September 11, 2001 was “the end of American Innocence”, as
some reporters have claimed. But it wasn’t the first time the U.S. had been
attacked:
On Dec.7, 1941, the Japanese bombed Pearl Harbor.
The American people came together, helping one another, and mourning together. U.S.A. entered
World War II.
Sadly, our President sent all Japanese Americans to
internment camps for the remainder of the war. It took many years for an
investigation to determine that our government’s actions were based on
"race prejudice, war hysteria, and a failure of political leadership"
and that there was no evidence of Japanese disloyalty during war time.
On Feb. 26, 1993, the World
Trade Center
was bombed. Only 6 people were killed, but1,046 were injured. The attack was
considered a failure. America
mourned together. It was a glimpse of something
brewing, but Americans returned to their normal activities, and put it behind
them.
April 19, 1995, 168 people were killed, (including 19 children
(3mo – 5 years) in a daycare center, and 3 pregnant women) and 680 others were
injured, when a bomb was set off at the Alfred P. Murrah federal building in
OKC. 324 buildings within a 16 block radius were damaged or destroyed. 219
children lost one, or both parents that day.
Because of the World
Trade Center
bombing, the Media jumped to the conclusion that Muslims were responsible,
reporting their “suspicions” as truth and in response, Muslims, and people of
Arab descent, were attacked around our country.
It soon became apparent that Muslims were not involved, but many
Americans hung on to that idea. Instead, a former American soldier, Timothy
McVeigh, had committed this act of terrorism. That’s right, a White, blonde-haired,
blue eyed, All American Soldier, with a Bronze Star.
So, Americans put it behind them, and returned to normal.
Each time, Americans came together. They helped one another.
They were one. Color and religion (once the Muslim aspect was debunked) didn’t
matter, because we were “Americans”
Then, in an instant, our country changed
We were not attacked in one spot. New
York, Washington D.C. and even Pennsylvania experienced
this tragedy. American families all over the country lost a loved one. And
American planes were used for the attacks. It’s randomness of victims was
frightening.
We had ‘found the enemy” but, the enemy had no country. They had a religion, but not a country. So,
we clung to that religion to focus our hate. Immediately, Muslims in our own
country were attacked. There were 481
hate crimes against Muslims in the last months of 2001, and some of those attacked
were not Muslim, they only “looked” Muslim.
Instantly after 9/11, it was important to make sure people
knew you weren’t Muslim.
Being a Christian became a badge of “proof” of being an
American, a Patriot. Suddenly, Christians had someone to look down on, and use
as “examples’ of “non-Christian” behavior. And once they did, they started
looking for more to hate, to shun, to condemn.
The U.S.
began splintering into groups People
started associating with “their own kind” and started to fear, and be
suspicious of all others.
And then, something Materialized
. . . . . . . .
.
HATE
Hate: intense or passionate dislike. "feelings of hate and revenge"
Not hate from the outside, but hate from within.
It became OK to hate your neighbor.
Being suspicious of someone who looked different was patriotic. Shunning people
who didn’t attend your church somehow showed how “Christian’ you were.
White, Christian American Politicians, the people who represent the American
People, started telling Americans how horrible Muslims were. It didn’t matter
if they had come to America
to find a different life, they were still the enemy. Sharia law became the new
cry. Atrocities in other countries were used as examples of what “ALL MUSLIMS”
believe, and practice. Politicians started telling people that Muslims would
bring Sharia Law to the U.S.
if we didn’t do something now!
Then the Media became instigators. They decided which news
was important. Muslims denounced what the terrorists had done, but the Media
chose not to report it. Muslims tried to teach their neighbors that their
religion was not what those terrorists claimed, but the Christian Americans
would not listen. Muslim women were afraid to wear their distinctive dress in
public, for fear of being hurt. Americans took out their anger on other Americans.
And politicians failed to protect the Muslim Americans. Media chose not to
explain the differences between Extremists and regular Muslims. Instead of
Americans being educated, they chose to let the Media educate them. It didn’t
matter that at least one News Channel was owned by Arab Muslims. And why would an Arab owner want to prevent
Americans from learning the truth about American Muslims? Think about it.
President Bush visited a Mosque to ask Americans to respect
Muslims “These
acts of violence against innocents violate the fundamental tenets of the
Islamic faith. And it’s important for my fellow Americans to understand that.”
He quoted from the Koran: “In the long run, evil in the extreme will be the end
of those who do evil.” Then he continued in his own words: “The face of terror
is not the true faith of Islam. That’s not what Islam is all about. Islam is
peace.” Unfortunately, this was not
shown over and over and over like the media does for so many other “newsworthy”
articles. After all, it was just the
President speaking.
So people were not listening. They had hardened
their hearts, and instead, became deaf to the truth.
Politicians used this anger to tell us that is
was “lack of God” that brought all this about, and all we need to do is to turn
back to God. But, only the Christian God. No one else’s God counts. So, to make
this point, we must write laws with “Gods” laws in it. Politicians started
illegally writing laws that were unconstitutional, but that didn’t matter,
because “we are bringing God back to America” Suddenly, everyone that isn’t a Christian is
not only a sinner, but not worthy of protection by our Constitution. But at the same time, those same politicians
claimed that there was a “War of Christians”.
