Just to be clear on a few things… my politics are a bit confusing. For the most part, I am a domestic liberal, with a staunch exception to the ridiculous “Death Tax.”
When it comes to foreign policy, I tend to lean right… So basically, I am a man without a party. The way things have been going in Washington, my buddy Andre and I decided to start our own party… The Disgusted Bi-Partisans. We hate what everyone is doing and the gross and negligent party games they play.
But today is all about Bin Laden. I walked in from a trip to Disneyland with my daughter yesterday (how American can you get?), fired up the laptop and read that Bin Laden was dead. Shock.
I stared at the screen for a few moments and exclaimed, in a somewhat quiet and questioning way all that I could muster… “Wow.”
To which my daughter asked, “Wow what?”
The same little girl who I held in my arms as I cried hysterically watching 9/11 unfold was now almost old enough to understand or at least have me explain who Osama Bin Laden was.
I let her watch the President’s speech and hear Obama explain what had happened. I then turned on the TV to show her the crowd outside of the White House.
Wow… The chants of USA, USA!!! We both wished we were in DC. Man, that would have been something.
I became very emotional and fought to contain the tears welling up inside.
I felt so proud to be an American right then. It was not the same kind of patriotism I witnessed or felt after we beat the Russians in the 1980 Olympics… that was amazing… but in a similar way, it was a relief and a release and something we desperately needed.
We watched for a while and then I tucked my daughter into bed. I returned to the TV, and when they said a crowd was gathering at Ground Zero, I lost it.
I knew people who perished in the Twin Towers. My hometown of Glen Rock, NJ was devastated by that tragedy. My own mother was on a PATH train heading towards the buildings and was the last train to turn around and go back to New Jersey. I will never forget the stories she told me about passengers being so pissed and angry at the delay; how they were going to be late for work and how this messed up their day. Needless to say, they had no idea at that point what was happening. When they did, I can only imagine the silence and thankfulness. One gentleman sat in shock, telling my mom how a series of things delayed him going to work on time that day and kept him from being in the Towers.
And so we must be proud of our troops for killing a monster… a monster who absolutely and mercilessly killed thousands of people around the world… This is who Bin Laden was… Not a hero nor a martyr, but a bullshit, power hungry, misguided, cowardly monster…
We always say that this not a war on Islam, but IT IS a war on all who evoke the name of Allah or G-d to justify barbarism and murder and rape and torture. Sadly many people abuse and misuse religion for their own gains and I always ask myself why they praise their G-d for allowing them to do this. No G-d I know would ever allow or justify this or want their name associated with such despicable acts. To hear someone say Praise Allah after describing the most heinous attack on American soil makes it hard not to see things in a certain way. And no, I do not think our jubilation comes close to those who danced in the streets when the Twin Towers came down. That made me sick and are images I will never forget.
The issue is this… There is good and there is evil… and as I heard on the radio today… the evil is real. It is not imagined nor manufactured… it is not fodder for conspiracy theorists… There are, sadly, very cold, evil people in this world.
Most of the time, this evil must be stopped with war and violence and bloodshed. There is no way around this… and this is where most liberals and I tend to part ways. One must try to be open-minded and fair and balanced… No, not you Fox… Of course… But that does not and cannot mean we sacrifice intelligent thought and truth.
I am fiercely pro-Israeli… I do not hide this… Nor do I think Israel is perfect. Being an Arab Israeli is often not easy… but for the record, they live in a democracy… and there are NO JEWS in Syria nor Lebanon nor Iran… No one says a word about that… They kicked them all out, expelled every last one.
The world did not stand on a mountain and shout disdain and horror over Hamas attacking an Israeli school bus… The UN did not lift a pen to draft and official condemnation… like they do each and every time Israel defends herself against a daily barrage of attacks or attempted attacks. Israel is not an Apartheid state… Israelis are not Nazis… Israel wants peace and safety more than anyone. So the next time you decide to be neutral or say, well… maybe Hamas has a point, or maybe Hezbollah should be considered, STOP!
Really??? You want to give even the smallest amount of thought to groups like this??? Being liberal cannot mean being blind… There is no such thing as blind justice… only thoughtful, intelligent, balanced and deliberated justice. Think about what those organizations would gladly do to you if given the chance. Really. You cannot step down or away from evil. We CANNOT do it. This country and almost all democracies have survived because our leaders and those men and women in the armed forced did not step down or back away. Thank you… thank you to those who came before us and gave up so much. This is why we get to have life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness. It is. Go to DC and look at each and every memorial. It will move you beyond words. Washington, Adams, Jefferson and Lincoln… absolute courage and genius. Reading our founding documents is a lesson in history and life and thought. Absolutely amazing.
But there is still evil and we must acknowledge that this evil that sadly did not and does not die with Bin Laden. We must admit that there are people in this world who have no regard for life… not for ours nor even for their own brothers and sisters and children. There are people in this world who will use women and children as shields and strap belts full of bombs onto their innocent bodies.
There are people who will blow up planes and buses filled with innocent civilians. There are people who will behead other human beings. Think about what that takes… what you must have (or not have) in your soul to kill someone like that.
We must celebrate Bin Laden’s death, like we did with Hitler and Stalin and any number of butchers who have walked this earth in Africa or Serbia or anywhere.
We must celebrate and we must also remain strong and vigilant and dedicated to bringing back justice and peace.
In an open-ended war, strangely this brings a bit of closure. But justice and peace for all, are still a long ways off.
So celebrate, be jubilant and stand strong and united… and tell our damn politicians that we are the UNITED States of America.
