Lest We Forget

This is the Reality. Not some whitewashed Liberal fantasy of Political Correctness.
That’s what we have to collectively remember.
3,000 innocent lives snuffed out
in a moment of blind hatred.
And with the hate-filled partisanship we have now, we have to remember that day.

And these are the Men who did. Radical Muslims. Not George Bush, Not the CIA, not Dick Cheney or any other ridiculously partisan silliness.

And No Political Correctness.

But you can see in the “Truthers” is the modern day birth of the hyper-partisan. The need to destroy at all costs your political enemies and to believe or say any wild ass thing as long as you believe it advances your ideology and denigrates the the “enemy”.

At San Diego State University an international student, Zewdalem Kebede, overheard students talking in Arabic expressing delight about the attacks. When Kebede challenged them, he was accused of engaging in “abusive behavior” and warned that any similar behavior in the future would result in “serious disciplinary sanctions.” At Penn State, a professor who advocated an aggressive military response to the attacks on his webpage received a letter from the vice provost for academic affairs chastising him for engaging in speech that was “insensitive and perhaps even intimidating.” (Keep in mind that engaging in “intimidating” speech was grounds for termination at Penn State at the time.) Meanwhile, at Johns Hopkins, a professor who publicly advocated going after the countries that supported al Qaeda and similar terrorist organizations found himself reprimanded and removed as the director of the university’s Central Asia-Caucasus Institute.

But it was truly eye-opening for me to see that most of the attempts to stifle speech on campus in the wake of September 11 were directed at what were normal responses of anger and solidarity that most Americans felt in those days and weeks after the attacks. What is so bizarre about these cases is that the same colleges and universities that present themselves as civilized and tolerant showed such startling myopia and intolerance towards the sadness and outrage of their fellow citizens.

It was just the start of my experiences fighting campus censors — and ten years later, the fight is far from over. (Greg Lukianoff is an attorney and the president of the Foundation for Individual Rights in Education).

But now we should just Remember, in the face of Political Correctness.

“As I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I shall fear no evil, for you are with me.” -Psalm 23:4

10:03 am ET – At this exact moment ten years ago, brave patriots aboard United Airlines flight 93 forced Islamist hijackers to bring the airliner down in a Pennsylvania field, thwarting another attack on the nation’s capital:

The Pentagon:

Guy Benson:One of the most striking and disturbing images of 9/11 is a photograph of an unidentified man plunging from the World Trade Center towers to his death.  Facing the reality that no rescue effort was feasible, this citizen — like dozens of others — chose to leap to his demise rather than be incinerated by the blaze.  This picture is extraordinarily difficult to stomach.  Much of the media, which has decided to sanitize 9/11 to the greatest extent possible, won’t show it: 

Onlookers were terrified, horrified, and overcome with grief:

This was not a “tragedy.”  It was an atrocity, committed by radical Muslims whose fanatical, murderous hatred for western civilization has not abated.  They cannot be coddled.  They cannot be placated.  They can only be captured and interrogated, or killed. May those whose lives were ripped away ten years ago never be forgotten.  May their loved ones find peace.  May God bless our military, intelligence community, and first responders.  And may God bless our great country.

Amen.

I will note for historical record that in spring of 1979 I stood atop one of the Towers in New York. I can never do that again in my life.

That is reality. Not some hyper-partisan fantasy.

Let’s Roll!