All of a sudden, there was a War on Christmas, too. We started hearing
stories of people fired for saying Merry Christmas, Children were suspended for
praying in school, it was reported so much that it began to sound like there
was a war on Christians, but it was blown out of proportion. In the meantime, they didn’t report about the
beatings of homosexuals (sure, a few to appease them,, but not to the
proportion of the “war on Christians”)
They didn’t report the laws forcing Christian values and teachings into
the schools, the many non-Christians that were denied jobs for no reason but
their beliefs, and that cities were putting up Christian symbols, while denying
the right to any other group to do the same. Yes, the media reported the Westboro Baptist Church, as “fanatics”, but
their preachings are the very same thing being preached in Christian churches
all over the country, it was just that they protested at funerals, and by
agreeing how stupid and fanatical they were, Christians were proving that they
were better than that. They weren’t fanatics.
So what happened?
FEAR
Fear: An anxious feeling, caused by
our anticipation of some imagined event or experience
Suddenly, after the attacks on our land,
Americans were afraid that we would be attacked again. We feared anyone
different. We feared religions other than what we knew. We began to fear our
own shadow.
And by doing so, we lost.
The attacks were not to physically destroy America. They were to destroy our
country from within. It was to cause Americans to fight among themselves. They
wanted Americans to be afraid of their neighbors, strangers, and most of all,
fear change.
So, Americans became afraid. So afraid that they were willing to let the
Patriot Act pass, taking away many freedoms, in the name of security. We
ignored the lack of logic about invading Iraq, when we knew that Al Qaida
and Saddam Hussein were not friendly at
all. We encouraged our President to defy the U.N. and attack Iraq even
though the “assurances” that they had WMDs were not reliable. We ignored the
irrational decision to go to Iraq,
when all intelligence indicated the Osama Bin Laden was in Afghanistan or Pakistan. We let fear and emotions
lead us into two wars.
Everyone is afraid of something. There are two
kinds of fear. Rational and Irrational.
Rational is normal. It protects you from harm. It
keeps you from jumping out of planes without a parachute, from entering a
burning building without protection, from picking up a poisonous snake. It does not
prevent you from normal activities.
Irrational fear is paralyzing. It short
circuits your thoughts, it prevents you from doing things you might otherwise
do, and it increases your fears about other things. You become afraid of change,
of strangers, of anyone different than you. You cling to familiar things. You
fear death, so you cling to the idea of eternal life. You stop listening to
anyone that doesn’t feed on your fears, because all you focus on is fears. You listen to the same people who are making
you afraid, in case you miss something else you should be afraid of. And you start to hate the very things you are
afraid of.
So what happens?
Your fear and your hate become so intermingled
that you don’t even know which one is which anymore. Suddenly, you fear your
neighbor because they don’t go to the same church as you. You hate anyone that
looks like they might be Middle Eastern because you believe they hate you. You fear any truth that does not agree with
your fears. You start to believe that people are trying to trick you into being
less afraid so they can hurt you. You
search for articles that “prove” that you need to be afraid. You find articles
about bad cops (because good cops rarely make the news) and you “know” that you
should hate cops, so you do. You keep
scouring the internet for more “proof”, and sure enough, conspiracy theory
blogs and “news sites” tell you how the government is planning against you and
lying to you. When rational, you would never have accepted “unnamed sources” or
“someone who told someone who told someone”
as being reliable information, but, once again, it proves that you are right to be afraid. You find articles about
poisons in your food. You learn that one doctor says that immunizations cause
autism, so you don’t get your child immunized – “That’ll teach them”. Then when your child get measles or whooping
cough, and ends up in the hospital, it is the government’s fault, because you
read that somewhere. Your reasoning becomes so distorted that you ignore the
policies that allow big companies to pollute your drinking water, because you
have much more important things to be worried about, like homosexuals, and
abortions, and the “war on Christians”. Because
your sole source of information tells you so.
In the meantime, life goes on, but not without
this fear and hate. You hear about an American being beheaded and you hate
Middle Easterners even more (even though this is one cruel, extreme group that
are despised even by other terrorist groups).
And numerous politicians, instead of
telling us they would make sure that the government would keep us safe, keep
the fear going. Why? Because fear is a
good tool for propaganda. If you are afraid, and someone promises that they
have an answer, you will listen and believe. If you aren’t afraid, you will be
more skeptical. So their answer is “Christian Canon Law” (read that Sharia Law
for Christians. That’s right! Let’s
start acting like the very people we fear. That’ll teach them!!
President Franklin Roosevelt famously asserted, "The only thing we have to fear,
is fear itself."
President Roosevelt was right. Fear can turn a
country against itself.
And while that is happening, the enemy wins.
When our country cannot agree
on anything, and we bicker amongst ourselves, they laugh.
When the rest of the world
watches our Congress and the childish antics of temper-tantrums and shut-downs,
the small groups of terrorists that helped to bring us to this smile.
When Americans carry rifles into grocery stores to intimidate those around them, the enemy snickers.
When Americans scream
obscenities at scared children who are running from atrocities, the enemy
praises his God.
When Americans make effigies of
their President, and Congressmen yell "You Lie" as the President
speaks, and people claim, "He isn't MY President" the enemy applauds.
When Coingressmen stand up and
cry "War, War, War" as their resolution for everything happening
overseas, the enemy jumps for joy.
When American corporations
pollute our land and water, and buy Congress, the enemy nods their heads in
approval.
The enemy cheers, because their small numbers have brought down the Great American
People.
I, for one, refuse to go down. It is time to wake up, and SAVE AMERICA!!
If you are a parent, an aunt, uncle, grandparent; How would you feel if a child you love catches this disease? They will have to go to the hospital by themselves and suffer all alone. Think of how frightened they will be. You can't comfort them. Imagine being hooked up to machines, just a child, not understanding, but all alone. Imagine that the last time you saw that child alive was as the ambulance pulled away, the child drying, begging to not make them go alone. 
