BY TONEY ATKINS
My patriotism to my Southern heritage has been questioned several times since I moved back to northwest Georgia. One of the biggest criticisms that I have encountered thus far has related to my observations about conservative Southern Christianity and the plight of many in our country who need good Christian examples in this day and age.
Before I continue, let me state that I have been a Christian, although not always a "good" one, since the mid-1960s. I became a believer after listening to the passionate preachings of the late Rev. Edwin Smith, who pastored an Assembly of God church near Chickamauga, GA. The teachings of Jesus became very important in my life, and ever since those days of active participation in the church, I still relate far more to the gospels than I do the historical, yet meaningful, teachings in the Old Testament, which were prophetic as to the coming of a Savior.
I always felt comfortable in any denominational church when Christ was at the center of the spiritual education. When the preachings were even subtly political in nature and not related to the alleged goal of salvation of souls, I became disturbed or, at least, uncomfortable. There were many lessons to be learned from the entire Bible, but the words of Jesus and his history in the New Testament resonated the most with me.
Although I became less active in the church community in the early 1970s, I never forgot those wonderful, Bible-believing genuine Christian people who were in that church to guide me in my early days and to be a friend as several years went by. Christian men and women of this calibre are not the ones who frustrate me. In my older age, I'm simply more skeptical about those who praise God to high heaven inside the church building but seem to forget important spiritual precepts after the services end.
While many folks indeed follow the teachings of Jesus to the best of their abilities and even go over and beyond what is expected in Christian actions when others are in need, I find a certain disappointment in those who don't always apply the principles to make their lives and the lives of others better on this earth. I'm guilty of this, and when I see it in others, I feel even more guilty.
I've been thinking about this for a while, particularly since the nation's first Black president, Barrack Obama was elected in 2008. No one expected this historic transition to be without some stumbling blocks, and a whole slew of them apparently fell in the South. Before and after Obama took office, I would get headaches listening to my Southern neighbors say that they hoped he and his policies would fail and then they would go off on tangents about how he was going to do this and how he was going to do that, with not a single bit of evidence that would prove what they spoke. Occasionally, someone will be honest and say what is really on the collective minds: "I don't like him as president because he's Black."
These particular groups admittedly got most of their news from Fox News, an alleged conservative Republican outlet which rarely has anything good to say about members of other political parties. Therefore, these good Christian folks almost too quickly latch onto a rumor or downright lie that someone passed along to them after getting it from right-wing conservatives and newsmen and cement that information into their brains, rarely listening to reason when something is absolutely absurd.
Such has been the case with many of the positive actions President Obama has tried to take -- actions which stand a chance of helping millions of people. I have never heard such ignorance, foolishness and outright lies from some religious folk about the proposed, controversial health care plan. The Republican Party fuels their flames with misinformation and fear tactics -- actions which can only be defined as non-Christian. I'll be honest: This type of environment makes me want to scream.
Fortunately for my sanity, I came across a piece on the www.CommonDreams.org web site that sent my hands and arms into the air to praise the Lord. In a transcript of a speech that the Rev. Jim Rigby, pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin, delivered before a crowd of 2,000, titled "Why is Universal Health Care 'Un-American'?"
He wondered why anyone else there believed the topic was really controversial.
"Here's one way to frame such a discussion," he began. "If an infant is born to poor parents, would we be more ethical to give medicine to that child so he or she does not die prematurely of preventable diseases, or would we be more ethical if we let the child die screaming in his or her parent's arms so we can keep more of our money?
"Or, let's say someone who worked for Enron, and now is penniless, contracted bone cancer. I've been asked to discuss whether we are more ethical if we provide such people medicine that lessens their pain. Or would we be more ethical to let them scream through the night in unbearable agony so we can pay lower taxes?"
Rev. Rigby then asserted, "I can't believe I am standing today in a Christian church defending the proposition that we should lessen the suffering of those who cannot afford health care in an economic system that often treats the poor as prey for the rich. I cannot believe there are Christians around this nation who are shouting that message down and waving guns in the air because they don't want to hear it. But I learned a long time ago that churches are strange places; charity is fine, but speaking of justice is heresy in many churches."
