NYC-WTC_000230611

NYC 9/11 Public Portal Document

REW York OBSERVER, September 24,2001

NICHOLAS VON HOFFMAN up!t>lbcjc>b. If he had any mature, he’d quit—but if he had the stature lo quit, then he’d have the siaiure for (he job. Think of the Presidents ofthc last liaJPcentury who might have led us on this day of Heroes for the Times: criminal human sacrifice. The best would have been Dwight Eisenhower, who knew aboutdeaih and killing. His ft-esidency was during wh;ch policy in the Middle I East was argued frankly andopcnly, the last before dissenting opinion became afraid to Fire Chiefs, Not Politicians say out loud what it ihi nks We might have had RxhardNixon. If ittakes a wily one to catch a wily one, he*d have snagged Osama bin Laden, of that you may be sure You cannoi wagine a Lyndon John­ In the early winter of 1933. Franklin Roosevelt tock » fishing vacait'on vTihe cossi son getting on television after 5,CXX3 of our people were murdered and having nothing of Florida. After reluming co Miami, he wenl (o a park, where, seated in the back of an to say worth listening to. Bill Clinton wovid have been equal to the job. When the news open touring car, be spoke to some thousands of people, one of whom was Anion Cer- came in. he’d have told ihe girl, ‘Get up offa your 1 mak, the Mayor of Chicago. Cermak stood close to the Presideni-elect and thus was in In an epoch knees, I got workio do, ” and he would have done

i Ihe direct line of fire when an assassin rook aim al Roosevelt. As the Mayor fell to (he ground, grievously wounded, the Secret Service shouted al ihe driver lo gel the Presi- h well. For ihat maKer, so would Warren Harding, on most historians’ lisis as the worst Prcsideni in the I deni-eleci the hell out of there, but F.D.R stopped them. And ihen Roosevelt man accustomed to seeingJ last 100 years—but he did have a sonornu.s kind of I . whocould rex walk, lei alone run,unassisted—swung open the tcuring-caidoor and, with vapidity which deceived his auditors into briefly I i arms made strong from years ofemtehes. took hold of Cermak. pulled hi/n into the car and then, ct^ling the wounded man, ordered the driver logo lothe nearesi hospital. Courage. the big shots send thinking (hey’d heard real ihougbis. You don’t even have the illusron with Mr. Bush. Or there is the example of Abraham Lincoln, repeatedly wanted not to appear in pub­ lic, who told hf^bodyguards thm their protecting him CMld not be allowed to interfere the little shots . _gcnius. •He could speak of Osana bin Laden, ihe evil whq_h®s .Ihousands of lesser geniuses with his connection to ihc people who had chosen him to lead them and the naiion. □round (he globe, the fuff match in power and Courage. to their deaths, brains of the United Slates of America. Who is (his And then, lack of courage. George W. Bush. Four days later, he arrives in New York. f oiildn'i get (here sooner because they were targeting Air Force One. So lake' anoiher the fire chief bin Laderl character whohas brought off every am­ bush, every bushwhacking, every bombing for plane. This man Ls so much the captive of hts security janissaries they hid a by-invits- years'* Is he real, or rs he the Professor Mon’arty of irun-onJy fTjemorial servicea( iheNationalCalhedral. Leaders lake chances. Leaders ex­ led his people to what we opt imisiically call the “inlellrgence com- pose thcinselvts to dangers Let's rename Air Force One the White Fcaihor Special. Ttiunily”? Monarly-bin Laden gets away every This panicky escape—from Florida to Louisiana, then a disappearance under a desk imniortality. lime, disappearing into th; waterfall, a man (or in Nebraska—was the flighi of a confused, frightened man. At ihesariie lime he vanished, (honster) of such wicked laJenls Jha! noleven Sher­ the news announcers were assuring us that the Vice President was safe in his cave, the lock Holmes could catch him. h this or is this not Speaker of the House was safe irt his cave, and the members of ihe cabinet were safe in comic-book siuff? Docs Monarty-bin Laden exist, or is he necessary for politicians their caves. For practical purposes, ihe federal government, with New York and Wash­ who dare no: talkplainly about the underlying issues, and for the incompetents in the CI. A ington under atiack. had become invisible. The highest good was savi ng ihemscivcs so and EB.I- whose quotas of drunks, traitors and simple jeiks must be protected by weav­ they could live to lead us un -another, safer day. Cowardice in ihe face of the enemy? ing fairy talcs about the superhuman Old Man of the Mountai n who knows all, seas al I For most of Tuesday, the de facio leader of America was Rudolph'Giuliani, He was and kilts all. the only elected official in the Uniled States to be seen, (he only one giving ertcourage- Let us hope that Mr. Bush wilt someday talk about this catastrophic defeat which oc­ menl. the only one enjoin ing hope and the only one performi ng the duties of his office, curred because the responsible people in the federal government didn’t do their jobs, The i in the face of immediate danger. (George Pataki also was at his post, gaining honor by F.ed0ra) Aviariod Adminiicnati'cn failed. Aiyb«£y who has taken a plane in the United I his conduct.) ‘ States in ihelast 15 years knows that the only function being served by the security set- * So it turns out Ihal as George W. Bush ard (hat shabby bunch he calls his team played up, other than lonurj ng innocent passengers, was to provide leaf-raking jobs for som- the par of the poltroon in Washington, the ordinary people of New York were enraor- nambifljint and/or rude persons nf brief authority. dinary. Our firefighters, our policeofficers, our men and women from Lhe building trades As, for the intelligence—orshall we calf ft (he fow-intelligcnce—cQmmijnity.count- I from medicine and every occupation showed us what heroes do In an epoch acciislomed lessbillions have bought us nothing. Wheneverchallcnged, iheirstock answer is. ’’You I andto seeing the big shots send the little shots to their death, the fire chief led his people to •only see the times we failed; you don’t see how often we’ve stopped icvrorists.” But the tmmonalily which only great deeds and great sacrifice confer. Has ihcrcever been that ain’t good enough, bub. Would we accept ihe same answer from the people who run a day like Tuesday. Sept. 11.2001, a day of such mass murder, of scch grief, of such hugc- atomic-power plants? Foiling nine out of 10 plots is nora passing grade when Ihe lOlh nesj of heart ? Nor in the four centuries since Europeans came (o Manhaitan island. results in the death of thousands of people. You coujd talk about chat. President B us h. When the danger had abated, the politicians, like slugs after a rainstorm, came out from And one day soon, our leading people wil I have to talk about the land which has be­ ! underlo rcsumeihcir accusiomedplaces in front of the TV cameras. The braying jack­ come the tomb of so many good, dear people. Some will say that the towers should be asses in Congress lined up on the stepsof (he Capitol (o sing “God BleJs America" and rebui It. I hope that there' H be oihers who say Jhai they should never have been built in then, no dpubl» ^eni back inw (heir r^spcciivc chambers lo "‘commend” each other for the firsiplace, font isn’ionly fundamcrnalisi assassins who have long looked on those iheif “leadership.” Seldom have ihose subprime less-than-mediocrihes shown ihcm- towers a& an assertion of unseemly pride and the shameful hauteur of those who be­ selves in a worse light. lieve money confers virtue. They were as ugly as they were disproponionaic, and in They were not able, however, to underdo the President, this link man .who is too their place there should be erected something which speaks of the bcrier Arperica, which small for his suits. Him with his stumblings, fils swam of meaningless phmes. his is more closely connected lo the woman who stands close by tn (he harbor, her torch still make no mislake about if'i. Make no mistake about it, (his shrimp, this sea urchin is not lit in (his dark space of lime.

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