, ya don’t get the benefits. Seems to me that many of those countries have a military they drop in uniform and the rest they disguise and use as terrorists. And, if you are not in uniform, you do not get the benefit of its protection. Torture is a relative term; I went to Catholic school for 8 years. Try being the non0catholic in a catholic school run by nuns and then come talk to me.
6. Here is the problem with Afghanistan and Iraq – they have been killing themselves for the last three thousand years. None of your logic or want to spread the ideals of Kum Ba Yah will help. There no real way to help them until they stop killing each other because whoever is on the side that you are not helping will start trying to kill you to. In a very harsh metaphor, something you have to let a fever run its course.
7. True, I have only listened to what the man said and did not look up his outline on the net. And, let’s be honest, I do not have the time. Why is he so secretive about his plan, is it because he knows that most Americans want to be led and will not bother to read it for themselves, and that the poor little poor boy raised by his grandma used all of his connections to make sure that none of the news media’s are reporting it. I can’t prove it any more than you can that he is not, but I have time to listen to the news radio while I work a very labor intensive job. I, unlike the cat cats on the hill and in big business offices do not have the leisure time to cruise the net and read at my leisure.
8. Do we know it was a boo-boo that the Chief Justice made, or was it all bread and circuses because there was no chance in heck that anyone would get elected if he made it known publically that he would not take the oath of office on a bible? Obama did not need to re-take the oath on TV and hog up precious air time, but I would have liked that when he took the oath he did so on a bible and in front of one reporter to make it public what transpired. He is still a snake-oil salesman to me
Too bad no one eles wants to join in on the banter. I think that we have both proven that we are both willing to not drop to the level of calling one another “stupid-heads.”
L.
The economy makes it so hard to make these choices.