He pointed out that the late Brazilian bishop Dom Hélder Câmara said it well: "When I give food to the poor, they call me a saint. When I ask why the poor have no food, they call me a Communist."
"Too often today in the United States, if you talk about helping the poor, they call you Christian, but if you actually try to do something to help the poor, they call you a socialist," the reverend said.
He asked the crowd: "How many of you get really excited about tweaking the insurance system so we just get robbed a little less? (silence) How many of you want universal health care? (sustained applause) I realize that insurance reform is all that's on the table right now, and it can be important to choose the lesser of evils when that alone is within our power in the moment. But we also need to remember our dream. I believe the American dream is not about material success, not about being having the strongest military. The American dream is that every person might have a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Rigby went on to say: "It's amazing to hear Christians who talk about the right to life as though it ends at birth. They believe every egg has a right to hatch, but as soon as you're born, it's dog eat dog. We may disagree on when life begins, but if the right to life means anything it means that every person (anyone who has finished the gestation period) has a right to life. And if there is a right to life there must be a right to the necessities of life. Like health care. I believe the American dream is not about property rights, but human rights."
"Supporting universal health care does not make you socialist or even a liberal, it makes you a human being. And it makes you an ambassador for the American dream which, in the mind of Thomas Paine, was a dream for every human being, not just Americans," Rigby concluded. "As we struggle to get health care to all people, we may have to settle for the lesser of two evils, but remember your dream -- the true American dream, a human dream. Whatever we win through reform is just first step toward a day when every human being has a right to life, liberty and the pursuit of happiness."
Right on, Rev. Rigby. The president's plan, as delivered in a major speech before lawmakers in Washington, DC, was to the point, and many uninsured Americans, Christian and non-Christian, are beginning to get the message. Obama pointed out the falsehoods of much of the misinformation that's been propagated, and amid all the confusion, it would do everyone good to find the speech online and read every word.
This brings me back to personal issues I addressed earlier: What would Jesus do? He healed body and spirit; He made the blind to see, and neither of these people had insurance. He left a lot of messages about our relationships with our neighbors and other things that He wanted to see carried on. Are we helping others when they are down and out? What do we do to help them when they are sick and can't work or go to school? Are we unselfishly Christ-like enough to care that far too many can't afford to buy an insurance policy and would be financially ruined if they became terribly ill?
I urge readers to get the facts about the proposed health care legislation from reliable sources and to not fall for the scare tactics that are being bandied about. We need health care coverage for all, not for just the fortunate folks who can afford it.
-- The Rev. Jim Rigby, used as a source in this story, is pastor of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church in Austin. He can be reached at jrigby0000@aol.com.
Thursday, September 10, 2009
HAVE REPUBLICANS LOST THEIR MINDS?
BY TONEY ATKINS
Instead of acting like candidates for an insane asylum, why don't Republican conservatives just come out and tell the truth? They're angry because they lost their power in 2008. Barrack Obama was elected president of the United States and birthers, deathers and the rest of the oddballs are particularly mad because they cannot handle the reality of having a Black man in that position.
The latest silliness (at least, as of this writing) has to do with the president speaking via television to the nation's students this past Tuesday. Psycho-babble "news" outlets such as Fox News, essentially an arm of the Republican Party, were practically gushing with encouragements for parents to keep their children out of school to avoid Obama "propaganda." I do not recall such outrageousness happening when presidents such as George Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan (both Republicans, mind you) made essentially the same kind of speeches to kids during their administrations.
This writer has literally lost friends of the Republican persuasion because he openly has called the whole right-wing stupidity, ignorance and arrogance exactly what it is -- stupidity, ignorance, arrogance and blatant racism.
The atmosphere of hate and irrational fear in this country is reaching levels that some folks don't even recall seeing and feeling during the Civil Rights Era, and they are probably right.
It is downright scary to know that many people actually believe all of the fear-mongering and misinformation that has spread since Obama became a candidate for the presidency and particularly after he won the office.
