"None of us will ever forget this day, yet we go forward to defend freedom and all that is good and just in our world.” (President George W. Bush, 9/11/01)

I awoke Sunday morning in the suburbs east of Cleveland, Ohio, where I was visiting family. As I sat down with my bagel and cream cheese, a special Cleveland Plain Dealer section “reflecting on 9-11 eight years later” greeted me. As this paper reaches more people in America’s most crucial electoral state, I was interested.

Before I expose the “journalism” I spent 15 minutes perusing, it’s worth noting that each anniversary of the 2001 Islamic terrorist attacks that passes, more of the imperative memories fade. No doubt 2009 will be the farthest we’ve strayed, especially considering the current Administration has spit on the graves of the dead by altering Patriot Day into some bureaucratic communal “day of service.” We are in the Age of Obama and old rules and traditions of 233 years mean nothing. Many of us want our country back.

As to the four editorials, all naturally written by members of the left, they were absolutely abysmal and offensive. The first two were more benign only in that they barely mentioned anything of relevance, instead focusing on semi-innocuous matters like Middle Eastern children writing poetry for “peace” or something and the cliché “we don’t fight wars to win anymore.” This is ridiculous and antithetical to history, but typical in 2009.

(Notes: These were 9-11 reflections but none I saw used the term “terrorist,” “Islam” or “Al Qaeda.” Just like 1941 when we never mentioned Nazis, nor did textbooks, eh? Let’s hope the new 9-11 curriculum , wisely introduced this week by Rudy Giuliani, will be more honest than its predecessors. Additionally, these write-ups are not accessible via the Plain Dealer website for some reason.)

The other two pieces were astoundingly atrocious. One, by the wife of Ohio’s Democrat US Senator Sherrod Brown, a devout leftist himself, touched upon the hatred she feels we now have toward President Obama.

She naturally launched into a tirade against Rush, Ann, Hannity, Beck, etc and, like Obama, quoted from the MSNBC snippets on death panels and town halls. It was so boring. But I did love how she also yelled about Hitler mustaches and right-wing intolerance when for eight years the left ignored and participated in such heinous acts almost weekly. She then whined about “parents who hate Obama not sending their kids to school this past Tuesday.”

A quick point here since this “mature” lady missed the entire reason for the public uproar, unsurprisingly:

As I noted the other day, the speech itself—its text, that is—was not a huge deal. I could complain about a line or two, but mostly I found it benign, unmemorable and riddled with platitudes like any pre-written speech by historically-challenged neophytes that The One reads from his teleprompter. 

Those parents who did not wish their children to view it are not hate-filled, or as the left often says, “Racist.” Rather this is about indoctrination of impressionable youths into the dreaded cult of personality. The speech, most importantly, also wasted class time. As usual, Obama’s narcissism set a bad precedent too. As hotair.com pointed out he used an iteration of “I” 56 times in the speech!

And it goes without saying in the world of Statist hypocrisy, when Bush the Elder spoke to students 18 years ago, panicked Democrats investigated and held hearings. But Tuesday, CNN’s multi-culti politburo told us to stop being so polarized and embrace it all—apparently because their guy is in charge.

Returning to the final essay, scribed by a very angry septuagenarian ex-newspaper editor, I found the usual anti-Bush rant...ten long months too late, of course.

He spoke of the “lack of pride and support these days...unlike after Pearl Harbor” when he was a youth. Bashing Americans from his computer, he asked why we don’t support the cause, curtail our entertainment, ration, etc, like we all did back then.

On the surface, he’s correct:

--During the Second World War when we also fought a brand of Nazism, 34 cents of every dollar went to the military, not to mention massive personal sacrifice. Now it is a paltry three cents.

--In 2009, only ten percent of us have worn the uniform, while a much smaller number of educators, bureaucrats, cabinet members, folks in “green jobs” and so on, have a military background.  Half a century ago, at least two-thirds of able-bodied men, served. In the Civil War here in Indiana, it was 76% of men between 18 and 35. Knowing the stakes, mothers nobly gave their sons. Today...?

--During the two world wars, many patriotic Americans put ten percent of their paycheck into war bonds, knowing this would keep our liberty or make the world safe for democracy. Today, few, if any, give a dime to the military aside from taxes.

--Today’s graduating classes at elite suburban high schools have NO ONE joining our armed services, while in smaller, conservative towns, more than 75% do. And though our heroic soldiers should not be made political tools, the left is far, far guiltier of this offense. Decadence, pursuit of worldly, secular matters, and a selfish, ungrateful attitude toward people better than they will ever become, is common.

As my friend Alan Dowd noted on D-Day this year:

“The soldiers are better than the rest of us, but not because they wore a uniform. They are better than us because of what they did in that uniform. Ordinary men don’t topple dictators, liberate continents, rescue civilization, and then return home as if they were on a long vacation.”

But do people watching “John and Kate,” attending $200 per ticket sporting events and concerts, or spending thousands of dollars in the malls on themselves, have interest in our troops or an appreciation for the price of freedom? Negatory.

Returning to that misguided editorial, the author therefore may be accurate in theory, but for eight long years of this war versus Islamic Jihad, many of us have asked his same questions of the left-wing anti-war movement, and none of them answered or offered anything tangible.

But now, with Obama, they’ve suddenly changed the rules? Not at all, sir. This Jeff Jacoby article from Wednesday’s Boston Globe proves, despite a Democrat president, only the GOP is still listening and siding with the mission.

So then, who’s full of hatred, or refusing to bond and unite? As I once explained to a class in Vermont four summers ago, informed war-time dissent, as always, is okay; disloyalty and conspiracy, which occurs today, is unacceptable. In prior eras, penalties for such included imprisonment and far worse. The George Soros/Cindy Sheehan/Michael Moore crowd should count their blessings each day.

I should point out that this simplistic gentleman concluded, typically, by launching into a comment about Bush being a puppet of Dick Cheney and, naturally, the worst president in modern history. That was unnecessary but expected.

Meanwhile, I conclude these essays were not helpful, but rather propaganda for our enemies. No conservative or patriotic voices were heard in these editorials that reached millions of Ohioans. I guess that’s the way liberal fascists prefer their “news” and discourse, and Democrats like Sherrod Brown concur. Just ask him:

http://bighollywood.breitbart.com/jjena/2009/09/09/stand-up-notes-from-flyover-country-sen-sherrod-brown-is-why-were-angry-my-liberal-friends/

Ari Kaufman

Article links:

http://archives.cnn.com/2001/US/09/11/bush.speech.text/

http://spectator.org/archives/2009/08/24/obamas-plan-to-desecrate-911

http://www.usatoday.com/news/nation/2009-09-08-Sept-11-education_N.htm

http://www.ontheissues.org/OH/Sherrod_Brown.htm

http://www.zombietime.com/

http://americandaily.ws/index.php/article/2672

http://mrssatan.blogspot.com/2009/06/obamas-cairo-speech-full-of-lies.html

http://baracksteleprompter.blogspot.com/

http://hotair.com/archives/2009/09/07/obama-school-speech-released/

When-Bush-spoke-to-students-Democrats-investigated

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/09/08/ruiz.obama.students/index.html

http://www.tcsdaily.com/article.aspx?id=060409C

on_afghanistan_gop_gives_obama_an_unexpected_lift

the_left_doesnt_support_the_troops

stand-up-notes-from-flyover-country