"Just for being American" - Dave Barry

[]{arao]{e]

I like Dave's humor columns better.

He raised a good point about how they used OUR OWN PLANES. I think what a lot of people overlook in this whole tragedy is something called: NATIONALISM.

Everyone is doing exactly what the ARABS want them to do. Raise their flags high and proud and flaunt the fact they're better than the ARABS. We're no better than the ARABS and Dave knows it. We go over and kill people and call them monsters and dehumanize them so it's easier on our consciences. As a nation, the U.S. has killed millions of people in the name of FREEDOM. Who gave the U.S. the right to determine who lives and who dies in this world?

Eventhough the ARABS have a twisted view of who should carry out God's punishment, at least they believe in a God that punishes. The U.S. is just like the Arabs if they think they're carrying out God's punishment/judgment too. I think Americans could learn something from this disaster that goes ABOVE and BEYOND nationalism. It's a time to look in the mirror for a lot of people. The ARABS attack on AMERICA is just a reflection of something Americans practice themselves.

I agree there are good and decent people in America but they aren't perfect. To blame our airports for the tragedy is stupid. They've worked so hard for us for decades and the last thing they need is people saying what a rotten job they've done. They did the best they could under the circumstances.

So if you want to blame someone it has to be SATAN. He's the monster and force behind this tragedy. He uses NATIONALISM and PRIDE to satiate his thirst for human blood.

P.S. Religion isn't the culprit here; it's FALSE religion that's screwing things up.




[This message has been edited by ]{arao]{e (edited 09-14-2001).]

 

[speedracer]

Originally posted by ]{arao]{e:
I like Dave's humor columns better.

He raised a good point about how they used OUR OWN PLANES. I think what a lot of people overlook in this whole tragedy is something called: NATIONALISM.

Everyone is doing exactly what the ARABS want them to do. Raise their flags high and proud and flaunt the fact they're better than the ARABS. We're no better than the ARABS and Dave knows it. We go over and kill people and call them monsters and dehumanize them so it's easier on our consciences. As a nation, the U.S. has killed millions of people in the name of FREEDOM. Who gave the U.S. the right to determine who lives and who dies in this world?

Eventhough the ARABS have a twisted view of who should carry out God's punishment, at least they believe in a God that punishes. The U.S. is just like the Arabs if they think they're carrying out God's punishment/judgment too. I think Americans could learn something from this disaster that goes ABOVE and BEYOND nationalism. It's a time to look in the mirror for a lot of people. The ARABS attack on AMERICA is just a reflection of something Americans practice themselves.

I agree there are good and decent people in America but they aren't perfect. To blame our airports for the tragedy is stupid. They've worked so hard for us for decades and the last thing they need is people saying what a rotten job they've done. They did the best they could under the circumstances.

So if you want to blame someone it has to be SATAN. He's the monster and force behind this tragedy. He uses NATIONALISM and PRIDE to satiate his thirst for human blood.

I think you missed the point of Dave Barry's article. Let me restate it below.

We are like the perpetrators of Tuesday's attack in that we sometimes kill innocent civilians in acts of war.

We are better than them because we don't relish killing innocent civilians. We bombed Hiroshima and Nagasaki in order to put a definitive end to WW2. We give Israel weapons that they use to kill innocent Palestinians, because we are be a bit confused about Middle Eastern politics. We starve Iraqi children because our economic sanctions against Iraq, designed to cripple Saddam Hussein, are instead crippling the Iraqi people. But we certainly take no joy in killing innocent people, and we definitely don't kill innocent Iraqis/Palestinians/Sudanese/etc. because we don't like them.


[This message has been edited by speedracer (edited 09-14-2001).]

 

[]{arao]{e]

Religion isn't the problem here; it's FALSE religion headed by maniacs that is the culprit.

 

[The Wanderer]

]{arao]{e,

you keep saying this is "the ARABS attack on AMERICA," but in reality this is the act of dissident, fanatical, fundamental extremists who DO NOT follow their religion; instead they shame their beautiful religion and the many great people of Arab descent who DO follow the Muslim religion with dignity and honor

airports have not done a good job at all, airlines & airports have taken many liberties in safety in the name of greater profit, and we allowed it -- both the airlines and passangers are to blamel; it's time to incorporate standards similar to those used on Israeli airlines, which have never had a hijacking in 20 years of implementaion

 

[The Wanderer]

Originally posted by ]{arao]{e:

The ARABS attack on AMERICA is just a reflection of something Americans practice themselves.

this is a mindless statement

 

[Achtung Bubba]

Good, Karaoke. Just what we needed.