Taking notes on napkins and scraps of paper at diners and other establishments in northwest Georgia near Chattanooga, TN, I still shake my head in disbelief at what people say about the president of the United States. If I had implied such insanities during the Bush Administration, I would have been called unpatriotic and a son of Satan.
Personally, I see the right-wingers and Republicans as exemplifying the Anti-Christ with their perpetuation of sinful lies and attacks, verbal so far, yet bordering on frightening encouragements of intimidation and assassination. However, they claim to be so holy and say that they are the truth-mongers.
To these folks, I say: Grow up. Obama didn't steal your lunch money and he hasn't done a single thing to bully or hurt you. Accept it. He is Black and that shouldn't matter. Barring any catastrophe that might even be brought on by U.S. Republicans who seem to desire such, Obama will be president at least until 2012 (the year that the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end anyway).
Right-wingers: Please stop being hypocritical Christians who leave your religion inside the church walls and become anti-Christians in public. You are influencing people who might not be aware of your untruths, especially when you are spreading everything you hear on Fox News as gospel.
Interviewing about 20 people in various locations in northwest Georgia, including the mobile home park in which I live, I have been stunned to learn that most of them get all their national news from Fox News and from the relatively conservative local news media operatives who carefully choose their sound-bites so as not to offend the sensitive mind-sets of many in their mid-South audiences and who even to continue the stream of misinformation rather than attempting to stop and correct it.
As has been reported on a national level, many don't want the government involved in health care but, as one elderly woman told me, "don't screw with my damn Social Security and Medicare." She had no reply, just an angry expression of distaste, when it was pointed out to her that the latter programs are handled by the federal government. She believes the falsehood that the proposed health care legislation has a section that would control the deaths of old people. She was not the only one who was full of misinformation who, when asked where they got their information, almost to a person said they "heard it on TV."
Some of these "proud Americans" even went so far as to say they hoped Obama would be assassinated. One even said he prays daily that such will happen. One man said it made sense to him that Republicans were taking guns to Democratic Party lawmakers' health care town halls, even though the meetings had nothing to do with misconceptions about imagined gun control threats. Many still believe the long-disproved argument that Obama was not born in the U.S. (Hawaii was and still is a state.) These folks unashamedly want Obama to fail.
And like crazies on television, some of those with whom I've talked or that I've simply overheard have compared Obama to Hitler and have described his plans for the country as socialism and Nazi-ism. None of those who were interviewed or simply questioned about their beliefs could provide facts to support them.
One of my trailer park neighbors noted that he is a Democrat, but he couldn't bring himself to vote for Obama or even support him today because, and I quote, "I have to uphold my Southern heritage. It's not right for a n----- to be president of the United States."
See? It all boils down to Obama's Blackness.
While I know many Christians who are deeply sincere in their faith, I am quite disappointed in some fundamentalist churches in the South. Some don't even focus on the teachings of Christ any more but instead spread the propaganda of politics in the name of God. I often imagine that Jesus might get up and walk out of a service in disgust, although I realize He is above that.
"Family values" also seem to have changed in the right-wing community. It appears to be okay if they do something questionable, even "sinful," but not all right when persons who are Democrats or Independents commit essentially the same acts. They impeached President Clinton because he lied about sexual indiscretions, but the "family values" folks are more than willing to forgive a Republican governor cheated on his wife with someone he called his "true love" in South America, and no major fuss has ever been raised about a Republican lawmaker who allegedly tried to initiate homosexual bathroom sex at a major airport. He is still in office.
I've given up on trying to widen the narrow minds of my right-wing Republican friends. They are set in their ways. They believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong. They look down on those who do not agree with them. They are racist, although they deny it. They definitely want the Democratic president to fail, yet they call themselves patriots.
Obama is obviously Black -- an intelligent and qualified Black man who won the presidency legitimately. He has a wonderful family, and he appears to be a good husband and father. Leading a country filled with the craziness that is blocking the needed attention to the important issues must be difficult.
I would like to believe that all Americans have the capability to act as though we have entered the 21st century, especially since we're already nine years into it. Unfortunately, with the prevailing insanity and fear, I fear that our great nation is going backward instead of forward. We can only pray that more citizens will work to reverse the tide, spreading love and peace and overwhelming the cancer of hate, dishonesty and distrust.
