I subscribe to a number of technical mailing lists and to one of them, a fellow named Mark posted his “Ode to The Strong” on September 10, 2002 — commemorating the first anniversary of the events of 9-11-2001. It was quite a read. I include it, in its entirety, (spelling and punctuation are original) below. This is followed by my own reply, as I could not permit his Ode to pass unremarked.
In my response, I intersperse my point-by-point remarks within his original text. On with the show. Here’s Marks Ode to The Strong:
It was just a year ago that many stood in shock, fear, and anger, as a few men of varying origins took part in a coordinated attack, one that killed people, but who’s target was the living.
America is hated by much of the world, partly because we are so prosperous, partly because we don’t conform to thier standards, and partly because we are free. All tyrants fear the free. The free, in a world of absolute control, are the “loose cannons” of time. They fail to conform to the plans, to obediently follow the strictures laid out for them. They ruin the plans of those who seek thier own ends at the expense of others. They foil the efforts of those who think they can rule the world.
Today, we are still grappling the magnitude and pervasiveness of the hatred directed our way. We react with disbelief at the apparent desire to kill us. Our minds do not relate to the burning desire to kill that is so strong that it overcomes our own will to live.
But in spite of all this, they failed. They failed to demonstrate thier way is better. They failed to convince the world that good was done by killing us. But what they REALLY failed to do, was to break us. Oh, the naysayers are out there… The exploiters have attempted to take our liberty – or at least try to say that liberty must be sacraficed. They try to say our thinking is wrong – that our freedom, our non-conformity, our refusal to be the rest of the world – is the cause of all the ills that plague our world. But they are wrong. They are wrong because they are weak.
But we are not weak. We aren’t even bothered by it all. I know we are strong, because I see we are strong. In the middle of it all, everyday men rushed into the buildings to save others. Ordinary people lined up to give blood. Countless anonymous people who gained nothing by it opened thier hearts and wallets. And we are still strong. In fact, I think we are even stronger. It’s no longer out of fashion to fly the flag. It’s no longer ridiculed to stand and face the flag with hand over heart and tears in your eyes from the swelling in your heart.
We may have seemed to forget, but then we remembered anew how each of us must determine to live as individuals. Not just exist, but LIVE. To exercise our freedom, our rights, and our obligations to care for each other on a personal level and reach out our own hand toward our neighbor.
And on this day of remembering, let us no longer mourn the dead or grieve for the hurt. Let us resolve that we never forget what it was that made it possible for those who attacked us to fail so miserably. It is a love of liberty. It is a unflinching belief in ourselves. It is our individualism, our freedom, our ability to face risk and loss and not resort to collective “safety” that made the attack on our institutions so utterly ineffective at breaking us. For so long as we stand as individuals, staring our fates down one to one, nothing can destroy America, unless they can destroy every one of us.
Let us renew our commitment to liberty, to individuality, to the belief that we are an entire nation of individuals who are “under God, indivisible, with liberty and justice for all.” Because if “liberty, and justice for all” are not worth living for, then nothing else will ever really matter.
All worked up? Feeling patriotic? Well, then, here it is again, edited, with my remarks interspersed.
It was just a year ago that many stood in shock, fear, and anger, as a few men of varying origins took part in a coordinated attack, one that killed people, but who’s target was the living.
America is hated by much of the world, partly because we are so prosperous, partly because we don’t conform to thier standards, and partly because we are free.
Not to mention partly because we stick our noses into their affairs.
But in spite of all this, they failed. They failed to demonstrate thier way is better. They failed to convince the world that good was done by killing us.
That was not their objective. They wanted to show that we are vulnerable and can be killed. At that, they did not fail.
It’s no longer out of fashion to fly the flag. It’s no longer ridiculed to stand and face the flag with hand over heart and tears in your eyes from the swelling in your heart.
And look what it took to make flying the flag fashionable. As someone who has flown Old Glory outside my home for more than 20 years, every day, I guarantee you that many people thought of me as some sort of nut-case. Now I’m just the guy with the oldest flag.
Let us resolve that we never forget what it was that made it possible for those who attacked us to fail so miserably.
Rather, let us remember what allowed them to succeed so well with their murderous plan. We’ve been cowed into submission by our own government and taught that self-defense is wrong and bad. We’re conditioned to bleat that “Violence is bad” while making no distinction between offensive and defensive violence. Do-gooder busy-bodies, politicians and legislators see the violence you might do in defending yourself as being just as bad as the violence of a assailant preying on you.
We have been disarmed and turned into so many sitting ducks by law. Meanwhile, we go on about how wonderful it is to be “free” while having no idea what true freedom is.
It is a love of liberty. It is a unflinching belief in ourselves. It is our individualism, our freedom, our ability to face risk and loss and not resort to collective “safety” that made the attack on our institutions so utterly ineffective at breaking us. For so long as we stand as individuals, staring our fates down one to one, nothing can destroy America, unless they can destroy every one of us.
