Protecting Us, Liberals -- in Spite of Ourselves
I truly believe that “confession is good for the soul,” so let me begin by making one: I was a liberal, and I was proud of it. As a matter of fact, all truth be told, I was more than just your garden-variety-type liberal – quite the contrary. I was a hard core, in-your-face, bleeding-heart Liberal. It was a label I embraced and perceived as having no pejorative affiliation -- just the opposite! For in my judgement, liberalism meant being open-minded about new ideas. I believed it meant an honest appreciation -- and whenever possible, a true acceptance of others. So for all these reasons, I accepted "the Liberal" label with pride. However, I should further confess that one additional bonus to being "a Liberal" was the fact that the majority or my peers were also liberals, who believed in the acceptance of others, open-mindedness about new ideas, and the promotion of world peace. I felt that I was in good company. I felt that we embraced and exemplified the best of what the world should be. That feelings still lingers with me to this day and it remains the main reason why I still consider my generation, also known as “the baby boom generation,” to be one of the best generations that humankind has ever seen. We promoted love -- not war! We promoted togetherness -- not separation! We promoted peace -- not violence! And we promoted giving -- not taking!
When President John F. Kennedy issued his famous challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” we responded to his challenge by volunteering in droves. We joined his Peace Core for the purpose of educating, training, helping and caring for the rest of the world. We joined his VISTA for the purpose of caring We were happy to serve our nation, and moreover, most of us saw it a means to create a better world by doing a greater good; it was almost a spiritual calling for some of us.
But the single, biggest reason why I consider my generation of liberal to be so awesome stems from the fact that we stood up to our parents, our nation and our leaders, and we told them that the war in Viet Nam was wrong! We displayed a moral conscious then that remains our trademark to the present day. We believed that wars, when unnecessary should not be fought, instead we suggested that every effort must be made to promote peace: We sang about it. We rally about it. And we told ourselves, and we told the rest of the world, “What we are saying is that you give peace a chance!”
My point here is this: No generation of Americans was as undeserving of the September 11, 2002 terriost attact as my generation of baby boomers. We did not do anything to bring it on ourselves. Instead, when one look at the history of our involvement throughout the world what one sees is a generation of people who give generiously to feed, clothe, and care for the rest of the world. What one sees in a generation of people that opened their shores, their social services, their educational instutions, and definitely their hearts to help improve the status of the rest of world.
Yet, the irony is that many of my generation (mostly liberals) believe that we, the people of the United States of America, are to blame for September 11. They (liberals) believe that rational minds could have prevailed: they believe that all problems can be solved through rational discourse. I must confess that at one time I also believed this (when I was a liberal).
The fact of the matter is that cruel, bad leaders whose actions borders on insanity have always existed throughout the world. Aggression by those leaders directed towards the United States will not be deterred by singing songs and sweet dialogue. Quite to the contrary, it would encourage it. One only has to look to our recent history at those times when liberals were in office to see evidence of the point I am making here. For example, President Carter was one of the most beloved, respected, honest, open-minded world leaders. Yet, it was during his administration that some of the greatest attrocities against Americans took place. Another example, President Clinton who was as respected as a world leader as President Carter did not experience a lessening of terriorist attack during his administration. But instead, it was during President Clinton’s administration that whole scale mass bombings of American interest (both home and abroad) really began. (This includes the first bombing of the World Trade Center).
On the other hand, one should note that although our Republican presidents, like Reagan, Bush and Bush were called war mungers by people throughout the work, during their administration more bad world leaders were brought to justice and more communist countries became democratic converts because these American leaders made it clear that the United States of America will maintained a strong defense which they will without hesitation used to combat any and all aggressive acts directed against this nation and its allies.
I guess that what I am saying here is "even though I still look for the good in all people (the liberal side of me), I am no longer nieve. I have truly come to believe that the only deterence against aggression and terriosm is a strong defense." We might not want -- but we certainly need a president, like President Bush, who is willing to act decisively and swiftly. So although we might desire to elect leaders who are encourage dialogue and discourage defense, our recent history proves that their policies makes the United States weaker and more vunerable than ever!
I don’t’t know about you, but I have grown to hate that feeling!
When President John F. Kennedy issued his famous challenge: “Ask not what your country can do for you; ask what you can do for your country,” we responded to his challenge by volunteering in droves. We joined his Peace Core for the purpose of educating, training, helping and caring for the rest of the world. We joined his VISTA for the purpose of caring We were happy to serve our nation, and moreover, most of us saw it a means to create a better world by doing a greater good; it was almost a spiritual calling for some of us.
But the single, biggest reason why I consider my generation of liberal to be so awesome stems from the fact that we stood up to our parents, our nation and our leaders, and we told them that the war in Viet Nam was wrong! We displayed a moral conscious then that remains our trademark to the present day. We believed that wars, when unnecessary should not be fought, instead we suggested that every effort must be made to promote peace: We sang about it. We rally about it. And we told ourselves, and we told the rest of the world, “What we are saying is that you give peace a chance!”
My point here is this: No generation of Americans was as undeserving of the September 11, 2002 terriost attact as my generation of baby boomers. We did not do anything to bring it on ourselves. Instead, when one look at the history of our involvement throughout the world what one sees is a generation of people who give generiously to feed, clothe, and care for the rest of the world. What one sees in a generation of people that opened their shores, their social services, their educational instutions, and definitely their hearts to help improve the status of the rest of world.
Yet, the irony is that many of my generation (mostly liberals) believe that we, the people of the United States of America, are to blame for September 11. They (liberals) believe that rational minds could have prevailed: they believe that all problems can be solved through rational discourse. I must confess that at one time I also believed this (when I was a liberal).
The fact of the matter is that cruel, bad leaders whose actions borders on insanity have always existed throughout the world. Aggression by those leaders directed towards the United States will not be deterred by singing songs and sweet dialogue. Quite to the contrary, it would encourage it. One only has to look to our recent history at those times when liberals were in office to see evidence of the point I am making here. For example, President Carter was one of the most beloved, respected, honest, open-minded world leaders. Yet, it was during his administration that some of the greatest attrocities against Americans took place. Another example, President Clinton who was as respected as a world leader as President Carter did not experience a lessening of terriorist attack during his administration. But instead, it was during President Clinton’s administration that whole scale mass bombings of American interest (both home and abroad) really began. (This includes the first bombing of the World Trade Center).
On the other hand, one should note that although our Republican presidents, like Reagan, Bush and Bush were called war mungers by people throughout the work, during their administration more bad world leaders were brought to justice and more communist countries became democratic converts because these American leaders made it clear that the United States of America will maintained a strong defense which they will without hesitation used to combat any and all aggressive acts directed against this nation and its allies.
I guess that what I am saying here is "even though I still look for the good in all people (the liberal side of me), I am no longer nieve. I have truly come to believe that the only deterence against aggression and terriosm is a strong defense." We might not want -- but we certainly need a president, like President Bush, who is willing to act decisively and swiftly. So although we might desire to elect leaders who are encourage dialogue and discourage defense, our recent history proves that their policies makes the United States weaker and more vunerable than ever!
I don’t’t know about you, but I have grown to hate that feeling!
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