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Home Front
Angry?
2003-09-05
James Lileks on "getting over it".
This reminds me of a gentle tut-tutting I got from some guy on a webpage I stumbled across post 9/11 - he was just so . . . bemused at how I’d lost my grasp on reality. I had been describing my reaction to the men who’d kill my daughter for the glory of Allah: give me the gun, show me the cave. The author of the piece suggested I would be perfect for the role of the WW2 black-out warden who scolds people for half-closed windowshades.

Why, it’s almost as if I thought we were at war, or something.

Obviously the guy had no kids. I’m not saying childless people can’t have a visceral reaction to terrorists, or that parenthood has imbued me with a special glowing Field of Righteousness - but until you have children you can’t quite realize what you’d do to defend them, because the emotion comes from a place you didn’t know too much about. The weeks after 9/11 we all thought that we were in for more of this - more planes, more bombs, and come the winter, Smallpox. I would jerk awake from nightmares where Gnat had the pox. You do everything you can to keep them safe - then this.

I was nowhere near New York when it happened, of course. But you’d have to be unusually thick not to see that this was the start of something that would affect more than the lower portion of the island of Manhattan. I don’t know what compelled me to grab the videocam off the shelf and start shooting, but I’m glad I did, because what I caught captured something I needed to remember: the TV has the picture of the twin towers engulfed in smoke: my little 14 month old child is grinning with unbearable delight, holding out her Elmo phone. Hi! Hi! Hi! Jasper’s in the corner of the picture, on his back, paws up, whimpering; whatever I was giving off, he got. But Gnat was in Elmo-world, a happy little place in which she’d always be safe, and I’m wondering if her future will be all downhill from here.

At that point I thought the fires might go out. I thought the towers might be saved. Then they fell. And you knew that the future had just taken the wrong exit.
Read the whole thing.
Posted by:Steve

#9  I've "gotten over" the anger. Now I'm just determined. I WILL see these creeps with their throats slashed, their bodies desecrated, their will to attack the United States beaten out of them. I also include in that group not just Al Qieda, or Wahabist Islam, but also the basketfuls of useless bits of fecal matter that hate the United States - those that live here, and those that don't.

If you don't love freedom, go somewhere else. If you don't love our Constitution and the guarantees it protects for free men, find another place to live. Get in my way, however, and I'll leave tire marks over your dead, bleeding body.
Posted by: Old Patriot   2003-9-5 9:24:02 PM  

#8  

"These terrorists kill not merely to end lives but to disrupt and end a way of life. With every atrocity they hope that America grows fearful, retreating from the world and forsaking our friends. They stand against us because we stand in their way. We're not deceived by their pretenses to piety. We have seen their kind before. They are the heirs of all the murderous ideologies of the 20th century. By sacrificing human life to serve their radical visions, by abandoning every value except the will to power, they follow in the path of fascism, Nazism and totalitarianism. And they will follow that path all the way to where it ends: in history's unmarked grave of discarded lies. "

George W. Bush in a speech to a joint session of congress sept 21, 2001

I love that passage.

Never forget.
Posted by: sid   2003-9-5 5:13:02 PM  

#7  As the second anniversary of September 11 approaches, my anger and my determination remain. We, America and all Americans, our life style and our way of life, were attacked that day. It was not the opening shot of a war; the war had been going on for more than a decade. It was, however, our wakeup call.

Our enemy delights in dying for his cause, because he has a promise of eternal bliss as a reward for committing suicide and murder. Our enemy sees us as all that is evil and wrong in his world. We must die, be killed, or be converted to his peculiar beliefs. There is no coexistence for our enemy, only outright destruction and conquest. We must be destroyed and conquered.

We will meet this enemy on our terms, on ground of our choosing. We will fight with all the full force and fury of the United States to defend ourselves and to end this terrible war.

And end it we will. Our enemy will be totally destroyed or be disabused fully and completely of their evil beliefs. This is the way that America makes war, reluctantly and with trepidation, but to the end, to the defeat of our enemy.