-- Toney Atkins is a former assistant editor of the Daytona Times in Daytona Beach, FL, and a former contributor to the Florida Courier. His web site is www.toneyatkins.com. This commentary appeared in the Sept. 10, 2009, issue (www.flcourier.com/). The opinions stated here do not necessarily reflect those of the staff and management of those newspapers.
Instead of acting like candidates for an insane asylum, why don't Republican conservatives just come out and tell the truth? They're angry because they lost their power in 2008. Barrack Obama was elected president of the United States and birthers, deathers and the rest of the oddballs are particularly mad because they cannot handle the reality of having a Black man in that position.
The latest silliness (at least, as of this writing) has to do with the president speaking via television to the nation's students this past Tuesday. Psycho-babble "news" outlets such as Fox News, essentially an arm of the Republican Party, were practically gushing with encouragements for parents to keep their children out of school to avoid Obama "propaganda." I do not recall such outrageousness happening when presidents such as George Bush Sr. and Ronald Reagan (both Republicans, mind you) made essentially the same kind of speeches to kids during their administrations.
This writer has literally lost friends of the Republican persuasion because he openly has called the whole right-wing stupidity, ignorance and arrogance exactly what it is -- stupidity, ignorance, arrogance and blatant racism.
The atmosphere of hate and irrational fear in this country is reaching levels that some folks don't even recall seeing and feeling during the Civil Rights Era, and they are probably right.
It is downright scary to know that many people actually believe all of the fear-mongering and misinformation that has spread since Obama became a candidate for the presidency and particularly after he won the office.
Taking notes on napkins and scraps of paper at diners and other establishments in northwest Georgia near Chattanooga, TN, I still shake my head in disbelief at what people say about the president of the United States. If I had implied such insanities during the Bush Administration, I would have been called unpatriotic and a son of Satan.
Personally, I see the right-wingers and Republicans as exemplifying the Anti-Christ with their perpetuation of sinful lies and attacks, verbal so far, yet bordering on frightening encouragements of intimidation and assassination. However, they claim to be so holy and say that they are the truth-mongers.
To these folks, I say: Grow up. Obama didn't steal your lunch money and he hasn't done a single thing to bully or hurt you. Accept it. He is Black and that shouldn't matter. Barring any catastrophe that might even be brought on by U.S. Republicans who seem to desire such, Obama will be president at least until 2012 (the year that the Mayan calendar predicts the world will end anyway).
Right-wingers: Please stop being hypocritical Christians who leave your religion inside the church walls and become anti-Christians in public. You are influencing people who might not be aware of your untruths, especially when you are spreading everything you hear on Fox News as gospel.
Interviewing about 20 people in various locations in northwest Georgia, including the mobile home park in which I live, I have been stunned to learn that most of them get all their national news from Fox News and from the relatively conservative local news media operatives who carefully choose their sound-bites so as not to offend the sensitive mind-sets of many in their mid-South audiences and who even to continue the stream of misinformation rather than attempting to stop and correct it.
As has been reported on a national level, many don't want the government involved in health care but, as one elderly woman told me, "don't screw with my damn Social Security and Medicare." She had no reply, just an angry expression of distaste, when it was pointed out to her that the latter programs are handled by the federal government. She believes the falsehood that the proposed health care legislation has a section that would control the deaths of old people. She was not the only one who was full of misinformation who, when asked where they got their information, almost to a person said they "heard it on TV."
Some of these "proud Americans" even went so far as to say they hoped Obama would be assassinated. One even said he prays daily that such will happen. One man said it made sense to him that Republicans were taking guns to Democratic Party lawmakers' health care town halls, even though the meetings had nothing to do with misconceptions about imagined gun control threats. Many still believe the long-disproved argument that Obama was not born in the U.S. (Hawaii was and still is a state.) These folks unashamedly want Obama to fail.
And like crazies on television, some of those with whom I've talked or that I've simply overheard have compared Obama to Hitler and have described his plans for the country as socialism and Nazi-ism. None of those who were interviewed or simply questioned about their beliefs could provide facts to support them.
