We’re all running at maximum adrenaline here. And I think we’re justified in being so. This wasn’t one plane crash, it was four, and three of them were deliberately slammed into high-population buildings. The fourth was probably crashed deliberately in a low-population area so as not to cause more destruction.
But because this is such a high-stress time, we’ve all got to maintain our cool. Things get said that we wouldn’t otherwise say. Knee-jerk opinions and theories get slung around. Others read meanings into these opinions that aren’t necessarily there and spout off accordingly.
Therefore, we must all be on our guard a bit more. Let’s not let this tragedy divide us. We’re all (or mostly) Americans, but more importantly, we’re all humans. Let’s treat each other in the way humans deserve to be treated, OK?
Just one of these plane crashes would have made international news normally, but FOUR.
The mind boggles.
I heard a snippet on the news at some point today that the 4th plane may have been heading for Camp David. Don’t know how true this is.
I think security for domestic flights in the US is too lax and this will probably ultimately be deemed to be the cause of today’s incident. It would have been much harder for the terrorists to have carried out this kind of attack in Europe.
I had a long, involved, kinda nasty response ready to go when I reread MsRobyn and Jester’s comments.
They’re right.
Therefore, let me reduce my reply to the following few sentences:
I never slandered “everyone who opposes US policy in Israel as anti-Semitic” I was clearly talking about talk-radio yahoos who imply that the U.S. “deserved” this for their support of Israel. That argument is as flawed as saying that a woman deserved to be raped because she wore a short skirt.
In the interests of not further hijacking this thread, I’m sorry this misunderstanding deeply offended you.
Fenris
Amen to the cooler heads who’ve posted here today. This is **not ** the time for screaming petty politics. This is the time to take care of our own who are wounded and/or trapped in those buildings. That is what we should be concerned with at this time. Get the people out and get 'em to a hospital. Those of us who aren’t involved in the rescue efforts should do what we can to help those who are. Donate blood, donate money, donate anything the Red Cross asks for, and for those who believe in a god or gods, offer your prayers for those who are suffering at this time.
We all have our opinions as to what the US could have done, should have done or should do, and who is to blame for this nightmare. Keep them to yourselves! The last thing we need are half-cocked idiots running around, blaming innocent people for the acts of lunatics.
I know many of us out there do not think that Bush should have been elected President and that he’s incompetent. My answer to you is to shut the fuck up! I don’t care. He’s the guy in office and he’s the guy we have to look to for leadership. Like it or not, that’s the way things are. This is a crisis unlike any other in human history and I can assure you that there are plenty of able people in the US government who will ensure that the right actions get taken. They may be willing to let the incompent boobs run things most of the time, but in a situation like this, they will not allow the idiots to make the wrong call.
So shut the fuck up! Let the people who know what they’re doing get this sorted out, and when they do, and we’ve gone back to being fat and happy Americans, you can bitch all you want. I’ll even join you in your bitching, I’m sure. But right now, we’ve got more important things to worry about.
And for those of you who think that every Arab is to blame, fucking fuck you. This was an act by lunatics which no way reflects upon Arabs in general. No doubt many of the Middle Eastern governments are working just as hard as ours is to help bring those responsible for this horror to justice. This event was bad for everyone, not just a few Americans.
I actually saw a few US Senators being interviewed on CNN last night (must have been about 1 in the afternoon Eastern - they were standing on the roof of a church in Washington, IIRC). They were Republicans (not that it realy matters, as Fenris already noted - also, I forgot which states), and one of them was going on how “the country’s safety had been jeopardised by the government over the last decade”, and how this had “lead to the tragedy we witness today”, or words to that effect. I was apalled that the lady interviewing him didn’t call him on it! For GODS sake, two US cities have turned into war zones, thousands of lives are lost, and all you can think about is backstabbing the Clinton administration?? FUCK you. That man is not an American. Any true American would stand by his fellow countymen in need.
Just like any decent citizen of the world should stand by their fellow citizens in times of need. In this case, they are American. They could also have been English, Dutch, German, Israeli, whatever. This affects us all.
(Disclaimer: I cannot imagine what pain and sorrow the survivors/relatives of those who are missing are going through right now, and I don’t pretend to either. All I’m saying is that from an “outside” perspective (for lack of a better word), this just comes across as a blow to pure universal freedom as well as an American tragedy, you know what I mean?)
Really? Good grief; I was assuming that the remarks made by stuffinb and Fenris were directed toward people that were more on the fringe of the political spectrum, anyway. I’m truly surprised that an elected member of one of the major political parties would, nearly immediately, use this as an opportunity to get in some digs at the opposition. Talk about going off half-cocked.
My goodness.
I heard Bill O’Reilly last night saying suicide missions are only done by Palestinians.
Did they actually show some rejoicing becasue of this?
Michael Moore, I am looking at you here. Thousands of people might be dead today. Can we wait a day or so before you turn this into an anti-Bush diatribe? I know you don’t think about much else, but for Christ’s sake man, the world is not about you and the goddamned stolen election and how much you hate Boy George. I used to be a big fan, but I’m seriously questioning that allegiance now.
[sub]in my own little way, this is what I’ve been trying to do[/sub]
On the other hand, I’m seeing some heartening things - folks who are generally strident banner wavers for certain issues calling out to others that ‘now is not the time’ .
I was very impressed to see the senators and house members acting impartially last night. They sang “God Bless America” and I haven’t felt similar pride since I was a member of the Army. I’m going to attach a flag to mine and my wife’s car this afternoon.
Ugh. My local paper has published a letter from some idiot claiming that Gephardt and Daschle and the Democrats are responsible for not supporting and cooperating with Bush over the last few months. Right, like Bin Laden is sitting in his bunker in Afghanistan thinking, “Democrats and Republicans are split or stem-cell research and how to spend the surplus. Now is the perfect time to attack!”
Just to show that idiocy comes in all stripes, another twit argued that Bush is to blame for walking out on the international racism conference in South Africa. Yeah, like the terrorists really gave a big fucking shit about that: “Oh! The Americans have left the anti-racism conference. We were going to sit here and twiddle our thumbs, but just for that, let’s kill thousands of them on two weeks notice!”
And my great representative Christopher Cox is using this tragedy to argue for the necessity of the missile defense system, which makes about as much sense as a baseball manager arguing that because his shortshop made an error in the last game, he therefore needs a new first base man.
Opening lines of two poems come to mind:
“In Xanadu did Kublai Khan a stately pleasure dome decree…”
“I met a traveler from an antique land who said 'an obelisk stands in the desert…”
I’ll make it easy if you want to read them: title to one is suggested in the first line; the other is “Ozymandias.” So forgive me if you already know the poems!
All you guys who are advocating Star Wars: how is it going to stop a domestic plane from flying into a skyscraper? How is it going to stop a car bomb? How is it going to prevent someone walking into a huge marketplace and detonate a bomb strapped to him? How is it going to prevent somone from going to a group of girls on their way to school, and either firebomb or open fire at them, or both? Huh? What? I can’t hear you. The terrorists don’t need an ICBM to do massive damage.