Another thread equating us with the scum who killed thousands Tuesday.

Another thread ignoring the fact the right to defend ourselves.

Another thread oblivious to the the idea that there are good guys and bad guys, and this time, without question, we are the good guys.



------------------
- Achtung Bubba

September, streets capsizing,
Spilling over, down the drain

"You know, by God, I actually pity those poor bastards we're goin' up against. By God, I do. We're not just gonna shoot the bastards, we're going to cut out their living guts and use them to grease the treads of our tanks. We're going to murder those lousy...bastards by the bushel."
from the film Patton

 

[speedracer]

Originally posted by The Wanderer:
]{arao]{e,

airports have not done a good job at all, airlines & airports have taken many liberties in safety in the name of greater profit, and we allowed it -- both the airlines and passangers are to blamel; it's time to incorporate standards similar to those used on Israeli airlines, which have never had a hijacking in 20 years of implementaion

This is actually a very interesting point. I believe that the Israeli airlines are heavily subsidized by the government (which in turn is heavily subsidized by the US). I think pilots on some Israeli planes carry guns.

 

[The Wanderer]

pilots in Israel also NEVER leave the cockpit, they install two sealed, virutally impenetrable doors and they have undercover guards on the flights as well

 

[yipekiayeah]

Originally posted by The Wanderer:
]{arao]{e,

you keep saying this is "the ARABS attack on AMERICA," but in reality this is the act of dissident, fanatical, fundamental extremists who DO NOT follow their religion; instead they shame their beautiful religion and the many great people of Arab descent who DO follow the Muslim religion with dignity and honor

HERE HERE! This is a fact that is getting over looked in my little part of the world, where people are being painted with the same brush and yet are just as horrified as I am with the events that have taken place.

 

[Hitman]

Dave Barry writes a great column minus the comedy...

I've always been a fan, and now I am even a little more so.

 

[speedracer]

Originally posted by The Wanderer:
pilots in Israel also NEVER leave the cockpit, they install two sealed, virutally impenetrable doors and they have undercover guards on the flights as well

Interesting. Don't know how much it would cost to upgrade our airlines to Israeli standards, though--we probably handle much more air traffic than Israel does.

Achtung Bubba, I don't know if I'd say that we're the good guys and they're the bad guys. We're (indirectly) responsible for some of the atrocities in the Middle East. For example, we fund much of Israel's military activity, which includes some horrible crimes against Palestinians, though I'd stop short of saying that we actually sponsor it. I'd say that we're the "reasonably OK" guys and that the perpetrators of Tuesday's acts are the "scum of the Earth" guys.

 

[The Wanderer]

speedracer: I think you hit on exactly why the US hasn't up-graded to Israeli airline security standards -- it's very costly, but what choice are we left with now???

I would also say that the terrorists are indeed "the bad guys," though this does not encompass millions of innocent people living in Afghanastan and other Mid-East nations that are in the chains of these rulers and terrorists, they too, are victims in all of this, because sadly they are the ones whose lives will be sacrificed by the rulers of these nations

[This message has been edited by The Wanderer (edited 09-14-2001).]

 

[speedracer]

Originally posted by The Wanderer:
speedracer: I think you hit on exactly why the US hasn't up-graded to Israeli airline security standards -- it's very costly, but what choice are we left with now???

Dunno, maybe we could spring for some martial arts training to go along with the pilots' flight training instead of having to have full-time airline police.

I would also say that the terrorists are indeed "the bad guys," though this does not encompass millions of innocent people living in Afghanastan and other Mid-East nations that are in the chains of these rulers and terrorists, they too, are victims in all of this, because sadly they are the ones whose lives will be sacrificed by the rulers of these nations

Ideally, we could hunt down the terrorists instead of resorting to carpet-bombing Afghanistan and other countries.

