As America passed with solemn tribute the murder of 3000 citizens 10 years after September 11th, 2001, social media networks, like Facebook, were filled with tributes, thanks, passages from the bible, and pleas. Amongst those pleas, that we spend no time on 9/11 engaging in politics. We have many days ahead to talk about our ideas, our ideals, our desires for America and the best course of action for America. 9/11 is just not the day for politics.
And, as Americans, we watched the tributes on Saturday at Shanksville, PA. And again, the social media networks were filled with video and audio from the day. Specifically, people marveled at the words of former Presidents Bush and Clinton. For whatever we think of their politics, their time in office or their time out of office, they understood what we understand – now was not the time for politics or pettiness. 9/11 is something we, as a nation, survived together. We lost, we suffered, we felt anger, we are still angry. But we survived. For all of our problems, the republic is still here.
Yet, there are those who don’t understand. Who don’t have the basic humanity one assumes would exists in the hearts and souls of Americans. Who think their lofty position has entrusted upon them a higher intelligence, when all they have is farcical audacity and, indeed, deep seeded hate. One of those is Paul Krugman, the Nobel Prize winning Economist who fancies himself an intellectual. As America has learned, we need people of intellect. Pseudo-intellectuals always lead to unmitigated disaster.
From Krugman’s blog in The New York Times:
What happened after 9/11 — and I think even people on the right know this, whether they admit it or not — was deeply shameful. Te atrocity should have been a unifying event, but instead it became a wedge issue. Fake heroes like Bernie Kerik, Rudy Giuliani, and, yes, George W. Bush raced to cash in on the horror. And then the attack was used to justify an unrelated war the neocons wanted to fight, for all the wrong reasons.
Krugman didn’t get the memo about how to act on 9/11. (As if a memo on how to be a human being is actually necessary!) It’s like he’s wearing a clown costume to a funeral. Because Krugman is a clown, and 9/11 is a funeral. To start, Krugman’s elitism makes him think that he knows what people in America are thinking. His elitism has also immediately turned 9/11 in to a class war. People on the “right” know that what happened after 9/11 was deeply shameful? This isn’t true about people on the left? Actually, this isn’t true at all! It is a simpleton’s strawman argument to force through a failed meme – the left is more compassionate than the right. (A meme that is also destroyed by posting such a hateful, thoughtless article on September 11th.)
The attack continues, in discussing the “fake heroes” – Kerik, Guiliani and Bush. If you ask anyone on the right, the heroes of 9/11 are the ones who stayed behind when they could have run to safety, and in doing so saved countless lives. The heroes of 9/11 are those who ran into the buildings when others ran out. We call them First Responders – the same ones who Mayor Michael Bloomberg decided were not worthy to attend the ceremonies at Ground Zero!
It would not be right to call Kerik, Guiliani or Bush “heroes” in that sense. Yet, it would be simply a false rewrite of history to deny the amazing sense of calm that former Mayor Rudy Guiliani placed in the city. That while most men cower in a situation like this, he was on the scene. He wasn’t cowering in the corner, he led the city – and by proxy the nation! – to believe that there was still a rule of law, that America was still in control of America.
His strength and optimism stated clearly that New York would still be the capital of the world, and it will (we will!) return to normalcy again. It’s a far cry from Krugman’s idols, like Sen. Harry Reid (D-NV) and his inspiring words about Iraq, stating clearly, “…this war is lost.”
That Bush “raced to cash in” on 9/11 is just a nonsense, shameless, pathetic attack meant for cheap applause from mindless people. Did Janeane Garofalo write this for him?
Krugman continues with his ignorant screed:
The memory of 9/11 has been irrevocably poisoned; it has become an occasion for shame. And in its heart, the nation knows it.
What shame should those who lost loved ones feel? What shame should our nation have? Shame of our troops that fight for us? Shame of The Pentagon that has rebuilt? Shame in Shanksville, PA for building a memorial that I personally must get to in my lifetime? Shame of those who risked their lives for those they never met? Shame for those who spent days, weeks and even months slowly removing the debris from Ground Zero? Shame for those who work with such passion to bring about the new Freedom Tower?
Should America feel shame in a Mayor who let his city know that they will be back and better than ever? No, America should not. Should America feel shame in a President who set out to destroy the enemy that attacked us, and murdered 3000 of our fellow citizens? No, America should not. Should America feel shame that we will, year after year after year after year after year, commemorate this day, read the names of those who died, and tell our children that we learned on that day to be ever vigilant, ever strong, ever ready? No, America should not.
Krugman ended his 182-word post by stating this:
I’m not going to allow comments on this post, for obvious reasons.
What is obvious is that Krugman doesn’t allow comments because Krugman is a coward. He is the image that should be juxtaposed to the men and women in uniform from that day, and every day before and since. Krugman’s cowardice should be set against Capt. Greg Amira, who was buried not once but twice in the rubble of the Twin Towers. Then, a few years later, he was called up to return to the war zone in Iraq. According to his interview on FOX News Channel, Capt. Amira gave up his disability payments – including money due him from a victim’s fund of over $1 million – to return to active duty with the US Army. He suffered injuries that forced him to spend 13 months in recovery in Ft. Bragg, North Carolina. And Paul Krugman thinks that America should be ashamed of this man, and of the thousands like him?
I feel no shame, and neither does America. The shame lies with Krugman, and those who believe his lies.
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