Hey -- Will Bunch from Attytood and the Philadelphia Daily News here. For some reason, it's important for me to let you know that we're not all Neanderthals here in Philly and especially at the DN, which is actually for the most part very progressive (first paper in U.S. to endorse Kerry over Bush in '04, for example.) I believe strongly in free speech, but also that wrongheaded speech like this deserves a quick response:
Here's a short response to Stu's column, which is probably going to crash the Daily News server with angry emails any second. I will agree with a small part of what he wrote, that there undeniably was a greater sense of national unity after 9/11, and that it dissapated for a time because of Bush's ill-conceived and devisive Iraq scheme.
But Americans are a resilient people, and many of us are in fact finding a new sense of unity and purpose -- in trying to undo the "mislaid" ( to use Stu's own words) aftermath of 9/11. Many Americans -- some silent, some not so silent -- are increasingly alarmed at the hijacking of the U.S. Constitution from Guantanamo to the corridors of the Justice Department, and a majority not only supports ending the misadventure in Iraq but is again engaged on a range of issues, asking why the U.S. has such an inadequate health-care system or lags in addressing climate change. It is not a national purpose that will be shared by every single American, but it is one that will make us a better people.
At least give the Daily News props for believing in free speech enough to publish this provocatively wrongheaded column, which deeply offends me as it will the majority of those who will read it. If violence and a bloody response --a solemn task when it is justified -- to that violence is the thing that we need to give us purpose as human beings, than we have all failed quite miserably.
UPDATE: Fellow Philadelphian Atrios makes a good point:
Everything else aside, I don't understand this yearning for a time of "unity." Its basic translation is a time when everyone who disagreed with me decided it was best to shut the hell up for awhile and when the patriot police had a good time hunting for dissidents.
That's an unhealthy state of affairs, not a healthy one.
My point was that it's always good for the body politic for Americans to have a sense of purpose, but, yeah, the definining values of this country were supposed to be freedom of speech, worship, etc., and not "national unity."
And Shaun "Kiko" Mullen, a former Bykofsky/Attytood co-worker at the DN, also weighs in.