From: Judy Seigel (jseigel@panix.com)
Date: 09/18/01-02:52:35 PM Z
Hey guys... we took the hit for you & will probably take the next -- and
you're sounding off about our patriotism!?
And though I thank folks for defending "Judy's freedom of opinion" -- I
don't think I said much based on *opinion* -- more a matter of *public
record,* though perhaps not on the Fox Network. Certainly memoirs of the
last half century from major publishers by those who did it are full of
the stuff... Wasn't it Macnamara who repented the Vietnam War -- or am I
having a senior moment & missing the name? For sure in the last 3 days I
heard on the radio 68 times about bin Laden having carried our water...
And why did the congress pass a law against covert assassinations --
because there never were any?? If terrorist funds don't come from oil
money... where else? (Sorry I may have used the term ordnance or ordinance
loosely -- referring to very large support network.)
If I didn't "love America", would I feel so betrayed when it behaves
badly? To want the loved one to live up to its principles at home AND
abroad is not "hate." To assault the bearer of truth is what's
"unAmerican"... also childish, if not dangerous. What if the Washington
Post & NY Times had let obloquy stop them from printing the Pentagon
papers? We'd probably still be in Vietnam.
Permit me to suggest that a clear view of where we are & how we got there
is a higher, & clearly a more dangerous, form of patriotism than simply
waving the flag & blaming the messenger (tho hard to believe this is all
*news*).
To construe rueful comments about the World Trade Center as lousy "city
planning" to mean I don't care about the people and the city and the
country is bizarre -- I don't know a soul who liked them. The New York
Times (that commie rag?) just printed a full page of architects' & guide
books' outcries against the WTC. If we can't learn from our mistakes we
really are doomed.
As for the police, my neighbors are standing on the westside highway (&
I've been among them) weeping and applauding as the police and diggers &
firemen drive by, also at the pier making sandwiches for the volunteers,
giving blood, and going to dig themselves. But whoever doesn't know about
what police HAVE done in NYC, Philadelphia, and LA, among other places,
isn't entitled to comment. I myself live in an upscale white neighborhood
where the police are essentially our servants (and where I daresay
muggings are no more frequent per capita than in Wyoming!). However, the
names Diallo & Louima are only the best known... I know firsthand & have
read in the papers of many others, almost equally ugly. If you don't know
these facts, again *tais toi* -- not to mention that my words were taken
out of context -- I was expressing our grief for the fire fighters, who
were *always* the good guys. (And I add the "good" news, that "only" 11 of
the neighborhood company were lost, not all as initially feared.)
Nearly every other line of my "report" is similarly twisted or invented --
for instance if you think there's no alternative between cutting down the
trees in Central Park for heat and profligate non-conserving use of oil
that also destroys the ozone layer, you're reading a script in your head,
not my words. (For the record, we ourselves use less than half the heating
oil we used in 1973, having improved the entire system, from insulation to
burner nozzle -- how about you?)
On the bright side, I've had many replies to my original commentary from
folks who were profoundly grateful, said it moved them to tears. However
if you want a pissing contest about who loves America best... I think we
have to get in line. Right now the operative contest is about who knows
better what god wants .... Jerry Falwell or bin Laden.
And Happy New Year to all,
Judy
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