January 19, 2002

First on the Scene

This article was originally going to be about the political correctness that has recently run amok in New York City. It was going to point out the silliness of trying to change the images of the three firemen who have been captured on film for eternity, raising that flag over the ruins of the WTC. All of this was to be done in the name of diversity. I was also going to comment on the newly installed Brooklyn Borough President who decided to redecorate his office. Calling him some old white guy the President had decided to remove the portrait of Founding Father, George Washington. Once again the magical word of diversity was used as to the reason why this was to occur.

However, I hadnt started writing yet when I heard a small news soundbyte about a volcano that had erupted in the African Nation of The Congo. Fair amounts of people were killed. Many, many, were injured. The city of Goma was pretty much destroyed by molten rock. All of the water purification plants were destroyed, And Lake Kivu, was polluted. Officials on site estimated that some 300,000 people were left homeless. It is not a pretty sight to be sure.

However what struck me as most interesting was that Americans were the first to respond by sending aid. It just never ceases to amaze me that we are always there to help, to aid, to comfort. While so many other nations point fingers at us for doing this or that, or attack us, or condemn us in such forums as the United Nations, we always show up when the time is needed.

I am sure that many of you reading this have seen that email going around that was apparently written by a Canadian a number of years ago. He praised this nation! He was able to see it for what it was, a wealthy bastion of democracy, and compassion, that while not perfect, had certainly achieved an extremely prominent and distinctive position among the other nation-states of this globe. That position was the ability to deliver help, in any form wherever and whenever it was needed by anyone, anywhere in this world.

I am reminded here that the author of that article had pointed out that it was the power of this nation, supported by the desire of its people to see the job through that fed thousands of starving refugees in war torn ruins of Europe and Asia immediately after World War Two.

I add here that it was US Military might and the genius of George Marshal that overcame the Soviet Blockade during the Berlin Airlift that relieved the citizens of that city, and forced the former Soviet Union into realizing that we were a nation determined to preserve freedom wherever and however possible and with ANY means necessary. The bloodbaths, known as Korea, and Vietnam, demonstrated to a equally determined foe, that AMERICANS were willing to stand and SACRIFICE for a principle that they believed in, even when it really served no other purpose than to make it clear that we would make that stand. Again and again America and her people have shown their willingness to stand up to adversity, against all odds, to do what is just and right.

These were my thoughts when I heard that AMERICANS were yet again the first to respond.

Rich
Editor, BCC