We Americans, at least in the conventional wisdom zeitgeist, imagine ourselves and our nation to be tough, courageous, and superior to all others.
“America is #1” is the common refrain, even though that is hardly true in most statistics anymore.
Driving into work this morning, I was listening to 610 WIP. They were talking about the probable end of Brian Westbrook’s career, the Philadelphia Eagles running back who has now suffered two concussions in a month’s time. Keith Jones, as a former player for the Flyers who saw his career end prematurely due to injury, drew on his experience and said it can be tough for a thirty year old player to have his playing days end and then have to survive on a fixed income for the rest of his life, especially after the economic calamity that followed 9/11 and the most recent Great Recession. A very reasonable point, to me.
Well, about 15 minutes later a caller called in furious that Jones had even mentioned 9/11. “I am from New York! How dare you compare 9/11 to sports?!?”
Uh, he wasn’t. And his point is 9/11 produced one of the largest market sell offs in history…. until the 2008 collapse. His point was that many players invest their income in the stock market, and as a result of the two sell offs connected to … yes… the September 11, 2001 attacks and the recent economic depression, players have lost money. These are facts.
But they are also somehow insults to the brain dead American shouting “We’re #1!”
It occurred to me that, as I drove into Center City Philadelphia, that we cannot mention 9/11 now except in a positive light. We cannot even point out the economic consequences that resulted from the attack, as somehow that is either disrespecting the dead or New York or America.
As I continued driving, Angelo Cataldi repeated a wish that is common among almost all conservatives, but also among the left and middle.
“I hope they don’t try those terrorists in New York.”
Why?
Govenor Paterson seems to suggest in one of the links above that 9/11 was a painful event that New Yorkers are not over yet, and may never be over. That is understood. But all crimes are painful events to the victims and their families, yet we almost always hold the trials of the criminals committing the crimes in the jurisdiction where it happened, regardless of the victim’s pain. Indeed, the desire for vengence almost requires it, if not proper jurisprudence.
Indeed, it would seem that the same brain dead Americans shouting “We’re #1!” are the ones almost scared to death of trying or imprisoning terrorists on American soil. If America is so tough, superior and just, then we can handle putting terrorists on trial for their crimes against us. If America is so tough, superior and just, we can handle imprisoning them on American soil.
[S]ix in 10 people [i.e. 60%] questioned in a CNN/Opinion Research Corporation survey released Monday say that the alleged mastermind of the 9/11 attacks should be tried in the United States, as the administration plans to do, rather than at a U.S. facility in another country.
That CNN poll does not indicate how many people are opposed to holding the trial in New York. Indeed, that would be interesting to see the breakdown of how many people favor trying terrorists in the United States, but just not in New York. Because right now I think those crying “Not in New York” are the same as those crying “Not in America!” all the while screaming “America is #1!”
The same CNN poll does indicate that two-thirds (66%) of Americans want terrorists tried in a military court rather than a civilian court as the Obama Administration plans to do. I am undecided on that point, and I can see the positives and negatives of both. But that is a question as to process. So long as nearly the same amount of people want him tried here, I am comforted.
For I know that the chest pounding yet scared to death screaming scaredy catservatives are a vast minority in the country.