The Day the Music Died

Thoughts on Sept. 11 by Jim Foster, originally published in The Chestnut Hill Local, Phila. Pa. Sept 20, 200l.

 

I could think of no better phrase to describe the events of September 11, 2001, than borrowing the line from the 1970’s song reflecting on a 1950’s event.  It has been said that during the tumultuous late 1960’s America lost its innocence.  On September 11, 2001, America lost its independence.  It lost not only the independence and personal freedoms so wisely set forth by our forefathers, but also lost the independence we enjoyed from the constricted and supervised lifestyles of those living in virtually all other countries.

 

The attack on our country by organized terrorists was long predicted by many.  We are not without fault in allowing our government to initiate dangerous foreign policies and misguided nation building through intervention in the politics of others, particularly over the last ten years.  Even worse, we have knowingly dismantled our protective security systems and placed globalism ahead of sovereignty and sold most Americans a bill of goods that essentially said we will have no regrets and never have to look back.

 

Parallels to Pearl Harbor don’t actually reflect the true disastrous impact of these recent events.  On December 7, 1941 a military versus military attack took place from a known adversary.  On September 11, 2001 an even more costly attack on civilians was made by unknown terrorists, probably with the support of several rogue nations.  The significance of the latter cannot be overstated.  In 1941 the vast majority of Americans would be considered isolationists; and rightly so.  President Roosevelt had campaigned and been elected on a promise not to involve ourselves in an already started foreign war.  Memories of President Wilson making the same promise and then reversing himself were clear in the minds of parents and relatives of Americans who died needlessly in Europe only twenty years before.  Our leaders have deluded us into believing that we would never face these choices again.  Make no mistake, the undercurrent political philosophy of the last fifty years expounded by leaders and taught by academics has brought us to the point where we will probably be forced to surrender the principles of freedom and individualism which separated us from virtually every other form of government.

 

Our founding fathers warned of the precarious nature of a government founded on the will of the people with no overriding central power of enforcement.  Quotes we should have remembered:  Jefferson’s, “That government is best which governs least”, and Washington’s, “Beware of entangling alliances”, come immediately to mind.  The most telling, however, is Benjamin Franklin’s response when asked, “What is the best form of government?”…he replied, “A republic, if you can keep it”.

 

We will probably learn over the next couple of years whether or not we have kept it.  The prospects look dim.  >From every direction politicians, educators and commentators are discussing new methods to “protect our citizens”.  Apparently the federal government is going to be called upon to repeat the role of history with the technology of the 21st century.  Digging a moat or building a wall was the ancient process of ultimately enslaving the populace.  National identity cards, global positioning sensors and mandatory DNA records will do the job much better.  This technology will put the fate of the many into the hands of the few and we have already heard requests from the masses to do just that in an effort to provide security from harm in the new-age world of terrorism.

How did we allow our fledgling 225-year-old country to be brought to its knees by a handful of fanatical extremists supported by religious zealots?  I believe a quick study of our history beginning in 1945 will offer some answers.  Although we are not without our faults in the way our republic was developed, the mistakes made here pale in comparison to the developmental history of every other society on the planet going back thousands of years.  Knowingly, the founders made every attempt to avoid a government structure, which would lead to the same abuses.  Generally we avoided aligning ourselves with oppressor nations, and our government and legal system was our own watchdog.  In my view the turning point was Roosevelt’s willing recognition of the Soviet Union and its communist government at the close of World War II.  It is still unexplainable to me why Stalinist Russia had so many apologists worldwide and particularly in our own country.  We know now and knew then that Stalin and his government killed millions more people than Hitler and yet he and his government got a pass.

The leftist ideology which germinated in the U.S. during the 1920’s and 1930’s could have ended in 1945 were the truth made public rather than covered up.  Even during the supposed communist witch-hunts of the 1950’s the facts about the methods of communist governments were never fully explained.  Instead a false premise of a caring, inclusive government of the people was sold through many university structures and concepts derived from Marxism were injected into laws and policies of our very own government.  Over the last fifty years we have been spoon-fed that phony pabulum of the left that truly caring individuals and governments must be inclusive and accommodating of everyone and every country….and we will all live happily ever after!!!

