a99kitten's Musings

I remember watching the 2001 season Superbowl (so in early 2002.) It was still freshly post-9/11. I remember that it was the Patriots who were playing in it and Tom Brady came up as a back-up QB who was a 6th round draft pick. And he was from the Bay Area – a local boy (his high school is a couple blocks from our office!) Cinderella story. I remember being SO happy a team named the Patriots were there with such a story and screaming at every play and score and knew they were going to win the Super Bowl. It was just right. It was exactly what should have happened that year.

This was pre-fantasy football for me. so I was pretty much only a 49ers and Bucs fan. I thought Joe Montana was the only quarterback in the world :) So for me to care at all about a different team was a big deal.

I was never really a Patriots fan before or after that. Not really a fan of Belichick. And I way prefer Peyton Manning or Drew Brees. BUT, this year Brees was taken in the draft and Peyton is out with injury (hopefully not career-ending). So I took Brady.

10 years later I will root for Brady again. Still debating buying his jersey for the FF year. But I do still request he cut his dang hair. :)

I wasn’t in NYC, DC or Pennsylvania. I didn’t know anyone that died. I know people that were in NYC, and heard their stories. But that’s it.

But I am an American. And proud to be. Every single day.

Even though so many things happen here that disgust me, anger me, annoy me. We are still the best country in the world. If you don’t live here and you disagree with that. OK. Please stay away. No big deal. If you live here and disagree – feel free to leave right now. In fact – get the F out. Please. Now.

I am probably not going to watch many specials, or read a lot of stories. It does still make me sad. And angry. I get way too melancholy. I still remember that day very vividly. I remember the exact moment someone called us (quite early on the West Coast.) Turning on the TV and watching the news. Trying to call people we knew in NYC and not getting through. Walking on the beach with the huskies on a beautiful sunny day thinking what the heck just happened and how will it change the world forever. Our business suffered a big blow on 9/12 and we had to do a huge round of layoffs right then too. So a bad month. While certainly not the same type of tragedy in any way, still one that effected a lot of people around me. Bad time for sure.

But I cannot even begin to imagine what it is like for people that lived through it. I had nightmares for weeks (and still sometimes do) wondering to what extent the world has changed and worrying. And I was pretty far removed from it all. But I do stress about it fairly frequently. Which is why I understand the need for people like Dick Cheney and the role of the CIA and special forces. If you say you don’t, you are being naive, stupid or just lying to yourself.

So all the memorials and TV specials and politicians blathering on will never really make it better for the people who went through this. Or make me or you fully understand it. That’s the nature of trauma and disaster. No one can truly understand what any Nazi war prisoner went through. Or the servicemen and residents at Pearl Harbor.

We can only take the time to salute the heroes, honor the fallen, be thankful you were safe and always pray (to whoever or whatever that may be) for the safety of our military. They fight every day. And every single person living in this country, enjoying its vast freedoms, should do that.

This was originally published in the National Review on 9/25/01. It was written by Peter Ferrara, an associate professor of law at the George Mason University School of Law.

Seemed like a good thing to re-read today.

“You probably missed it in the rush of news last week, but there was actually a report that someone in Pakistan had published in a newspaper there an offer of a reward to anyone who killed an American, any American.

So I just thought I would write to let them know what an American is, so they would know when they found one.

An American is English…or French, or Italian, Irish, German, Spanish, Polish, Russian or Greek. An American may also be African, Indian, Chinese, Japanese, Australian, Iranian, Asian, or Arab, or Pakistani, or Afghan.

An American is Christian, or he could be Jewish, or Buddhist, or Muslim. In fact, there are more Muslims in America than in Afghanistan. The only difference is that in America they are free to worship as each of them choose.

An American is also free to believe in no religion. For that he will answer only to God, not to the government, or to armed thugs claiming to speak for the government and for God.

An American is from the most prosperous land in the history of the world. The root of that prosperity can be found in the Declaration of Independence, which recognizes the God-given right of each man and woman to the pursuit of happiness.

An American is generous. Americans have helped out just about every other nation in the world in their time of need. When Afghanistan was overrun by the Soviet army 20 years ago, Americans came with arms and supplies to enable the people to win back their country. As of the morning of September 11, Americans had given more than any other nation to the poor in Afghanistan.

An American does not have to obey the mad ravings of ignorant, ungodly cruel, old men. American men will not be fooled into giving up their lives to kill innocent people, so that these foolish old men may hold on to power. American women are free to show their beautiful faces to the world, as each of them choose.

An American is free to criticize his government’s officials when they are wrong, in his or her own opinion. Then he is free to replace them, by majority vote.

Americans welcome people from all lands, all cultures, all religions, because they are not afraid. They are not afraid that their history, their religion, their beliefs, will be overrun, or forgotten. That is because they know they are free to hold to their religion, their beliefs, their history, as each of them choose.

And just as Americans welcome all, they enjoy the best that everyone has to bring, from all over the world. The best science, the best technology, the best products, the best books, the best music, the best food, the best athletes.

Americans welcome the best, but they also welcome the least. The nation symbol of America welcomes your tired and your poor, the wretched refuse of your teeming shores, the homeless, tempest tossed.

These in fact are the people who built America. Many of them were working in the twin towers on the morning of September 11, earning a better life for their families.

So you can try to kill an American if you must. Hitler did. So did General Tojo and Stalin and Mao Tse-Tung, and every bloodthirsty tyrant in the history of the world.

But in doing so you would just be killing yourself. Because Americans are not a particular people from a particular place. They are the embodiment of the human spirit of freedom. Everyone who holds to that spirit, everywhere, is an American.

So look around you. You may find more Americans in your land than you thought were there. One day they will rise up and overthrow the old, ignorant, tired tyrants that trouble too many lands. Then those lands too will join the community of free and prosperous nations.

And America will welcome them.”