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Thursday--
May 2, 2002—Ground
Zero Plus 233
The Sweet Smell
Of Commie Pinkos
by
Cliff McKenzie
Editor, New York City Combat Correspondent News
GROUND ZERO, New York City, May 2--Oh where or where
have the Commie Pinkos gone? I wish they were still
here!
As Archie Bunker would say, “those
were the days!”
Back during the Cold War all we had
to do was worry about mutual annihilation. Nuclear bullyism
between the United States and Russia resulted in a stalemate
with lots of cat-and-mouse maneuvers, but when it came down
to a real showdown such as the Cuban Crisis, each side slipped
the finger off the nuclear trigger. No one wanted
Armageddon.
Things aren’t as sweet today under the threat of Terrorism as
they were when Winston Churchill dubbed the ideological block
between the East and West as the “Iron Curtain,” during a speech
given on March 5, 1946 at Westminster College in Fulton, Missouri.
(link to Churchill's speech)
The Cold War presented
a clear and present enemy, defined by physical locations and
surrounded by geography and composed of citizens of a recognized
state—ordinary people who wanted to live life without the threat
of war. The Russians were tired of war, after
suffering casualties of dead and wounded in both World War I
and II of a staggering 38 million. America was also
more than bloodied with casualties and deaths from both
wars, with over 320,000 killed or wounded in World War I, and
more than 1.2 million in World War II. Both
sides lost a population larger than the state of California.
The Arm’s Race proved only one
thing—that modern nuclear war was suicide for both sides, and
perhaps the world. The race ended with the destruction of the
Berlin Wall on November 9, 1989.
Then came the birth of Terrorism.
Like a silent spider stalking
its unwary prey, Terrorism slid down a silken strand of
airspace on September 11 and smashed the fly’s sense of comfort
and security that war was passe. The fly, America's
resolve to not wage war, was caught in the Terrorist’s web of
Complacency. It struggled wildly as plane after
plane exploded into the heart of America’s serenity, signaling
the
advent of an enemy far worse than any imagined during the Cold
War.
Terrorism, rather
than obliterate humanity, threatened instead to instill Fear,
Intimidation and Complacency on the doorsteps of every citizen.
Its goal was insidious--to produce the omnipresent fear of being
being bitten to death by ducks.
The fly didn’t know
what to do. A foreign enemy had assaulted its homeland
soil--the first such attack since the War of 1812.
Now, American citizens were being singled out, one by one, indiscriminately
targeted to show how the smallest kernel of antediluvian madness
could infect the most advanced people on earth.
May Day was
designed to celebrate the freedom of the oppressed classes,
to jubilantly extol the virtues of Communism and socialism en
route to a more perfect world in which everyone lived
in harmony because there were no class distinctions, no rich
and poor—a nirvana of equality.
The
Berlin Wall’s collapse signaled the failure of a “perfect state”
under central control. The world sighed a deep breath
of relief. Perhaps, the world thought, harmony
was at long last within reach. After the collapse
of the Berlin Wall, the only problem left it seemed, was to
figure out how to destroy and reduce the weapons of war, to
shrink the massive stockpiles of nuclear and bio-chemical arms
each side amassed to bully one another into deadlock
An unexpected
hand reached in to help. Terrorism took charge of the
disposal.
The spider
web Terrorism had been weaving, spun itself around these “weapons
of destruction.” Engineers and technicians who built and
maintained the weapons have sought new employment with shadowy
figures of the sand, leaders of revolution who shift their headquarters
with the winds and boast of their glories in caves.
“Oh, sweet Commie
Pinkos, where have you gone?”
It was so much easier
during the Cold War to find and hold the enemy in sight. Back
then, the tension between the two great superpowers of Russia
and the United States held everyone else in check. 
When communism collapsed, it freed the mad dogs of Terrorism
to roam the world in search of bringing their agenda to the
forefront of the world’s mind. It was time for the Tortoise
to beat the Hare.
So far, the Hare
has lost the race.
America and the civilized,
industrial world that seek peace and harmony, now shudder when
a balloon explodes, wondering if the next promised Terrorist
attack is being launched.
Let me share an example
of its pervasiveness. My granddaughter and grandson were
on the bus the other day returning from rock climbing class
at Chelsea Pier in New York City with their grandmother.
Matthew, the soon-to-be six-year-old rock climber, had a balloon
given to him by his instructor. Sarah, his three-soon-to-be-four-year-old
sister, was playing with it on the crowded bus when it suddenly
exploded with a loud bang.
The bus driver swerved.
Passengers ducked. Faces paled. Eyes widened with
fear.
“It’s only a balloon,” my wife
yelled. “Just a balloon that popped! That’s all.
It’s O.K.”
Another incident of a more threatening
nature occurred a few days ago. A boiler in the basement
of a building on 19th and Sixth Avenue exploded.
A number of people were injured from debris and flying glass,
and hearts stopped as fear of another inevitable attack by Terrorists
surged through the city. Sirens wailed, and the
eerie feeling of insecurity seemed to rise from the ashes of
the World Trade Center, recalling memories not so deeply buried
of the living, daily danger of Terrorism.
This May Day was not a tribute to the working class' struggle
for equal rights, but was really Terrorism Day.
It was a day when those
who wished for Equality among all, couldn’t afford not
to look behind them for a bomb, or worry about some object falling
from the sky to destroy them randomly. It was a day when
people ducked on a bus in the heart of New York City over a
popping balloon.
Terrorism Day, sadly, is
not merely a single day out of a year. It can't be
marked on a calendar or separated from all the other days of
the year. Unfortunately, it is every day.
As the present-time clock ticks, there are those fragments of
madness planning the destruction of order in a vainglorious
attempt to claim their independence from the evolution of society.
These people teach their children to be willing to strap bombs
around their bellies and kill themselves to further their cause,
at the expense of the innocent, the helpless whom they consider
their "enemy."
To combat Terrorism Day, we need
to employ Vigilance Day, and honor it daily not annually..
Since Terrorism’s primary object
is to instill Fear, Intimidation and Complacency into a society
of order and peace, the counterbalance to them must be to instill
a stronger vein of Courage, Conviction and Action in all
who live in Terrorism's shadow.
This teaching begins at home.
In the Terrorism War, we must
learn to teach our children how to not be afraid of life under
the threat of death. To effectively neutralize Terrorism,
we must seek to reconstitute our wills, our characters, so that
a shadow in the night, or a popping balloon won’t drive us to
our bellies shaking and shuddering in fear of the unknown, the
unexpected.
One such powerful offensive weapon
at our disposal is the Pledge of Vigilance. When we take it,
we vow to attack not only Physical but also Emotional Terrorism
both in ourselves and our loved ones. We use Vigilance
to fight the virus of Terrorism feeding upon our Fears.
The Cold War was won when both
sides had equal power.
The War on Terrorism will only be won when the degree of Vigilance
in each of us equals the degree of Terrorism in our enemies.
When Terrorists realize we fight Fear with Courage, quash Intimidation
with Conviction, and rather than hide our heads in the sand
of Complacency we are willing to stand up and take Action--then
and only then will we have neutralized the threat of Terrorism.
If we aren't afraid, we can't be bullied.
We can fight Terrorism today
by taking the Pledge of Vigilance. It is a step toward
the destruction of Terrorism, one that must come from each and
every parent, not from the government.
When enough of us vow to
the Principles of Vigilance, and act upon them to teach our
children how to face the bullies of the world with Courage,
Conviction and Action, then the Terrorism Wall will crumble
just as swiftly as did the Berlin Wall.
Go To May 1--Viral Terrorism
