9-11: The Day We Were All Americans

MoonHowler

Much has changed in a post 9-11 world, yet very little has changed.  We still go about our daily lives as though little has changed.  Flying is a huge pain.  Getting a drivers’ license is more involved.  We have codes and security measures but on the whole, not much has changed for most of us.  Oh yes, we have been involved in 2 wars.  But, like most modern wars, they don’t really impact your every day American.

I renew my anger and rage on 9-11.  I need to not be complacent.  I need to feel how I felt on 9-11-2001, just for a while.  It is all too easy, because I haven’t been impacted by 9-11 on any real and personal level, to just let it drift off like those horrible national events that have gone before it….blurred by the annals of time.

Film footage is a good stimulus to bring all my rage roaring back.

Link to WTC-911

We cannot let new debates, wars, and politics change the real message of 9-11. We were an innocent people just going about our daily lives when evil took over for the day; when zealtory, in a flash, wiped out the lives of over 3,000 people and left their families and friends without fathers, mothers, children, aunts, uncles, grandparents, girl friends and boyfriends. We must remain vigilant. We must restoke our rage when it starts to diminish. On 9-11-2001 we were all Americans.  We seem to forget about that also.

New Phobias?

MoonHowler

Islamophobia-hatred or fear of Muslims or of their politics or culture

 Hispanophobia-an aversion to Spain or to Spanish-speaking countries or peoples.

I have heard these words on TV but thought they were just made up.  Apparently not.  Here they are.  I always thought that phobias were fears with deep psychological roots.  Apparently not.  We have used the word ‘homophobia’ for years to indicate those who dislike gays.  Perhaps the word implies discomfort with gays as much as it does dislike.

Now we have all of these issues confronting the American people, perhaps we need to discuss the use of these words.  Are they legitimate words?  Do they really convey how some people feel?  Are they politically ‘loaded’ words?

Are there other words that are recently ‘invented’ to describe social conditions?  Are these words insulting when used at a person or group of people? 

Are these words just more specific examples of a legitimate word, ‘xenophobia,’ which seems to have been around much longer than these other words?

Xenophobia-   undue fear or contempt  of that which is foreign, especially of strangers or foreign peoples.

Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell Ruled Unconstitutional

MoonHowler

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips has ruled that the current military  ban on openly gay service members unconstitutional.   The judge has said she will issue an order to stop the practice nationwide. 

According to msnbc.com:

U.S. District Judge Virginia Phillips said the ban violates the First Amendment rights of gays and lesbians. “Don’t ask, don’t tell” prohibits the military from asking about the sexual orientation of service members but requires discharge of those who acknowledge being gay or are discovered engaging in homosexual activity, even in the privacy of their own homes off base.

In her ruling, Phillips said the policy doesn’t help military readiness and instead has a “direct and deleterious effect” on the armed services.

The Log Cabin Republicans, a 19,000 member group of predominantly gay Republicans sought the lawsuit in 2004.  Judge Phillips will issue an injunction later on in the week.  More than 13,500 members of the military have been drummed out since it was first enacted in 1994.  It is unknown what will happen to those people. 

President Clinton had hoped to permit gays in the military.  As soon as he became president Congress fought him tooth and nail and a compromise of ‘Don’t Ask, Don’t Tell” was reached.  Many gays felt Clinton had sold them out.  The political reality was that had Clinton pushed his agenda through, he might have been faced with more restrictions like a bill that outlawed gays in the military.