To our enemy who says "Surrender or die", we say "Bring it on!"
Posted by: Chuck Simmins   2003-9-5 3:28:16 PM  

#6  I have good reasons for my anger too. People trying to blame it on Angry White Males DONT WANT to listen to me and my reasons, because it doesn't fit in with their ideas and power agendas.
Posted by: Ptah   2003-9-5 2:45:55 PM  

#5  More in the same vein, from another great online writer:

I've read in several places about how our therapeutic society is trying to make all of us victims of the attacks on 9/11. Well, we -- the United States and each individual citizen -- were victimized, but that doesn't make us -- the United States and each individual citizen -- victims, unless we let it. Did we consider ourselves victims after the attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941? Hell no! Victimized? Sure. Victims? Sorry, no self pity to wallow in here. We've got work to do.

. . .

As the second anniversary of 9/11 comes around in a week, its time once again to remember and to rededicate ourselves to the tasks ahead. We are a good people who have every right to defend what we have. We are a noble people with an obligation to help others shed the yoke of oppression where we can. I am proud of what I know we have done in Afghanistan and Iraq. I am also thankful for the many things that have been done on our behalf, that I know nothing about, by people whose only connection to me is that they too believe that this country is worth defending and the ideals for which it stands are worth giving to others.

We are at war. The alarm went off and woke us all from our pleasant slumber on 9/11/2001. Everyone heard the alarm and responded at first, but as time goes by and folks settle back into their usual routines, it's as though a lot of people now just want to reach over and hit the snooze button until another alarm goes off. I am disgusted that, with the general exception of Senator Lieberman, all those who have a vested interest in hurting the President politically are encouraging this behavior. Let's just hope it doesn't take the loss of Houston to a nuclear weapon or 1/3 of the population to a biological attack to get everyone to finally wake up.

Unlike some in the blogosphere, I won't be taking 9/11/2003 off to read and remember. I'm not criticizing those who are, I just have a different approach. I'm going to work. In fact, I'm going to Washington, D.C., on business, and I'll be flying home on 9/11/2003. I'm not afraid, and I'm not going to wallow or weep. I'm angry and ready to fight. I'm too old to put on a uniform, but I am going to fight back in the best way I know how, by going on with my life, earning a living, paying my taxes, spreading good ideas as best I can, and helping my customers become more proficient in finding and killing those who would kill my family, my friends and my country.

--Charles Austin, the "Sine Qua Non Pundit"
Posted by: Mike   2003-9-5 12:42:52 PM  

#4  I'm not an "angry white male"--someone who's angry because he has Y-chromosomes and a low melanin content.

I'm angry because civilization is under attack, and I want the attackers hunted to extinction before they do any more damage. To anyone. Race and gender got nothin' to do with it.
Posted by: Mike   2003-9-5 12:36:44 PM  

#3  Angry White Male? Carve it on my tombstone, Michael Moore, if you're man enough....but I think it's perfectly obvious that the MM's, the Al Frankens, the MeCHA/Bustamante pussies don't have it in em.
Posted by: Frank G   2003-9-5 12:09:01 PM  

#2  Best. Daily Bleat. Ever.
Posted by: Mike   2003-9-5 12:06:06 PM  

#1  The Angry White Male is the theme in the search for explaining the root cause of for Columbine, as well. Saw the film last weekend at the behest of the kids. Scary.

My left-of-left brother was in town at the same time and hypothesized that Wellstone's crash could have been intentional. Nothing specific, of course, and sure GWB wouldn't have had a direct hand in it, but neocons serving him would have somehow understood that, to implement the Plan, Wellstone would have to go.

Folks, such an echo chamber of negativism has been created re Iraq the last few months that I'm really worried that the WOT is going to go badly for us. Not due to terrorist action, but to our own navel-contemplation and short memories. Deep down I know we're doing the right thing. Is this country tough enough to see it through?
Posted by: michael   2003-9-5 11:47:31 AM  

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