posted on September 22, 2001 02:10:32 PM
At San Francisco's service of remembrance for its dead this week, Amos Brown, representing the city's Board of Supervisors, used the occasion to launch into an examination of the "root causes" of the regrettable incident. "America, what did you do," he wailed, "in Africa, where bombs are still blasting? America, what did you do in the global warming conference when you did not embrace the smaller nations? America, what did you do two weeks ago when I stood at the world conference on racism, when you wouldn't show up?" The Bay Area Lefties roared their approval.
Paul Holm was not so impressed. His partner, Mark Bingham, was a 6ft 5in gay rugby jock who'd been among those who'd rushed the hijackers of Flight 93 (for more on this, see the Weekend section). Mr Holm walked up to Senator Dianne Feinstein and said sadly: "This was supposed to be a memorial service." Then he quit the stage. Mark Bingham died heroically, and all the city of San Francisco can do is denigrate the cause and the nation for which he gave his life.
The totalitarian Left has finally found its perfect soulmates. With Communism, the excuse was always that, whatever the practical difficulties on the ground, it retained its theoretical idealism. But the Taliban and Osama bin Laden are perfectly straightforward: they're openly racist; they'd strip Dianne Feinstein of her senatorship and make her a mere chattel; they'd execute Paul Holm for being gay. True, I don't know their position on global warming, but it doesn't seem to be a priority.
posted on September 22, 2001 02:19:45 PM
One of my step-daughters is a social worker who volunteered for some time at a battered women's shelter. The self-blame of the victim sounds exactly like the rhetoric you speak of, Reamond. "If only I'd been better...he wouldn't have beaten me. If only I hadn't made him mad, he wouldn't have beaten the children."
It's called enabling...and it only sanctions and causes further abuse.
posted on September 22, 2001 11:43:06 PMREAMOND, Amos Brown is a clergyman. Tom Ammiano is head of the S.F. Board of Supervisors. Their remarks at last week's memorial service have been widely publicized in our local newspapers. Many letters to the editor of the San Francisco Chronicle have castigated both of them for turning that somber occasion into a political stomping ground. At least two prominent California politicians left the proceedings after Brown's statements, ostensibly to express their disgust at the way the event had been overtaken by inappropriate rhetoric.
I don't know where you live, REAMOND, but I live in the San Francisco Bay Area, and I can promise you that the millions of us here do not as a body cleave to the Left, the Right, or anything in between. What many of us in this area DO seem to have in common is an overwhelming sense of pride in those Bay Area residents who apparently commandeered United Flight 93 and averted another major catastrophe on September 11th, knowing that doing so would cost them their lives. Every person I've spoken to (and I chat up a lot of folks) since those people's actions became known has stated that the flag they're flying, the prayers they're saying, and the money they're donating, is a direct result of the heroic measures those Bay-Area-bound passengers took.
posted on September 23, 2001 09:44:03 AM
We do have freedom of speech. If you want to understand, look at where these Amos Brown gets his support. If you really want to be sure, wait to see if that supporter remains such after this disgusting performance by Rev. Brown.
Look at his sponsoring church. Look at his congregation. Look at politicians who cozy up to him. These people created Amos Brown as we know him, and they share the shame.
