Column for September 15, 2011

Last week I wrote about the tenth anniversary of the attacks of September 11th, 2001. There were specials on television all weekend commemorating that anniversary and the events thereof. I have to admit that I was sufficiently busy that I didn’t get to watch any of them. However, on Sunday morning I was driving to worship services with other saints of God and I stated listening to the various memorial services that were being broadcast live on the radio. Live services were being broadcast from the Wold Trade Center site, the Pentagon, and the United Flight 93 crash memorial in western Pennsylvania.

As I started listening, I said to myself that I should turn the station, but I couldn’t bring myself to do it. The more I listened, the more I recalled the events of that day. I recalled the innocent lives that were taken by acts of pure evil. I recalled the bravery of citizens aboard United Flight 93 and that of not only emergency response personnel in New York City, but of ordinary people who helped and gave their lives for others. I was literally moved to tears.

One thing that irritated me about the aftermath of 9/11 was that I predominantly heard about the police and firefighters who ran in to the World Trade Center buildings that day to rescue people and perished in their efforts to do so. Maybe I am biased, but I often thought more about those who were trying to run out of the buildings, not just those who ran into them. Don’t get me wrong, I am in full support of emergency service workers. I did it for a living, myself at one point in my life. It is the sheer bravery and sense of duty to their fellow man that drove men to run into burning buildings and save the lives of others. These were people who willingly put their lives on the line and they deserve every last shred of respect that they got. My perspective is slightly different in that this was indeed their jobs. Their jobs were noble and it takes a special breed to save lives and property. It is the untrained, average person that perishes that I weep over even more, especially in such numbers.

I cringe at the special legal and media attention given to “cop killers” sometimes. Again, don’t get me wrong. I have great respect for law enforcement personnel. They are often highly trained and professional. I guess that the difference is that they are just that. They are armed, trained, and are paid to risk their lives. For that they deserve our admiration and respect. It is when untrained, unarmed, innocent lives are taken by evil people and often given far less attention that steams me even more.

I think that my perspective is this way because I have done the emergency response career. I have worked for and with police officials. I expect others who do that line of work to be willing to put their lives on the line as much as I was. My wife is often the biggest critic of and is harder on restaurant wait staff than I am. The reason is because she was a waitress for years, herself. She expects others who do that line of work to be as dedicated to service as she was, and I comprehend that.

I started to weep Sunday morning over the lives that were lost, the evil that came upon people, the children who would grow up without a parent or loved one, and the husbands and wives who lost their life partners.

To top all of this off, I started watching the show “24” on DVD. I had never seen a single episode until about a month ago. I bought season one on DVD and then quickly bought seasons two and three as well. They are fairly inexpensive now on Amazon.com and this is how I often watch TV shows. I find a show I want to see and sneak in an hour of watching in between work cycles. I was watching season two the past few days. It sort of gives the show a different perspective right around the ten year anniversary of 9/11. Yeah, it is just a TV show. I see a lot of things that are very “Hollywood” and unrealistic in the show. I have to suspend disbelief in order to enjoy the show at times, but that is the case with most television shows. Watching terrorist plots destroyed by Jack Bauer does give just a little bit of a desire to cheer the good guy, I guess.

I did not plan on going in this direction in this week's column, but that is what has been on my heart for the past few days. I pray that we never have to endure another attack in this country, but I know that we eventually will. The terrorists only have to get it right once to succeed in an attack. We as a nation have to get it right each and every time in order to prevent one.

Column for April 23, 2009

Congratulations to my fellow right wing extremists

Now that I have been labeled by my own government as a dangerous "right wing extremist", I have news for you. Many of you who read this column are now classified as such, too. And I guarantee that many other people that you know are also now classified by the Department of Homeland Security as extremists. What did we do to gain such an honor? We simply believe in a government following its own Constitution.

For those who oppose a North American Union, gun control, abortion on demand, illegal immigration, forced universal government service for all citizens, infringement upon United States sovereignty, and violation of the Posse Comitatus Act, you now have your own file in some government database and are labeled as an extremist.

If you think that I am making this up, there is a 10 page bulletin just released by the Department of Homeland Security that I have on my computer right this moment that says so. Apparently the socialist bureaucrats in Washington, D.C. believe that returning soldiers from Iraq and Afghanistan are potential future domestic terrorists.

The left wing has been poking fun at the right for having tax protest rallies, anti-illegal immigration rallies, and associating anyone who opposes the current governmental policies as a "skin head", racist, or neo-Nazi. I have seen and heard such comments my own self. The ironic part is that the Nazi Party in Germany was not a right wing party. They were leftists. They were The National Socialist German Workers' Party.

I have never heard of right wing radicals (now consisting of your average, everyday citizen of this country that loves freedom and a constitutional republic) being violent and inherently racist. Lest we forget, it was the left wing that opposed the Civil Rights Act. It was a leftist activist that shot Abraham Lincoln. Right wingers who attended tax protest tea parties across the nation last week were entirely peaceful.

Compare that to the left wing protesters at UNC Chapel Hill last week. Imagine that…left wing socialists at Chapel Hill. Who would have thought that could happen? An acquaintance of mine had organized an event at UNC through the Americans for Legal Immigration Political Action Committee. You may have heard that former candidate for President, Tom Tancredo from Colorado was the guest speaker. ALIPAC had a video camera rolling and put the video on the internet. I got to see the footage that no television station was carrying.

Ignorant college students were protesting the fact that Mr. Tancredo, who was my second choice during the Presidential Primaries last election season, was going to speak about the topic of states allowing illegal aliens to get in state tuition rates at state universities. Before the event began, students were protesting, illegally blocking building exits, and attempting to impede the event. During the talk, students strung a banner in front of Tom Tancredo. They would not listen to reason and only wanted to be disruptive. A protester outside the room broke out a pane of glass to the external window and chaos ensued.

The very same ideologues that have been harshly critical of "right wing extremists" and warn of "right wing domestic terrorists" themselves became a brand of terrorists of their own. They resorted to violence and attempted to squash any voice of dissent. Freedom of speech is fine if it is in their favor, but must be stopped at all cost if it is of a different perspective.

That same philosophy has become prevalent in our government. Any voice of opposition must be silenced. The opposing views must be forcibly stopped. That, my friends, is not American. It is not ethical. It is not the land of the free and the home of the brave. It is hypocrisy in action. That, my friends, is what you have elected to office at our state and national levels.

I am in good company, though. The voices of Thomas Paine, Benjamin Franklin, John Adams, Samuel Adams, Thomas Jefferson, and many others held the same freedoms dear to their hearts and risked their lives to stand by their convictions. They would have been labeled radical right wing extremists. Ronald Reagan, Barry Goldwater, and even Jesse Helms would have been labeled as right wing extremists.

If you believe in smaller government, lower taxes, the right of a baby to be born and not killed in utero, in following the United States Constitution, and the punishment of criminal behavior, then you too are now a right wing extremist. The federal government may have a file on you by now. Congratulations, comrades, you have now been classified by your own government as a potential domestic terrorist.