Notes on September 11

September 15, 2001

Not yet 4 days after buildings, bodies, families, and a piece of a nation’s soul were torn asunder the smirk is back. Hark back to the debates last fall. The Vice President of the United States, the author of “Earth in the Balance”, known to his close friends as “Cementhead”, would sigh, audibly, and would smirk, condescendingly, whenever Governor Bush would say something, anything. The Vice President, whose Secret Service moniker was “Dummy”, looked at his opponent with contempt.

There may yet be someone alive under the rubble. There may yet be a miracle waiting to happen. No matter. The New York Times has decided that time sufficient has passed that they can begin to hector the President with sound advice from the editorial pages and the news columns.

Anthony Lewis laments that we have not yet “eschewed unilateralism”.

Thomas Friedman says that we are all guilty so no one is guilty except for those who are always guilty and we all know who they are.

Paul Krugman suggests that tax cuts had a part in this.

Frank Rich somehow ties the administration’s lack of support for the Kyoto Accords and its enthusiasm for missile defence into an invitation to terrorists. He is still angry that “Angels in America” has not replaced “God Bless America” at picnics.

Buried in the news reports are the offhanded, backhanded remarks that are rather....fey.

There is a point that must be made.

As a Christian, as a Catholic, I am a spiritual descendant of Abraham. The New Testament makes no sense without the Old Testament. Priests wear garments that Melchizedech would recognize. There is a Catholic order which dates its founding to before the birth of Christ. Christ was a Jew.

Having said that it is necessary to add that if Israel did not exist the planes still would have hit the buildings. The Muslims use the Jews and Israel as a cover for their hatred and as a disguise for their real enemy. The “Great Satan” is not in Jerusalem. The “Great Satan” is Western Civilization. Islam is a religion and a culture that has produced nothing for 10 centuries. Admire the pyramids but what has come from there since. Note that they ended a period of growth. Chartres began it. Europe had the Renaissance. Our ships found the rest of the world. 800 year old thoughts, thoughts which were begun by people that “they” sought to crush 2500 years ago, are still debated. 500 year old statues and paintings still enthrall the imagination. 400 year old plays are still produced. 300 year old music is still played. Along the way, unevenly and sometimes savagely, we learned how to govern ourselves. We made the lame walk. We beat gravity. We went to the moon. We came back from the moon. Were it not for T.E. Lawrence and the discovery of oil “they “still would be using goat dung to heat their tents.

When we were doing these things “they” sat in those tents. “They” ate with one hand. “They” made their women chattel. For centuries “they” seethed with envy and hatred. “They” knew that while God is great he was somewhat lax in handing out the good stuff. Stuff like railroads and cellos and small pox vaccine and zip top plastic bags

and instant coffee and microprocessors and disposable lighters and nuclear fission and lo-fat mayonnaise and a way to govern, to rule, without using a club. “They” may as well have been on the moon.

I went out for the papers this morning at 5:50. Across the street is a church with a large greensward on which sits a 70 foot microwave transmission tower that does double duty as a flag pole. The flag, illuminated for night viewing as protocol requires, was at half mast.

This morning the flag pole had a crescent moon on its left and a very bright object - perhaps Venus - on its right. A commercial jet, the first one I’ve seen in 3 days, was approaching from the West. As it turned South it was between the flag and the shining objects.

A crescent moon and a bright star are symbols of Islam.

My uncle John died yesterday. He enlisted in the United States Army in December, 1940. A one year hitch and he would be home for Christmas, 1941. He got back to Jersey City in 1946. Wherever the United States Army was in the Pacific in World War 2 he was there. He was wounded grievously at Leyte Gulf. I would call him, too infrequently, to say “Thank you”.

Frank Rich, who earns a living “makin’ mock o uniforms that guard you while you sleep....”, as Kipling says, ends his column today with a quote from Shakespeare. He chose Hamlet, whose favorite color was plaid, to make his point.

Shakespeare also had a character who said, “your purpled hands reek and smoke”. He tells us that “the earth has not a hole to hide this deed”. Soon it will be

”....Saviour of his country when the guns begin to shoot” tho’ the thought of Mr. Rich selling bonds is difficult to imagine. The spiritually and morally bankrupt modern American Liberals, sitting in their hives trying to shape the edges of culture and society, have come face to face with something that they said did not, could not exist. They look at this evil uncomprehendingly. Step lightly over the wreckage of an age.

Loans are always paid. Most times the borrower pays them. Sometimes the lender pays them. It’s time to charge capital and put the “Paid” stamp on this one.