Robert Jago writes:
A few weeks back I was down in New York. Seeing Cathy and the in-laws in Westchester County. My mother-in-law’s best friend came by – she had known her since kindergarten. They’re both 80, so that’s a long time. It was subtle, and I admit, I forgot it at first, but 9-11 was there too. Her son died in the towers. His last minutes broadcast live on city-wide radio for his mother to hear. I couldn’t understand her feelings about the country until that fact came back to me.
If you have lived in the world, then you feel this day. It’s not something that happened on TV. It’s something that touches you and your friends. It’s a thing that you feel consume you when you stand to give a speech and your eyes pass over the crowd, and you remember a class. Or when you buy the paper, or when you set foot in that city and see the woman you love crying at Ground Zero because she caught sight of the name of a friend – posted on a wall where the towers stood.
Obviously, I hate 9-11 and I hate Al Qaeda – who doesn’t? But almost as much as I hate them, I hate the people who use the thousands of dead as a means to advance insane conspiracies – either inspired by Jew hatred, or Bush derangement, anti-Americanism, or just plain misanthropism. I don’t care, I just hate them.
Now one of them is threatening to sue me.
I will NEVER cave in to threats like that – not from filth who dance on the graves of people I know. I’m not a poor man, and I’m not without friends. If they are determined to bring this to court, then let them.
I’m proud that that kind of person hates me. I’d be ashamed of myself if they didn’t.
I disagree with Robert about a lot of things — ironically, one of those things is his assertion that some political speech is unacceptable and must be proscribed, a doctrine called “decontamination.” I don’t know how a libertarian can endorse something with such a fascist name, let alone such a fascist purpose.
So what? The bigger issue is this latest attempt to shut up and shut down a fellow blogger.
The blogosphere must remain free.
It’s an article of faith among Canadian lefties that “Americans are stupid because they’re always suing each other.”
Yet look at them, suing us. Their sheer lack of self-awareness is pitiful, but not surprising, alas.
