People were scared after 9/11 weren’t they? Sid was very young when it happened, I remember sitting on the couch watching the Today show cover it, then a plane hit the Pentagon while they interviewed a reporter inside. I was scared, and scared for my daughter. What was happening to the world, and would her world be anything like mine?
Well it turns out not much changed here, except we’re all scared. Now fear is used as a tactic. If we don’t pass laws restricting freedom, more attacks will come. President Bush said that voting for a Democrat will make us lose in Iraq.
I didn’t like being scared that day holding my daughter, and I don’t like the idea of her living in fear. I’m not going to let people scare me anymore because they want me to vote a certain way.
A few days ago John Kerry tried to make a joke in his stiff way. While he meant to say that if you didn’t study and stay in school you’d end up taking us to a war and getting stuck there. Instead his joke sounded like he thought only idiots joined the military. Dumb mistake, right? Within hours it had turned into John Kerry (Democrats) hate our troops and want us to lose.
Keith Olbermann used to be making witty remarks about football games on ESPN. Then he went to a tiny cable channel and started making political commentary. Yesterday he spoke brilliantly for eleven minutes on Fear, Politics, and John Kerry’s remarks. Everyone should either watch or read it.
I am in my fifties and I remember practicing climbing under my desk at school in case there was an air raid. This was during the cold war. People in our area were building bomb shelters in their yards. I also remember asking my mother what would happen if we were hurt and couldn’t get to a doctor. She told me she would sew me up with a needle and black thread she kept in the basement. This may be a small child’s interpretation of what she said, but that is how I remember it. I remember being terrified that I would die from a bomb, and this was well after the bombings in Hiroshima and Nagasaki.
I may be lambasted for these comments, but the way I interpreted Kerry’s comment was that if you don’t study and get a good job, you will end up in the military and be fighting wars (instead of back in the states planning the wars, maybe??). The reality is that many joined the service during the Viet Nam era because it was a job and a source of income. Surviving the war was a chance you took. Right or wrong, back then many joined the military because there was nothing else to do with your life. Also, for a time, if you didn’t have a school deferment, the chances were greater that you would be drafted.