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September 10, 2008Hi Grandma,
Well, let's hope Tina can keep the baby inside just one more day, a 9/11 birthday would certainly be less than ideal.
I remember vividly first hearing about the Attacks on Rt. 70 from Baltimore on the way to visit you in the hospital, I think just before your pacemaker was installed. Then hearing about the plane that went down in PA and thinking how close I must be to where that just happened. I remember trying to visualize what New York City must look like, and hoping my friend Ji was OK, and calling him over and over again and not getting through. I found out that he was right down the block and was able to get out while the subways were still running. Then I saw the images on your TV at home with Pap, then many more in hospital room with you. We will never forget it; it was a sad day--one of our saddest.
Every American felt an equally heavy heart that day: Rich, Poor, Black, Asian, White, Straight, Gay, Man, Woman, Veteran, Artist, Republican, Democrat. We all cried and asked ourselves why? And how can we never let this happen again?
It is with great sadness that we have seen the Office of the President of our great country use this day of greatest sadness and all the horrors and images that filled the airwaves for weeks, months, years to persistently and with great conviction instill fear into our hearts for political purpose. Not just a fear of terrorists, but fear of all Muslims, fear and dismay toward Europeans who chose to not send their children to fight in Iraq, and most disappointingly fear and dismay for those Americans who choose to stand against our President's decision to send our children to war in Iraq.
I am a Patriot. I love this country. I am a unique American story. Like I tell my friends I'm half Jersey Jew and half Pennsyl-tucky Redneck", and damn proud!! And it saddens me so very much that the Office of my President has used the events of September 11 to systematically convince seemingly half our population that I am somehow not a Patriot because I do not think we have chosen to fight the right war.
To me, being a Patriot means education of all of our children, even if the rest of us have to chip-in a little more. To me, being a Patriot means saving what God-given natural resources our country does have for my great-great grandchildren, even if we have to tighten our belts now. To me, being a Patriot sometimes means turning the other cheek and giving even our enemies a second chance to do what is right. To me, being a Patriot means praising our heros but remembering that our nation is imperfect and that it is our job as Patriots to continue our everlasting search for that more perfect Union.
It is with great saddness that I see John McCain and Sarah Palin using 9/11 fear tactics to paint Barack Obama and his supporters as un-patriotic, un-American, and out of touch with American values. Abraham Lincoln was a fierce critic of the Mexican-American war because he viewed it as a War of Agression, a term that would later be used by the Confederacy to describe his War. Lincoln was a Patriot, my great-great-great uncle and Union Soldier Charles Smaltz was a Patriot, as were the Slaves and Confederates alike. Patriotism is the belief that we must always fight on toward that more perfect Union. Our country is ready to turn a page once again in history and move beyond fearing folks who do not share the same color skin, language, or religion.
Simply put, I do not want my child to live in fear.
Seven long years have gone by since that painful drive from Baltimore to Martinsburg, a drive I will never ever forget, but am ready to move past.
Thank you for being a great Grandma and taking the time to read my perspective.
I love you,
Kyle
