First of the year

A Nation of Fools by Peary Perry

Here it is the first of the New Year…so much to say and so little time to say it in.

Let’s start with the new unemployment figures. According to the paper this morning our gubmint (this is my new expression for our government) is excited that fewer Americans filed for unemployment last month. They say this is a positive sign of the end of the recession. On the other hand there is a larger number of unemployed Americans still out on unemployment. Let’s see, if everyone stopped filing for unemployment benefits because they were already receiving benefits, wouldn’t it be logical to assume that at some point in time we would run out of new applicants (decline) and have a larger base of persons collecting? Of course I do not have a PHD or work for the gubmint, so what I say probably has no basis.

Have we gone crazy over trying to be politically correct or what? Let’s see we don’t have garbage collectors any longer….they are sanitation engineers. Homeless dumpster divers are now called ...consumable asset recovery personnel. Ladies of the night are referred to as ...nocturnal entertainment workers and terrorists are just plain old …criminals.

In our collective efforts not to offend anyone, we have offended all of us. Using the current gubmint analogy, Adolph Hitler would have been awarded Miranda rights and allowed to have legal representation (tax-payer funded) for any trial he might have to sustain. The little corporal would be treated the same as any other common New York mugger or purse snatcher regardless of the extent of his crimes against humanity. In my opinion we owe those tried at Nuremburg an apology. Did we ever screw that up…perhaps the current administration will want to go back and revisit those barbarous days and issue some form of reparation to the families of those executed Nazi’s. While we’re at it ….we can look at those so called ‘witches’ in Salem. I’d bet their civil rights were violated at well and probably none of them were given the opportunity of legal counsel. Shame on us. What were we thinking?

No, we have decided that we’d rather be dead than offend anyone’s personal beliefs. So, instead of looking at the profiles of those at war with this country, we’ll probably continue to search children and wheelchair bound grannies at the airport. Would not be prudent to question single men of Middle Eastern descent who have invalid visas, pay in cash, no luggage and who buy one way tickets. No, stopping someone for these kinds of issues would show we are a biased country and have suspicions about others in the world around us.

So, we stick our heads in the sand and refuse to acknowledge the fact that this nation of ours is at war. Not in the conventional sense of men and machines on a battlefield, but a war nevertheless. Our way of life, our freedoms and our beliefs are at war with a group of extremist terrorists (the PC police will probably come after me for saying this) who want to destroy us. These people do not wear uniforms but are enemy soldiers just the same as those we have fought in wars of the past. To treat these people as mere opportunistic criminals is an insult to any American and especially to those who have been killed, injured or directly affected by the actions of these people. Come to think about it…it’s also an insult to opportunistic criminals.

Why we, the American taxpayer, should be paying for the legal representation of an enemy combatant or giving American civil rights to a foreigner is beyond my comprehension. Does the ACLU think if we go to a foreign country that we are awarded the same rights as a citizen of that nation..of course not. Our civil rights were fought and won at the cost of blood and tears of fine men and women of this nation. To denigrate these rights in the interest of being politically correct is an insult those to men and women.

Think about this while you are standing in line for four hours waiting to board a flight that might take you two hours travel time…..are you really concerned over offending someone who is trying to kill you and the other passengers on your airplane…or do you want to make a clear and positive statement that tells them they are not welcome inside of our country and take their thoughts and philosophies somewhere else in the world? To do so requires a sea change of thought and cessation of molly coddling our enemies …even at the risk of offending them. As Rhett said…”Frankly, my dear…I don’t give a damn…”

As Americans, we need to grow up and act like Americans …not pretend any longer.

Let’s call it what it is….a war and then get on with what we need to do.