One of my trailer park neighbors noted that he is a Democrat, but he couldn't bring himself to vote for Obama or even support him today because, and I quote, "I have to uphold my Southern heritage. It's not right for a n----- to be president of the United States."
See? It all boils down to Obama's Blackness.
While I know many Christians who are deeply sincere in their faith, I am quite disappointed in some fundamentalist churches in the South. Some don't even focus on the teachings of Christ any more but instead spread the propaganda of politics in the name of God. I often imagine that Jesus might get up and walk out of a service in disgust, although I realize He is above that.
"Family values" also seem to have changed in the right-wing community. It appears to be okay if they do something questionable, even "sinful," but not all right when persons who are Democrats or Independents commit essentially the same acts. They impeached President Clinton because he lied about sexual indiscretions, but the "family values" folks are more than willing to forgive a Republican governor cheated on his wife with someone he called his "true love" in South America, and no major fuss has ever been raised about a Republican lawmaker who allegedly tried to initiate homosexual bathroom sex at a major airport. He is still in office.
I've given up on trying to widen the narrow minds of my right-wing Republican friends. They are set in their ways. They believe that they are right and everyone else is wrong. They look down on those who do not agree with them. They are racist, although they deny it. They definitely want the Democratic president to fail, yet they call themselves patriots.
Obama is obviously Black -- an intelligent and qualified Black man who won the presidency legitimately. He has a wonderful family, and he appears to be a good husband and father. Leading a country filled with the craziness that is blocking the needed attention to the important issues must be difficult.
I would like to believe that all Americans have the capability to act as though we have entered the 21st century, especially since we're already nine years into it. Unfortunately, with the prevailing insanity and fear, I fear that our great nation is going backward instead of forward. We can only pray that more citizens will work to reverse the tide, spreading love and peace and overwhelming the cancer of hate, dishonesty and distrust.
-- Toney Atkins is a former assistant editor of the Daytona Times in Daytona Beach, FL, and a former contributor to the Florida Courier. His web site is www.toneyatkins.com. This commentary appeared in the Sept. 10, 2009, issue (www.flcourier.com/). The opinions stated here do not necessarily reflect those of the staff and management of those newspapers.
SEPTEMBER 11 EVOKES MEMORIES OF TERROR
BY TONEY ATKINS
The approach of the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, finds me fighting a disturbing depression and unpleasant feelings of dread that the United States could be facing yet another devastating attack by our enemies.
Equally disturbing is the fact that some ultra-fanatic right-wingers in this country, including a few people who currently hold political power, have publicly asserted that another terrorist attack on America is needed to "prove" that the nation's first Black president, Barrack Obama, and the Democratic Party are not capable of protecting the country. That, of course, outrageously pushes to an extreme limit the desire of many to see the administration fail. Can anyone who remembers that day so vividly be so cold as to want, for political reasons, to experience the horrors of the potential destruction and deaths of possibly thousands of American citizens?
In their wildest imaginings, few ordinary citizens awoke that bright Tuesday morning in 2001 expecting the day to evolve into horror and bloody death on their own soil. Terrorist attacks occurred in other countries, but who would dare bring such villainous acts to the invincible powerhouse of the U.S.? It was unthinkable.
I had tuned the television to ABC's "Good Morning America" before sleepily approaching the shower to prepare for what I expected to be an ordinary day at the Daytona Times newspaper in Daytona Beach, FL. Running a little bit late, as usual, I was toweling myself dry when I noticed the bewildered expressions on the faces of the host and hostess of the news program. They were talking about the possibility that a small plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. A camera showed the smoke pouring from the upper section of the tower. It appeared to be a horrible accident. As a graphic indicating "Breaking News" appeared on the screen, Peter Jennings began his report about what was known at that point.
As I drove down Orange Avenue, listening to a morning talk show broadcasting from New York, the host and one of his co-hosts were excited and not speaking in normal tones. Someone shouted that another plane had crashed into the second tower. It was becoming clear that these were passenger jetliners and that these occurrences were not accidental. A chill went up and down my journalistic spine and I broke the speed limit in getting to the newspaper.
