Matthew Vadum in the American Spectator:
The Obama White House is behind a cynical, coldly calculated political effort to erase the meaning of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks from the American psyche and convert Sept. 11 into a day of leftist celebration and statist idolatry.
This effort to reshape the American psyche has nothing to do with healing the nation and everything to do with easing the nation along in the ongoing radical transformation of America that President Obama promised during last year’s election campaign. The president signed into law a measure in April that designated Sept. 11 as a National Day of Service, but it’s not likely many lawmakers thought this meant that day was going to be turned into a celebration of ethanol, carbon emission controls, and radical community organizing.
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The plan is to turn a “day of fear” that helps Republicans into a day of activism called the National Day of Service that helps the left. In other words, nihilistic liberals are planning to drain 9/11 of all meaning.
“They think it needs to be taken back from the right,” said the source. “They’re taking that day and they’re breaking it because it gives Republicans an advantage. To them, that day is a fearful day.”
A coalition including the unsavory left-wing pressure group Color of Change and about 60 far-left, environmentalist, labor, and corporate shakedown groups participated in the call. Groups on the call included: ACORN, AFL-CIO, Apollo Alliance, Community Action Partnership, Deep South Center for Environmental Justice, 80 Million Strong for Young American Jobs, Friends of the Earth, Joint Center for Political and Economic Studies, Mobilize.org, National Black Police Association, National Coalition on Black Civic Participation, National Council of Negro Women, National Wildlife Federation, RainbowPUSH Coalition, Urban League, and Young Democrats of America.
Makes perfect sense coming from a president who believes that the root of 9/11 jihadi stems “from a fundamental absence of empathy on the part of the attackers.”
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The provision turning 9/11 into a “National Day of Service” was lodged in the massive national service expansion bill – GIVE/SERVE — signed into law this spring.
Reminder: Only 14 Republicans in the Senate voted against the bill.
I have used this blog for most of the last 5 years to berate liberals for what I view as stupidity, myopia, hysteria, hypocrisy, and for advocating ideas that are an anathema to America’s founding principles.
But I have also vigorously defended their idea of patriotism. I have sincerely tried to show my fellow conservatives that liberals love America as much as we do, except that they have a different, but equally valid way of expressing that devotion. To limit one’s definition of love of country to one’s own narrow perspective does a disservice to America which, after all, was created specifically so that those who dissent need not fear retribution.
But I don’t know what to make of this…
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I am all for allowing 9/11 to be placed in historical perspective, simplifying our remembrance of that tragic day, giving dignity to the dead and reminding the living of what is at stake. Like Memorial Day or Veterans Day, 9/11 (Patriot’s Day) should be marked with solemnity, but not the kind of overwrought oratory or ranting against Muslims that has marked previous incarnations of that day.
But this?
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First of all, the political parameters of this attempt to demote the nationalistic significance of 9/11 is truly one of the most insidious ideas that has come from this administration. It leaves me speechless with anger that turning 9/11 into a day to celebrate Democratic interest groups would have its origins in the White House. If this is true – and given who is involved in this effort, one can easily believe it – it would be worse than anything the Bush administration ever tried to do to use 9/11 in order to advance their own political fortunes.
The left went crazy in 2004 when Bush held the Republican convention in New York City , gave Rudy Giuliani the keynote address, trotted out the “good” 9/11 widows who supported him, and did everything to remind people of that date except re-enact the attack on stage. It was shameless exploitation of the tragedy, but…
But there was no denying that there was also another dimension to the remembrance, one that all Americans could touch and be comforted. United in our grief and efforts to heal the gaping wound that 9/11 represented at that time (it being just 3 years removed from the tragedy), the GOP show may have had political overtones but also served the purpose of acting as a national catharsis for the still rank emotions that 9/11 brought to the surface.
No such dual objective appears to be present in this effort by the White House to essentially toss 9/11 down the memory hole, burying its true significance, in the name of advancing a political agenda.
UPDATE: Allah Pundit:
The boss is right about how this dovetails with Obama’s own insulting, sophomoric reading of 9/11 as being fundamentally about a dearth of empathy, an understanding so facile that it would be cringed at in a dorm-room circle. (Is there any act of cruelty, in any context, about which the same couldn’t be said?) And to the extent AmSpec’s saying that, for many progressives, the big lesson about the attack going forward will be to smile on your brother, get together and try to love one another right now, well, fair enough. But it ain’t the day of service that’s inculcating that outlook; that’s just kind of … how they are. All this does is give them an outlet for it.
What it sounds like, though, is that AmSpec’s claiming this is some sort of nefarious plot to brainwash the country into forgetting what happened that day — i.e. to “reshape the American psyche.” Er, really? Leftist phone banks about gun control are going to dim the memory of jihadists steering jumbo jets into the World Trade Center? That’s kind of like saying that if the left declared December 7 to be Drum Circle Day henceforth, the memory of Pearl Harbor would fade beneath the din of the sweet, soulful tapping on those bongos. Frankly, if there are any political repercussions from this at all (which I doubt), I’d imagine they’d redound to the advantage of hawks. Passing a crowd of college kids chanting about ethanol when you’re busy thinking about people jumping out of skyscrapers isn’t likely to convince you of the merits of ethanol, but it may convince you that those kids are callous douches who don’t have their priorities in order. What am I missing here?
First, George W. Bush called for community volunteer work on the anniversary of 9/11, and the right didn’t find it controversial. Second, victims’ families have recommended making 9/11 a national day of service for years. Third, Alex Koppelman explained, “Check out the official Web site set up for the day: They’re asking people to come up with their own events. So if you don’t want to help out at anti-American places like food banks and community gardens, you can organize your own event.”
What’s more, while the Vadum piece is obviously bizarre, it’s also worth remembering that these disturbed ideas were quickly embraced by other far-right bloggers, including Michelle Malkin and another site that argued the president is calling for “mandatory civilian service” as part of Obama’s drive to build “his civilian army.”
Conservative bloggers pick the strangest things to get excited about.
To recap: Wingnuts are furious about losing their “day of fear” because having a National Day of Service, in America, will “drain 9/11 of all meaning,” which is, of course, to Republicans, a “day of fear.”
Fuck these people. Or, we should say, “Good luck with the Death Panel, old white people!”
UPDATE #2: Matthew Vadum responds to his critics, ending with:
Apparently, as a commenter at the American Spectator website just noted, President Bush also urged Americans to do community service. The linked Bush administration press release doesn’t, however, say to do it on Sept. 11 specifically and, unlike the Obama administration, doesn’t seem to put the power (for lack of a better word) of 9/11 to work promoting a particular political party or ideology. Nor does it try to suck all the meaning out of 9/11.
So, to the commenter I can only reply: Nice try. A National Day of Service (which isn’t actually referenced in the Bush document) is a creepy idea no matter who is advancing it. We do not exist to serve the state. Politicians of both parties nowadays, though especially the Democrats, don’t seem to understand this.
