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Editor's Letter
A startling, yet surprisingly under-noticed triumph in the history of political spin recently occurred: the party in power during the worst terrorist attack in our nation’s history turned that event into a primary reason the party’s leader should be reelected for another term. “Only one 9/11 happened under our watch,” the argument essentially runs. “But if the other party were in power, you can rest assured that there would have been several more 9/11’s.” Am I building a strawman here, or maybe even a bogeyman? Perhaps, but this campaign is full of strawmen and bogeypeople. Take, for example, former NYC mayor Rudy Giuliani, who during his RNC speech invoked 9/11 no less than, yes, 11 times. That fateful morning, he told the party faithful at Madison Square God-in, “as we stood on the pavement seeing a massive cloud rushing through the cavernous streets of lower Manhattan…we believed we would be attacked many more times that day and in the days that followed. Spontaneously, I grabbed the arm of then Police Commissioner Bernard Kerik and said to Bernie, ‘Thank God George Bush is our President.’” Naturally, he then repeated the last statement. High esteem indeed for a commander in chief who sat in a classroom full of Florida schoolchildren nervously listening to a story about a goat. My point is not to endorse any candidate in the race for president—as a nonprofit, we are prohibited by law from doing so. I can, however, categorically reject the idea that one party should gain from a massive attack that hit all residents of our great city. Everyone breathed in the dangerous post-9/11 air, and feared—then as now—that we could be hit again. Since terrorists tend not to check the voter registration cards of their targeted victims before striking, both thwarting as well as recovering from such calamities is clearly a nonpartisan issue. What your party did to prevent attacks, or what it will do to prevent future strikes—these are the issues that qualify as fair game. Would the thousands of rescue workers, as well as Rudy and company, not have rushed down to the World Trade Center site if a Democrat were in office? The question itself is ridiculous. Then again, so is much of what currently passes as political debate this campaign season. Table of Contents  LOCAL |
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The Rail invites you to a reading with Jason Flores-Williams and Brian Carreira, along with musical guest Steve Strunsky of the Lonesome Prairie Dogs. Thurs., Sept. 22, 8:30 p.m. Vox Pop--Flatbush, Brooklyn www.voxpop.net |
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OFF THE RAIL FALL 2005 at the Central Branch of the Brooklyn Public Library - Grand Army Plaza |
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The Independent Press Association-NY recently honored The Brooklyn Rail with the following awards: |