Simon Perng Perng urges you to do your
part for the victims and American heroes. You can also share your
thoughts on the tragedies with him at simonperng@hotmail.com.
Click Here for more articles by Simon Perng
On Sept. 11, 2001, bloodthirsty criminals trained by Osama bin
Laden’s terrorist network waged apocalyptic war against all
Americans in order to demonstrate their contempt for our proud
existence.
These savages were not Muslims or even rational human beings
““ the letter of the law or even appeals to human decency
could not hold these terrorists accountable for their actions. The
only option remaining is direct military intervention.
America stands united, but I am outraged and disgusted by a
small minority of people in America insensitive to the emotional
and psychological trauma of this national tragedy. Instead of
reflecting on a catastrophe inflicted by deranged criminals, these
so-called “anti-war activists” and self-appointed
demagogues are exploiting and even justifying this tragedy to
advance their petty political agendas.
Recently narrow-minded peaceniks have denounced an America
supposedly premised on racism, militarism, bigotry and imperialism
as being on the same moral level as the terrorist killers!
On our own campus a socialist group (who shall deserve to remain
anonymous) plans to stage a student rally against the war. Its
poster board, mounted on Bruin Walk, aims most of its sympathy
toward the living Afghani innocents (as targets of American
militarism), rather than the 7,000 American civilians who were
brutally massacred.
Left-wing activist Barbara Kingsolver blurs the distinction
between true American patriotism and regressive violent bigotry in
her recent San Francisco Chronicle column.
 Illustration by JARRETT QUON/Daily Bruin Senior Staff As
America prepares to defend the safety of its citizens and its
democracy, Kingsolver hastily slanders the mobilization as
reminiscent of the “fascism (that grew) out of the
international depression of the 1930s” (“And our flag
was still there,” Sept. 25).
Another ultra-leftist peacenik, Gar Smith, dared to rationalize
the use of terrorism as an instrument for influencing U.S. policy
in his statement in the Earth Island Journal. According to Smith
“the terrorists’ real targets aren’t Americans,
but world trade and U.S. militarism,” (“Heaping Insult
onto Injury,” San Francisco Chronicle, Sept. 20). To Smith,
demented terrorists are just “frustrated
lobbyists.”
Probably the most despicable attempt to use this tragedy to
proselytize and insult America came from Amos Brown, a former San
Francisco County supervisor. Brown eulogized at the funeral of Mark
Bingham, a real American hero who sacrificed his life to thwart the
terrorists on United Airlines Flight 93:
“America, America, what did you do ““ either
intentionally or unintentionally ““ in the world order, in
Central America, in Africa where bombs are still blasting? …
America, what did you do two weeks ago when I stood at the world
conference on racism, when you wouldn’t show up?”
(“Heaping Insult onto Injury”).
Rather than recognizing the heroism of Bingham, Brown used his
eulogy to blamed the victim, America, for the terrorism it suffered
at the hands of murderers.
These anti-war activists focus their criticism less on the
violent dastardly deeds of these terrorists than on America’s
minor transgressions against their various “social
justice” causes. Furthermore, they even dare to justify the
unjustifiable. You tell me what matters to them.
Just as I detest ultra-leftists who rationalize terrorism with
American domestic and foreign policy, I deplore ultra-rightist
demagogues who do the same.
Jerry Falwell and Pat Robertson were reprehensible to blame
these horrible terrorist massacres on “abortionists, and the
feminists, and the gays and the lesbian … the ACLU, (and the)
People for the American Way” (“American
Ayatollahs,” CNN, Sept. 27).
God has rescinded divine providence from America simply because
Americans refuse to engage in Falwell’s and Robertson’s
culture war?
It is not the first time that fringe elements have used times of
crisis to divide and weaken America in order to further their own
political ambitions. But Americans are much better than that.
Americans will show solidarity against terrorism and petty division
caused by bigotry or ideology.
Today I feel hopeful and optimistic as Americans put aside their
differences and unite behind what’s truly important ““
preserving the American way of life. For it is the American way and
our freedoms that we should all cherish above any other cause or
interest. It is through our reverence in God or Allah (or your own
deity) and the American way, that everything else is made
possible.