At that time, the Internet was available only to the editor in charge, and I was only a reporter. When the editor went upstairs to consult with Managing Editor Charles W. Cherry Sr., I rushed to his computer, where his assistant was working, and reached over his shoulder to sign on to America Online's news page. What I saw stunned me and brought forth epithets that shocked the assistant, who was not completely aware of the tragedy-in-progress, into gales of laughter which literally had him rolling on the floor. The Pentagon had just been struck by a third plane. The publishable text of my comment to the young man was, "We're at war!"
WPUL-AM radio, the city's Black station, would ordinarily be broadcasting gospel music delivered by satellite, but the music had been replaced by the continually breaking news, including that of the crash of a fourth passenger jet into a Pennsylvania field. It was now known that the planes had been hijacked in some devious plan to wreak havoc, and that plan was succeeding. The whereabouts of President George W. Bush, who had assumed office earlier that year and who was visiting an elementary school in Florida at the time, was not known until later in the morning when he addressed a terrified nation. Adding to the ongoing living nightmare, the World Trade Center buildings dramatically collapsed into rubble as residents raced away.
I was extremely frustrated because our office had no TV and I had no consistent access to the Internet. Telephone systems were overwhelmed, so I could not contact my father, a World War II veteran who lived in northwest Georgia. He suffered from health problems, and I was concerned as to how he might be reacting to the event.
The assistant editor, who was in charge of laying out the pages of the paper, particularly the all-important front page, approached me and asked how I thought we should handle the developing crisis, pointing out that we were a Black-oriented newspaper that primarily covered issues affecting only the Black community. My reply might have sounded inconsiderate, but I practically shouted that Black people most likely were among the dead and dying and that what was happening was historic, impacting everyone. I urged a front page, lead story but, respecting his position, left it up to him. (He would organize an excellent front page for our weekly newspaper that rivaled those of area dailies.)
Getting out of the office, I found that traffic was lighter than usual, but I was determined to get local reaction in person instead of in phone calls. A young Black female employee in the photo department of what was then Eckerd Drugs on Ridgewood Avenue was fighting back tears. She told me that she was concerned about her future mother-in-law who worked in the vicinity of what was to become known as Ground Zero of the New York attacks. Her fiancee had not been able to reach his mother, and they feared the worst. The young woman said her mind could not comprehend what was going on. (Several days later, she gave me the good news that her mother-in-law-to-be was safe.)
Outside, a man who was listening to a news broadcast on his car radio was equally concerned, his face lined with disbelief. He was concerned about his father, who didn't live in New York City but who live in New York state and occasionally went into the metropolis. He couldn't get through to his dad, and he was worried.
Reactions were similar at several other locations as I made my way back to the newspaper. At an ATM, an elderly Black man said his bank had closed and he wanted to withdraw his money, because he was afraid of what might happen next.
All commercial air travel was grounded, not to be resumed for several days. Eerie feelings that I was experiencing were compounded by the sounds of military jets which occasionally seemed to scream very low over our building throughout the day. The unknown, the unexpected had come to our land, and many of us knew that our lives were changed forever.
During my lunch break, I got my first look at televised live pictures of the smoke and debris billowing from a surrealistic view of the skyline of New York City. My phone call to Georgia finally went through, and my dad was okay. He had gone to the home of a friend to watch the scenes of devastation unfold on CNN.
Officials determined that the hijackings were instigated by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. In October, we were officially at war in that country -- a war that continues in 2009. Bin Laden remains at large eight years later, and no end is in sight for the allies' war against al Quaeda. (Bush would later erroneously tie Iraq to the attacks and initiated a war in that country.)
Amid the smouldering ruins of the World Trade Center and the damaged sections of the Pentagon were the casualties -- heroic firemen and police officers, ordinary citizens who had not known they were going to work in the buildings for the last time, the bodies of those people who had jumped from many floors up rather than die in flames or from suffocation before the structures collapsed. Final death statistics, including the passengers who had overcome the hijackers over Pennsylvania, approached 3,000.
