While rummaging through the recesses of a hard drive, my wife came upon this gem: An article written by Tony Parsons in the UK Daily Mirror on Sept 11, 2002. While most of it is some of the same stuff we have all seen before (America's restraint after 9/11, etc) my wife pointed out one paragraph (I've highlighted that paragraph below the jump) that summed up all that America was at this time and she lamented that, since the scourge that is the Tea Party and the Republican Party now, how far we've fallen in the last 9 years.
Its a bit of a long read, and I apologize for that, but it is interesting to see what America represented to a foreigner nine short years ago. I doubt, after the last year, that Mr. Parsons see us quite the same...
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Tony Parsons ... Daily Mirror ... September 11, 2002
One year ago, the world witnessed a unique kind of broadcasting the mass
murder of thousands, live on television. As a lesson in the pitiless cruelty
of the human race, September 11 was up there with Pol Pot's
Mountain of Skulls in Cambodia, or the skeletal bodies stacked like garbage
in the Nazi concentration camps.
An unspeakable act so cruel, so calculated and so utterly merciless that
surely the world could agree on one thing - nobody deserves this fate.
Surely there could be consensus: The victims were truly innocent, the
perpetrators truly evil.
But to the world's eternal shame, 9/11 is increasingly seen as America's
comeuppance. Incredibly, anti-Americanism has increased over the last year.
There has always been a simmering resentment to the USA in this country; too
loud, too rich, too full of themselves, and so much happier than Europeans
-- but it has become an epidemic. And it seems incredible to me. More than
that, it turns my stomach.
America is this country's greatest friend and our staunchest ally. We are
bonded to the US by culture, language and blood. A little over half a
century ago, around half a million Americans died for our freedoms, as well
as their own. Have we forgotten so soon? And exactly a year ago, thousands
of ordinary men, women and children -- not just Americans, but from dozens
of countries -- were butchered by a small group of religious fanatics. Are
we so quick to betray them?
What touched the heart about those who died in the Twin Towers and on the
planes, was that we recognized them. Young fathers and mothers, somebody's
son and somebody's daughter, husbands, wives, and children, some unborn.
And these people brought it on themselves? Their nation is to blame for
their meticulously planned slaughter?
These days you don't have to be some dust-encrusted nut job in Kabul or
Karachi or Finsbury Park to see America as the Great Satan. The
anti-American alliance is made up of self-loathing liberals who blame the
Americans for every ill in the Third World, and conservatives suffering from
power-envy, bitter that the world's only superpower can do what it likes
without having to ask permission.
The truth is that America has behaved with enormous restraint since
September 11.
Remember ... remember ... remember ... the gut-wrenching tapes of weeping
men phoning their wives to say, "I love you," before they were burned alive.
Remember those people leaping to their deaths from the top of burning
skyscrapers. Remember the hundreds of firemen buried alive.
Remember the smiling face of that beautiful little girl who was on one of
the planes with her mum.
Remember .... remember ..
And realize that America has never retaliated for 9/11 in anything like the
way it could have.
So a few al-Qaeda tourists got locked up without a trial in Camp X-ray? Pass
the Kleenex ..
.
So some Afghan wedding receptions were shot up after they merrily fired
their semi-automatics in a sky full of American planes? A shame, but maybe
next time they should stick to confetti.
AMERICA could have turned a large chunk of the world into a parking lot.
That it didn't is a sign of strength. American voices are already being
raised against attacking Iraq -- that's what a democracy is for. How many in
the Islamic world will have a minute's silence for the slaughtered innocents
of 9/11? How many Islamic leaders will have the guts to say that the mass
murder of 9/11 was an abomination?
When the news of 9/11 broke on the West Bank, those freedom-loving
Palestinians were dancing in the street. America watched all of that – and
didn't push the button. We should thank the stars that America is the most
powerful nation in the world. I still find it incredible that 9/11 did not
provoke all-out war. Not a "war on terrorism." A real war.
The fundamentalist dudes are talking about "opening the gates of hell" if
America attacks Iraq. Well, America could have opened the gates of hell like
you wouldn't believe.
The US is the most militarily powerful nation that ever strode the face of
the earth. The campaign in Afghanistan may have been less than perfect and
the planned war on Iraq may be misconceived.
But don't blame America for not bringing peace and light to these wretched
countries. How many democracies are there in the Middle East, or in the
Muslim world? You can count them on the fingers of one hand – assuming you
haven't had any chopped off for minor shoplifting.
I love America, yet America is hated. I guess that makes me Bush's poodle...
But I would rather be a dog in New York City than a Prince in Riyadh. Above
all, America is hated because it is what every country wants to be -- rich,
free, strong, open, optimistic. Not ground down by the past, or religion, or
some caste system. America is the best friend this country ever had and we
should start remembering that.
Or do you really think the USA is the root of all evil? Tell it to the loved
ones of the men and women who leaped to their death from the burning towers.
Tell it to the nursing mothers whose husbands died on one of the hijacked
planes, or were ripped apart in a collapsing skyscraper. And tell it to the
hundreds of young widows whose husbands worked for the New York Fire
Department.
To our shame, George Bush gets a worse press than Saddam Hussein. Once we
were told that Saddam gassed the Kurds, tortured his own people and set up
rape-camps in Kuwait. Now we are told he likes Quality Street. Save me the
orange center, Oh Mighty One!
Remember .... remember ... September 11. One of the greatest
atrocities in human history was committed against America.
No, do more than remember. Never forget.
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Its truly sad that this country has fallen so far from its ideals and many of us (myself included) are to blame for that. By not getting out and voting, by sitting passively by and hoping that sanity will again shine itself on us, by allowing a minority of right-wing whack jobs to dictate how this country will move forward, we are all complicit in it's downfall.
Its easy to point fingers and lay blame and say President Obama, and/or the Democrats gave away the farm, or that the Republicans played Russian Roulette with the country, and so on and so on, but did we really have their backs in 2010? If you failed to vote in 2010 (and I am among that crowd, although I was on life support in a hospital at the time) then you can start by looking in the mirror and pointing that finger of blame there first!
We can no longer, going forward, usurp our duty and responsibility of voting - ever! Let me say that again (because it cannot be emphasized enough) Going forward, we can never again usurp our duty and responsibility of voting!
There are true grassroots groups out there (and they are many), like my Facebook group Teabagged Enough Already, that are trying to get the message out to people all across the political spectrum - RINO's, centrists, independents, those just to the left and right of center, progressives and liberals - to take this country back from the Vocal Minority (aka, Tea Party). Everyone needs to get involved, even if it is just to vote in 2012 and henceforth! The future of this country is at stake, as melodramatic as that sounds, its the truth!