I lived in New York City (NYC) during the 1970s, 1980s and early 1990s. Way back when Rush Limbaugh only needed the talent on loan from God and was not deceiving several doctors across the country to receive 19 overlapping prescriptions in five months to feed his addiction to painkillers. Back then I would listen to the ditto heads speak of NYC and Washington, D.C., as if they were Sodom and Gomorrah. But then 9/11 happened.
Suddenly, NYC became a combination of the Alamo and Pearl Harbor for the Republican Party, who by the way had long distanced itself from the city and the city's moderate Republican Mayor Rudy Giuliani. Now don't get me wrong, there are still some Republicans and conservatives who still view NYC as a den of thieves participating in every single sinful activity known to man. Some like Jerry Falwell, who called the 9/11 attacks God's punishment for the secularization of America.But the Republican party rallied around the tragedy and started waving the flags, pushed out their chests, pounded the war drums and started the tough talk led by President George W. Bush, who called for Osama Bin Laden to be taken dead or alive, who stated how if you're not with us, then you're with the terrorists, and then invaded Afghanistan. The party that was filled with so much machismo, that it allowed Bush to launch a second war in Iraq without winning the first one and even discussed a third war against Iran. It was that bravado that makes their current stance on bringing the terrorists to America for trial odd.
Now after eight years of tough talk, the Republicans tell us we should be afraid. They tell us how dangerous having the trials in NYC would be. The same party who had nothing good to say about NYC now wishes to protect it. I now ask, where's the bravado? Why shouldn't we use a judicial system that is the best in the world and separates us from the terrorists to bring them to justice? Is not our democracy strong enough to stand up to unarmed men in shackles? They tell us how the city would be put in harm's way if the trials were held there. I ask Republicans, if not there then where?
In my opinion, nothing put NYC in harm's way more than the 50-plus years of foreign policy decisions in the Middle East such as the propping up of dictators and suppressing democracy to ensure the free flow of oil from Iran, Iraq, Kuwait and Saudi Arabia. There is no better way to combat terrorism than showing the terrorists that no matter what, we will not change as a people. That justice for all still means something in America. That our constitution is not a document to be cherished during good times and to be shredded during times of struggle. Because if that's what are constitution has become, than we have already lost.