The nation mourned. There were memorial services around the U.S., including one in Daytona Beach. Many days would follow before a degree of normalcy would return to our country. For some, feelings of real security ended on that terrible September day.
Although pushed by many into the deeper recesses of their minds so as not to let fear overcome their lives, most Americans still remember what is mostly referred to as 9/11. Some have told me that they don't like to bring those horrible memories back to the surface, although that's difficult to avoid as the anniversary nears and fleeting, fearful thoughts rush through: Will it happen again?
Those politicians and regular citizens who have remarked that another 9/11 is needed to "bring back our country" (bring it back to what?) need to see the images captured by the cameras and included in documentaries on the History and National Geographic television channels and on DVD to remind them of the horrors of that single day. They need to be shamed and chastised by the Americans who respect life and care about the future of our country. Their destructive approach to patriotism should be questioned, along with their questionable sanity.
We must never forget the uncertainty of tomorrow and the fragility of life. All could end as early as today. Meanwhile, each of us can work to restore peace within our own borders in order to be stronger against any evil that might threaten us, working toward a better world that could be free or hatred, fear and war.
The approach of the eighth anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001, finds me fighting a disturbing depression and unpleasant feelings of dread that the United States could be facing yet another devastating attack by our enemies.
Equally disturbing is the fact that some ultra-fanatic right-wingers in this country, including a few people who currently hold political power, have publicly asserted that another terrorist attack on America is needed to "prove" that the nation's first Black president, Barrack Obama, and the Democratic Party are not capable of protecting the country. That, of course, outrageously pushes to an extreme limit the desire of many to see the administration fail. Can anyone who remembers that day so vividly be so cold as to want, for political reasons, to experience the horrors of the potential destruction and deaths of possibly thousands of American citizens?
In their wildest imaginings, few ordinary citizens awoke that bright Tuesday morning in 2001 expecting the day to evolve into horror and bloody death on their own soil. Terrorist attacks occurred in other countries, but who would dare bring such villainous acts to the invincible powerhouse of the U.S.? It was unthinkable.
I had tuned the television to ABC's "Good Morning America" before sleepily approaching the shower to prepare for what I expected to be an ordinary day at the Daytona Times newspaper in Daytona Beach, FL. Running a little bit late, as usual, I was toweling myself dry when I noticed the bewildered expressions on the faces of the host and hostess of the news program. They were talking about the possibility that a small plane had crashed into one of the World Trade Center towers in New York City. A camera showed the smoke pouring from the upper section of the tower. It appeared to be a horrible accident. As a graphic indicating "Breaking News" appeared on the screen, Peter Jennings began his report about what was known at that point.
As I drove down Orange Avenue, listening to a morning talk show broadcasting from New York, the host and one of his co-hosts were excited and not speaking in normal tones. Someone shouted that another plane had crashed into the second tower. It was becoming clear that these were passenger jetliners and that these occurrences were not accidental. A chill went up and down my journalistic spine and I broke the speed limit in getting to the newspaper.
At that time, the Internet was available only to the editor in charge, and I was only a reporter. When the editor went upstairs to consult with Managing Editor Charles W. Cherry Sr., I rushed to his computer, where his assistant was working, and reached over his shoulder to sign on to America Online's news page. What I saw stunned me and brought forth epithets that shocked the assistant, who was not completely aware of the tragedy-in-progress, into gales of laughter which literally had him rolling on the floor. The Pentagon had just been struck by a third plane. The publishable text of my comment to the young man was, "We're at war!"
WPUL-AM radio, the city's Black station, would ordinarily be broadcasting gospel music delivered by satellite, but the music had been replaced by the continually breaking news, including that of the crash of a fourth passenger jet into a Pennsylvania field. It was now known that the planes had been hijacked in some devious plan to wreak havoc, and that plan was succeeding. The whereabouts of President George W. Bush, who had assumed office earlier that year and who was visiting an elementary school in Florida at the time, was not known until later in the morning when he addressed a terrified nation. Adding to the ongoing living nightmare, the World Trade Center buildings dramatically collapsed into rubble as residents raced away.