 Taken to its fullest extreme, we have “progressive globalism”, a concept whereby national borders and ideologies are all surrendered for the good of the universal common man.  We have bought in.  Our immigration policies, for all practical purposes, are non-existent.  If they appear on paper they are certainly not enforced, and visas are issued like confetti with little regard for the background of the individual.  We don’t have an “open door policy”, we have actually removed the door and are willing to give away to illegals more opportunity than we actually provide to most of our own underclass.  Why have we tolerated for so long this disparity and reckless accommodation of those who have no intention of ever becoming productive citizens and share nothing with the philosophy of the American culture?  We need no more proof than recent events that we must return to restricted borders and denial of entrance to this country without good established reason.  With modern technology this could be easily accomplished.

Our reckless intervention in foreign economies, including Israel, has made it easy for radical political groups to make us the international whipping boy.  It is hard to defend some of the practices of our national government in its insistence on nation building.  In a sanctimonious manner we have told most of the world they must live like us and become industrialized or commercialized and we will be only too glad to help them.  Collaboration between our federal government and multi-national corporations towards these goals is inexcusable.  We cannot force our values and lifestyle upon others under the false heading of protecting their human rights.  Prejudices and traditions die hard and our successes in this direction have been far outweighed by failures. The backwash of these social experiments has brought us the vindictive terrorists who perpetrated the September 11th disasters.

It will be quite some time before all the details surrounding this worst attack in the history of America will be known.  However as each hour passes we learn more and more information, proving the resentment and hatred for America and its lifestyle held around the world.  This cannot be changed by power or money.  Let those countries with values we don’t agree with make their own destiny.  We have no reason to interact with them politically or economically.  The presence of American dollars in their economies only helps make us the evil enemy.  Since human life has little value in those societies, they have no problem losing theirs or taking ours.  American propaganda and commercialism will not change that.  We are now on the brink of making decisions regarding repercussions for the attack and determining who should receive them.  A nationwide poll indicates 83% of Americans would support a major war over this issue.  This is dangerous territory in a nuclear age with suitcase bombs.  In the same poll 65% of Americans stated they did not want to compromise their personal freedoms for security.  I don’t want to compromise mine either, but the only solution is to compromise the freedom and access of those from other parts of the world attempting to gain entrance.  Greatly restricted borders and an immediate reevaluation of all non-citizens must be our next order of business if we are to get back the country we had on September 10th.

Lifestyles in Europe, Asia and Africa have been tolerating terrorism for years thanks to spineless, leftist governments and divergent philosophies.  Accommodating rogue nations shelter violent extremists on all continents.  We must avoid being caught up in the trap of “making the world safe” by volunteering to rid the world of terrorists as a backwash to the attack on the U.S.  We are being urged by our supposed “allies” to do the job they were always unwilling to do for themselves.  Interestingly, Europeans and others were only yesterday calling us reckless, brutal and inhumane, but now would use our money and troops to solve their problems when it’s convenient.  We cannot allow ourselves to be the world’s mercenaries, but must take a calculated approach to reprisals which serve our own interests.

Carefully manicured assassinations of those who perpetrated these crimes and the leaders of countries who have sheltered or supported is justified and preferable to costly mass bombings and civilian slaughter.  Economic and diplomatic shutdown with those nations that participate, even indirectly, by trading with terrorists countries will have immediate and long-range impact.  Many of our supposed allies claim support but blatantly trade with those who continually perpetrate terrorist acts against the U.S. and its citizens.  France comes immediately to mind.

Let us make our new policy clear at the outset and deal only with our own issues and sovereignty.  The rest of the world must now make their own decisions and face the reality that they can no longer regularly demean the U.S., but use us when it suits their short-run purposes.  We must avoid a major international war, but direct our full forces to protecting our own values and our own borders.  This crisis should teach us once and for all that we must maintain the strongest military but hopefully never use it.

 

James H. Foster

 

Editor’s Note:

Ten years ago my suggestions in the second to last paragraph were considered outrageous by more than a few. However events of the last few months in the finding and killing of Bin Laden and others in his heirarcy seem to prove that even an administration with a left-wing focus sees some merit to that approach.