What a load of claptrap. We are destroying ourselves from within. We are our own worst enemy.
Let us renew our commitment to liberty, to individuality….
If only .. If only… Even as we become less free, we celebrate our diminishing freedom.
I’ll tell you what, since Mark got away with editorializing, I’m going to share with this list a note I sent out to my family and friends on 9-11-2002. Here goes… (Rather than include it here, I’ll just link to the posted version.)
Of course, Mark replied. Here we go again:
Thanks for the encouragement.
My purpose was to elucidate, not to encourage; I try to avoid encouraging harmful behavior.
Gee. We think roughly the same things. I say what I say on a positive note, selling the concept, not trying to be overly maudlin or critical, and you rip me for it.
No, you’re selling something different. You’re trying to make people feel good about an increasingly bad situation. I mean, I’m all for a Stiff Upper Lip and all that, but I’m not going to watch thousands of our people get killed, the economy brought to its knees, the airline industry becomes a wreck, and then let someone tell us that the whole thing has made us strong or proven how strong we are.
We are not strong. A group of men armed with nothing more than utility knives did this to us. If we were strong, they could not have done this.
I decided not to broach the politics of gun control
Sure, we wouldn’t want them catching on to their own culpability in the matter. That might make them feel bad. No one wants to face the fact that we brought this on ourselves. Preferable to blame someone else.
and the countless other things, but instead, remind people that it is principles first that count.
Principles like our freedoms, eh?
But you know, those “issues” are a losing battle, if we don’t believe in the principles they spring from. I’m sorry if you don’t like it, but right now, the principles need selling, not the issues. We can’t win on the specifics, if people don’t believe in the ideal in the first place.
The ideal being what? That if we just have enough cheerleaders telling us that things are getting better, then things really are getting better? Rah, Rah.
I’m only 39, but holding my hand over my heart and pledging allegiance to the flag has never been easy. Even in grade school, I felt it was an awesome burden to uphold the faith in my country. Even when it wasn’t in fashion, I have always been ardently patriotic, and a loud, insistent, and consistent advocate of the founding principles of our country – liberty, equality, individualism.
Then why aren’t you defending these things? It does no good to Rah, Rah for “freedom” when people don’t know what freedom is. They have been led to believe that defending freedom is banning fanny packs and diaper bags from sporting events. That disarming them to provide faux safety is “freedom.”
… I stood at the back, in the sound booth (I am one of the sound system team), and listened, with tears running down my face, partly from the pride in what I know is such a wonderful ideal, and partly from the hurt that so few understand or even care. I guess that makes me worthy of derision?
Not at all. I weep too, but I didn’t need the events of 9-11-2001 to make me weep.
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> But we know that we are brave because the talking heads tell us so. We are strong because we have red, white, and blue ribbons on our chests, protecting us. We are fearless, and to prove it, we fly American flags. That’ll show ’em what we’re made of.
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Nonsense. I know what I’m made of. I don’t have to prove anything to anyone. But we need to convince everyone else, too. Telling them they’re weak and stupid sure isn’t going to accomplish anything.
The truth sometimes hurts. You can go on deluding yourself, I have no control over that. But when someone uses a public forum to delude others, I feel compelled to step in.
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> “You cannot be defenseless against evil. To discard the means for people to defend themselves leads to the kind of holocaust we have seen over and over again.” — Alan Keyes
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Alan Keyes is rather ambivalent on the subject, compared to me. But then, you wouldn’t know that. May I suggest you refrain from judging people you don’t know, or presupposing thier beliefs.
I judge not you, Mark, but your actions.
Most people just Don’t Get It. They think that loving their country is all that’s required. And they think that good citizens Go Along to Get Along, that criticizing government is bad, that we must all stick together first and foremost.
Bill Clinton, asked, during his tenure as president, “How can people love their country but hate their government?” Either he Doesn’t Get It or he’s being intentionally misleading. (I’ll let you decide.)
The United States is not the federal government. The United States is the people of fifty states, it’s the fifty states themselves, not the central government.
Anyway, go on making people “feel” safe and strong and free if you want to. I’m going to be pointing out that we are increasingly less safe, less strong and less free.
Politicians understand that perception is everything. It simply doesn’t matter what the truth of the matter is as long as people perceive that things are OK. Right up to and through September 10, 2001, I’m sure that the great, vast majority of air travellers “felt” safe. They were not, as is now obvious, in fact safe. But that did not matter — at least until Sept. 11. Post 9-11-2001, there was a big effort to make people feel safe again. By confiscating nail clippers, we have been made to “feel” safe again, though we are not any safer now than before 9-11.
All that matters to government is that We the People buy what they’re selling. And you’re helping to sell it. Rah, Rah.