 

[zooropamanda]

Correct me if I'm wrong,speedracer, but isn't that just what the American government IS doing right now? They are trying to find these terrorists.
Think back, America would only carpet bomb as you say as a very last resort.Bush hasnt got his finger on the bomb button just yet.
I think the American government is doing the best job they can do so far.

 

[Hawk269]

Originally posted by ]{arao]{e:

"The U.S. is just like the Arabs if they think they're carrying out God's punishment/judgment too."


Karaoke:

I can barely bring myself to dignify your ignorant and disgusting post with a response.

If you believe for one second that the U.S. is like the scum that killed all the innocent people on Tuesday, then you are in need of serious mental help. We do not instigate violence. The difference: Historically, the U.S. responds to events that compromise our free way of life. We RESPOND. We do not start shit. There is a big difference there. Learn it. Remember it.


AJ

And we will respond...

 

[Diemen]

I agree wholeheartedly with everything this article states.

-----
Just for being Americans . . .
BY DAVE BARRY

No humor column today. I don't want to write it, and you don't want to read it.

No words of wisdom, either. I wish I were wise enough to say something that would help make sense of this horror, something that would help ease the unimaginable pain of the victims' loved ones, but I'm not that wise. I'm barely capable of thinking. Like many others, I've spent the hours since Tuesday morning staring at the television screen, sometimes crying, sometimes furious, but mostly just stunned.

What I can't get out of my mind is the fact that they used our own planes. I grew up in the Cold War, when we always pictured the threat as coming in the form of missiles -- sleek, efficient death machines, unmanned, hurtling over the North Pole from far away. But what came, instead, were our own commercial airliners, big friendly flying buses coming from Newark and Boston with innocent people on board. Red, white and blue planes, with ``United'' and ``American'' written on the side. The planes you've flown in and I've flown in. That's what they used to attack us. They were able to do it in part because our airport security is pathetic. But mainly they were able to do it because we are an open and trusting society that simply is not set up to cope with evil men, right here among us, who want to kill as many Americans as they can.

That's what's so hard to comprehend: They want us to die just for being Americans. They don't care which Americans die: military Americans, civilian Americans, young Americans, old Americans. Baby Americans. They don't care. To them, we're all mortal enemies. The truth is that most Americans, until Tuesday, were only dimly aware of their existence, and posed no threat to them. But that doesn't matter to them; all that matters is that we're Americans. And so they used our own planes to kill us.

And then their supporters celebrated in the streets.

I'm not naive about my country. My country is definitely not always right; my country has at times been terribly wrong. But I know this about Americans: We don't set out to kill innocent people. We don't cheer when innocent people die.


A DECENT PEOPLE

The people who did this to us are monsters; the people who cheered them have hate-sickened minds. One reason they can cheer is that they know we would never do to them what their heroes did to us, even though we could, a thousand times worse. They know that when we hunt down the monsters, we will try hard not to harm the innocent. Those are the handcuffs we willingly wear, because for all our flaws, we are a decent people.

And now we are a traumatized people. The TV commentators keep saying that the attacks have awakened a ``sleeping giant.'' And I guess we do look like a giant, to the rest of the world. But when I look around, I don't see a giant: I see millions of individuals -- the resilient and caring citizens of New York and Washington; the incredibly brave firefighters, police officers and rescue workers risking their lives in the dust and flames; the politicians standing on the steps of the Capitol and singing an off-key rendition of God Bless America that, corny as it was, had me weeping; the reporters and photographers who have not slept, and will not sleep, as long as there is news to report; the people in my community, and communities across America, lining up to give blood, wishing they could do more.

A GOOD COUNTRY

No, I don't see a giant. What I see is Americans. We may have the power of a giant, but we also have the heart of a good and generous people, and we will get through this. We will grieve for our dead, and tend to our wounded, and repair the damage, and tighten our security, and put our planes back in the air. Eventually most of us, the ones lucky enough not to have lost somebody, will resume our lives. Some day, our country will track down the rest of the monsters behind this, and make them pay, and I suppose that will make most of us feel a little better. But revenge and hatred won't be why we'll go on. We'll go on because we know this is a good country, a country worth keeping.

Those who would destroy it only make us see more clearly how precious it is.