Jon Kyl, the Senate Republicans' #2 man. Jon Kyl, Arizona's junior Senator. Jon Kyl, avowed "patriotic American."
The same Jon Kyl who said Obama would come close to violating his oath of office if he advocated for further defense cuts- opening the door for charges of treason (common with todays racist-fueled GOP) and impeachment, or worse.
The same Jon Kyl that threatened to take his ball and go home if the so-called Super Committee considers defense cuts.
The Jon Kyl, who in an op-ed in today's Arizona Republic, used 9/11 and the specter of terrorism to push his partisan ideology on a day that is still an open wound for all Americans.
This morning, my son and daughter got muscled out of their usual routine involving Dora and Diego episodes on TV, as I watched the coverage of the 9/11 memorial services in New York, Pennsylvania, and Virginia. As my daughter asked what the waterfalls were for (at the 9/11 memorial in NYC), I explained to her about the bad people who did a very bad thing, and hurt people so bad they couldn't go home anymore.
As the bells rung, and memories of watching the planes strike the towers and the towers falling came back, I nearly burst into tears. At least twice.
It is in this state of mind that I finally sat down to read today's Arizona Republic. Moving past the front page, past the story of Christina Green- a child born on 9/11 but whose life was cut short earlier this year in Tucson by Jared Loughner- I moved to the opinion pages.
I saw columns reflecting on the 10 years that have passed.
John McCain wrote about the pain and healing, and how the Arizona Diamondbacks won the series that year, even though everyone wanted the Yankees to win.
Former Gov and DHS head Janet Napolitano wrote about our current security situation and outlook- how far we've come since that day.
But Jon Kyl... Jon Kyl lead with a piece titled, This is no time to slash defense spending . After spending all of two paragraphs on remembering the pain, on paragraph 3, the agenda begins:
Yet the greatest tribute we can pay is to confront head-on the terrorists and rogue regimes seeking to do us harm. Some scholars refer to this conflict as the Long War because the struggle against the radical political Islamists will likely take a very long time to conclude.
...
Our commitment to defeat the radical Islamists requires a financial commitment to fully fund U.S. defense, intelligence and security requirements. Some think we can just "send in the special forces," as we did to kill bin Laden.
They forget the infrastructure necessary for success. Secret missions cannot succeed without critical air support provided by a variety of military aircraft, sophisticated stealth drones and even satellites to provide timely intelligence.
Whether it is maintaining aircraft like the F-18, the tankers to refuel them, replenishing supplies of air-to-ground missiles or procuring advanced communications equipment, our troops must have all the necessary resources and tools at their disposal to defeat the terrorists.
Though some would attempt to balance the federal budget by slashing defense spending, the United States can ill afford to skimp on our defense needs when we are in the heat of battle against creative and dedicated enemies seeking to do us harm.
Read more
After reading this, and being in such a raw emotional sate, I was filled with such visceral anger, disgust, and yes, hatred.
Filled with such hatred that someone could be disrespectful enough to invoke a partisan political column on a day of respect.
I've calmed down a bit. But this latest act proves that Jon Kyl is not worthy to sit in the Senate, and I'm glad he's retiring. I urge every Arizonan, every American, to call his office tomorrow and let him know that his disrespect of such a raw event in current American history WILL NOT go unnoticed.
Email Jon Kyl here
Call him :
Phone: (202) 224-4521 (DC)
Phone: (602) 840-1891 (PHX)
Phone: (520) 575-8633 (TUCSON)
Fax: (202) 224-2207 (DC)
Thank you.