Idle-izing Americans Who Hate America
By Bonnie Chernin Rogoff
Rightgrrl Contributor
Founder, Jews For Life
October 5, 2001
It was nice while it lasted.
It's been three weeks since the Towers, and the innocent lives within them, have perished. Last weekend, for the first time since September 11, 2001, I drove into Manhattan, and was presented with an incomplete skyline that made me cry. Years ago, I dined at Windows on the World. Walking through the World Trade Center, I was unmindful of the Towers. Today, two missing images are associated in my mind with victims of war, always will be, and continue to invoke an emotional response. Intent on getting to their respective destinations, the other drivers moved in unison along the East Side drive, oblivious to my inner turmoil.
It was nice while it lasted. Our national unity is being subtly assaulted from within. The single voice of America that cried for justice and revenge is splintering. Oh, you'll still hear the unified cry echoed in the results of major polls, indicating that most Americans demand justice and retaliation. In some places, the battle cry is being drowned out by angry dissidents who claim theirs is the true American voice, whereas the polls favoring war are driven by the Administration.
The interlopers and pilferers of freedom have arrived. Those renegades who, out of ignorance or stupidity, would be willing to breach our security for a humanitarian "cause," and we know what it is. They hate America, capitalism, and our supremacy over lesser nations, but like all leeches, hang on to their citizenship, knowing there is no better place. The pacifists rumble…what if? Should we go too far and actually…G-d forbid…kill people to get justice and preserve our liberties?
Anti-American sentiments are everywhere. At the University of New Mexico, a history professor's defiant voice told his class, "Anyone who can blow up the Pentagon has my vote." Reuters and CNN dumped the label "terrorists" to describe the killers in favor of the phrase "alleged hijackers." At the demonstration on Washington, thousands of marchers protested on behalf of pacifism, amnesty and "non-violence." A rally organizer proclaimed: "War is not the answer," and decried the "escalating cycle of violence." (Where have we heard that before?) One woman's placard read: "Violence does not solve violence."
Yes it does.
Fighting a war is a lot like maintaining a car. The commitment must be fine tuned and nurtured. If left idling in neutral, those who take freedom for granted will eventually run out of fuel. Unguarded, it can easily be stolen.
There will always be rebels ready to vanquish our liberties. There will always be car thieves. There will always be apologists petrified of offending anyone. Our war has quickly undergone a name change in deference to those of the Islamic faith who found "Operation Infinite Justice" offensive. Why should we adopt a conciliatory tone to a religion whose nations harbor hatred for us, and whose terrorist leaders plotted to decimate thousands of Americans? Appeasement at this time shows weakness, and we play right into the militants' hands. Will the next hit be biochemical, or another trophy strike? Will we relapse into complacency, only to respond in the immediacy of the next attack?
Don't get me wrong; I will defend to the death the rights of conscientious objectors who peacefully protest any war, no matter how disgusting or despicable their words may be. However, we should not turn idle eyes while morons who loathe America carry signs like, "Destroy imperialism, not Afghanistan," or "To stop terror, stop terrorizing." Pacifism is a deadly virus that can have a significant but negative impact on the direction the President's policy takes in this war. First Amendment rights, even those that border on sedition, must be protected, but should not be ignored. Let them protest. Let us respond with an even louder protest. Otherwise, our efforts to "get" bin Laden and end the Taliban regime will be difficult.
The battle's just begun. Our collective memory of nearly 7,000 dead Americans will end once there are casualties of war. Those who abhor hate crimes watch passively while young Americans loathe America. Entertainers who joined in the effort to raise money on behalf of the victims' families will raise their angry voices in disdain, when the reports of wounded American soldiers are made available.
Pacifism is as old as prostitution, and has its place. Still, it is inconceivable that after a horrific attack destroys thousands of innocent American lives, there are those among us who believe we incited the terrorists to commit mass murder. Most offensive is that they don't leave America, but remain and enjoy the benefits of the freedoms they viciously condemn. Why don't these young hypocrites go off to Afghanistan or Iraq, to live amongst those they feel we are "terrorizing?" How quickly these protesters forget that the primitive nations whose rights they insist we sabotage offer no rights of their own, subdue their women, have a barbaric system of justice, and deprive their citizens of the basic rights we take for granted.
My car is nearly two decades old and runs better than most new cars because I take care of it. Our Constitution is over two hundred years old and our system of government works better than all others because the majority of Americans support the Articles of that document, and have fought bitter wars to safeguard them. Paul Simon once wrote, "Silence like a cancer grows." He's right. Our country is very young. If we can't maintain a unity in support of an ideal, we must maintain a loud, vocal majority to drown out the contentious voices of those who demonstrated in Washington if we want this war to go in the direction we wish it to proceed.
This is one time I must agree with egalitarians who believe that equality of outcome is more important than opportunity. That's true, if the result is freedom.
I hope I never have to look back and say, "It was nice while it lasted."
Copyright 2001 by Bonnie Chernin Rogoff. Not to be reproduced in any fashion, in whole or in part, without written consent from the author. All rights reserved.