I was extremely frustrated because our office had no TV and I had no consistent access to the Internet. Telephone systems were overwhelmed, so I could not contact my father, a World War II veteran who lived in northwest Georgia. He suffered from health problems, and I was concerned as to how he might be reacting to the event.
The assistant editor, who was in charge of laying out the pages of the paper, particularly the all-important front page, approached me and asked how I thought we should handle the developing crisis, pointing out that we were a Black-oriented newspaper that primarily covered issues affecting only the Black community. My reply might have sounded inconsiderate, but I practically shouted that Black people most likely were among the dead and dying and that what was happening was historic, impacting everyone. I urged a front page, lead story but, respecting his position, left it up to him. (He would organize an excellent front page for our weekly newspaper that rivaled those of area dailies.)
Getting out of the office, I found that traffic was lighter than usual, but I was determined to get local reaction in person instead of in phone calls. A young Black female employee in the photo department of what was then Eckerd Drugs on Ridgewood Avenue was fighting back tears. She told me that she was concerned about her future mother-in-law who worked in the vicinity of what was to become known as Ground Zero of the New York attacks. Her fiancee had not been able to reach his mother, and they feared the worst. The young woman said her mind could not comprehend what was going on. (Several days later, she gave me the good news that her mother-in-law-to-be was safe.)
Outside, a man who was listening to a news broadcast on his car radio was equally concerned, his face lined with disbelief. He was concerned about his father, who didn't live in New York City but who live in New York state and occasionally went into the metropolis. He couldn't get through to his dad, and he was worried.
Reactions were similar at several other locations as I made my way back to the newspaper. At an ATM, an elderly Black man said his bank had closed and he wanted to withdraw his money, because he was afraid of what might happen next.
All commercial air travel was grounded, not to be resumed for several days. Eerie feelings that I was experiencing were compounded by the sounds of military jets which occasionally seemed to scream very low over our building throughout the day. The unknown, the unexpected had come to our land, and many of us knew that our lives were changed forever.
During my lunch break, I got my first look at televised live pictures of the smoke and debris billowing from a surrealistic view of the skyline of New York City. My phone call to Georgia finally went through, and my dad was okay. He had gone to the home of a friend to watch the scenes of devastation unfold on CNN.
Officials determined that the hijackings were instigated by Osama bin Laden in Afghanistan. In October, we were officially at war in that country -- a war that continues in 2009. Bin Laden remains at large eight years later, and no end is in sight for the allies' war against al Quaeda. (Bush would later erroneously tie Iraq to the attacks and initiated a war in that country.)
Amid the smouldering ruins of the World Trade Center and the damaged sections of the Pentagon were the casualties -- heroic firemen and police officers, ordinary citizens who had not known they were going to work in the buildings for the last time, the bodies of those people who had jumped from many floors up rather than die in flames or from suffocation before the structures collapsed. Final death statistics, including the passengers who had overcome the hijackers over Pennsylvania, approached 3,000.
The nation mourned. There were memorial services around the U.S., including one in Daytona Beach. Many days would follow before a degree of normalcy would return to our country. For some, feelings of real security ended on that terrible September day.
Although pushed by many into the deeper recesses of their minds so as not to let fear overcome their lives, most Americans still remember what is mostly referred to as 9/11. Some have told me that they don't like to bring those horrible memories back to the surface, although that's difficult to avoid as the anniversary nears and fleeting, fearful thoughts rush through: Will it happen again?
Those politicians and regular citizens who have remarked that another 9/11 is needed to "bring back our country" (bring it back to what?) need to see the images captured by the cameras and included in documentaries on the History and National Geographic television channels and on DVD to remind them of the horrors of that single day. They need to be shamed and chastised by the Americans who respect life and care about the future of our country. Their destructive approach to patriotism should be questioned, along with their questionable sanity.
We must never forget the uncertainty of tomorrow and the fragility of life. All could end as early as today. Meanwhile, each of us can work to restore peace within our own borders in order to be stronger against any evil that might threaten us, working toward a better world that could be free or hatred, fear and war.
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