Honoring September 11th: Saved
by Evan SayetI must admit to some snobbery. My kind didn’t become cops. My kind didn’t become fireman. We went to college as simply a rite of passage and became the “Masters of the Universe” holding meetings with others like us on the top floors of buildings like those in the World Trade Center complex. In fact, I, at the age of twenty-three, had an office on the 106th floor of building number one with an unquestioned entitlement to it for no other reason than that was the way of the world.
The kids from the Bronx with the accents became fireman. The kid from Queens with the gaudy chains and the girlfriend with the big hair became cops. People who worked with their hands, people who risked their lives, I am now terribly embarrassed and ashamed to say, were thought of as just of another kind, the kind that my Leftist friends continue to deride as being from “fly-over country,” or from Kansas where the people have something “the matter” with them.
9/11 made that narrative impossible for me to cling to any longer. It may have taken days, weeks, months and years for all my ingrained bigotries to subside, but in those horrific moments when the Masters of the Universe were helpless, and those I had been culturally bigoted against ran up those stairs it became impossible for me to cling to them any longer.
The lies of the Left would never be so clearly exposed – except in their future defense of those lies – as they were that day when those heroes did not call in sick as they saw the morning news, but answered the call, and did not stand by as they would have had there been any truth to Leftist dogma, clapping and shouting about “The chickens coming home to roost.” They risked it all – many gave all – because that’s what heroes do.
On that day, eight years ago now – their children of ten now almost twenty – my heart goes out to their loved ones and I thank them. And I ask them to know, how many others their loved ones may or may not have been able to save, on that day, eight years ago today, they saved me.
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47 Comments
Took me all of the five minutes or so watching the first tower fall to clear modern liberalism out of my head. At that moment it became devastatingly clear. Politics is not some strange abstract hobby like bird watching. It's life and death real.
Welcome out of the wilderness brother, welcome home.
I still remember your metaphor for how half of our country reacted to 9/11.
"You know, I hate my wife."
"You always say that. You don't mean it, do y– Wait a minute, isn't that your wife getting mugged outside? Let's go help her!"
"…Nah. She probably deserved it."
[...] This post was mentioned on Twitter by Big Hollywood. Big Hollywood said: Honoring September 11th: Saved http://bit.ly/yQKh7 [...]
Thank you for this.
From the Flyover State of Oklahoma.
What a great tribute you have written to America, Evan. I want to thank all of the effort that you and all of you at Big Hollywood have placed in the pages before me.
Thank You Big Hollywood!
Thank you for a beautifully written, heartfelt piece.
Fr. George Rutler was near the trade center when the planes hit the towers, and ran out onto the sidewalk like many others to see what was happening, wearing his cassock. As he stood there, a firetruck sped round the corner up the block, and abruptly stopped near him. All of the firemen jumped off, and ran up to him to ask for absolution.
Like a wartime chaplain, he administered group absolution to the crew of that truck, and several more who followed after. As each crew crossed themselves and jumped back on their trucks, he realized: these men did not expect to make it out of those buildings, but they're going in because it is their duty.
Al Quaeda boasts, "We will defeat you because we are in love with death." BS. It takes no courage to be a murderer-suicide. What takes courage is to do as those 343 American police and firemen did on 9/11/2001, and thousands of American and British soldiers do every day: to love your life but be ready to lay it down for others.
Those who love American exceptionalism understand this; those who despise it never will.
Great read Evan, heartfelt, and with real passion as always.
Stereye…
Best read of the day, thank you.
You surely can write.
What does Glen have to do with piece? Come on CD you are a better troll than this. Or are you just having to use left overs you wrote yesterday?
It wasn't the attacks themselves that did it for me–while not really a liberal, I do come from a "Blue Dog Democrat" family and probably would have voted for Gore had I been of voting age. I understood very clearly that there were evil men in the world who had absolutely no justification for their actions that day and would have to be treated as such, but when I began reading the papers and seeing an absolute refusal to admit to these facts–not only among the liberal Democratic leaders, but among so many of those who were in thrall to them at every level–that's when I knew that whatever else I was, I was not one of them. I count myself as one of the lucky ones who made it out of the spin.
CD, don't cut and paste dude we got it.
I cannot fucking stand when people use a horrific tragedy like 9/11 and attempt to use it as a political weapon against their opponents.
You should be ashamed. I don't mean that tritely– for the sake of humanity, consider your priorities carefully when you invoke the memory of 9/11.
I've always had issues with authority and conforming, so when my parents, sisters and brothers, all dutifully joined the democratic party, naturally I had to be an independent. I think that's why I'm a Mets and Jets fan. Just have to be different.
What got me into the position to completely break was college. I majored in electrical engineering technology, which means lots of physics, lots of lab classes, lots of logic. I even took a class in classical Socrates logic, essentially, the Queen of Marskbury rules for debate.
Armed with that knowledge, I was able to not only destroy every assertion made by my liberal friends and family, but myself too.
But at that point, I considered it all fun and games. Nothing that seriously impacted my life. 9/11 proved me wrong. It was no longer a game.
Thank you Evan for a beautiful and heartfelt tribute to the real heros around us all.
No, it certainly was not. I didn't start reading my local (conservative) paper's editorials and opinion columns line-for-line just for the thrill, to me it was a matter of life and death. I HAD to make sense of it all.
I most certainly understand the need to make sense.
May I suggest Reason a good place. Every time I finish an issue of their magazine, I feel like I've just completed a mental triathlon. It's not conservative or liberal, they're libertarians. Its a heck of a different way to view issues. It's not one side rooting for or against either side, its what works.
http://www.reason.com/
He's doing this on every thread. What a loser.
Wow. Evan, what a nakedly honest piece. Thank you for this very moving tribute to our fallen heroes
Oh yes, it's quite shameful for him to get over his elitism and arrogance towards the lower class when he saw how valiant they were in saving as many people as they could that day.
Fuck you.
Mr. Sayet,
I have always enjoyed reading what you write and listening to what you say, but this is is just about the finest, most succinct statement about the subject that I have ever heard.
Thank You.
You are truly free when you can admit the truth, even if it reflects badly on you. Evan Sayet does this and should be commended for it.
As for what's wrong with Kansas, nothing is wrong with Kansas, Kansans are freer than most. I'd ask what's wrong with black people. They keep voting for Democrats but Democrats only offer dependence and divisiveness to blacks. Conservatives have a positive message that any individual can achieve for himself. My last liberal vote was at age 25, when I started working. Funny how that works.
Evan – Don't pay any attention to the digs above. Glad you had that "significant emotional experience" that altered your outlook. Welcome to the realm of common sense.
I'll second that sentiment. I would have put it in all caps though.
Damn. You know, it doesn't seem like 9/11 until something makes me cry. That did it.
Maturity makes good friends of the most of us. The rest are dull at even the best parties. This was a wonderful article!
Evan you are a man of true character. Many people have the opportunity in times of crisis to see through and admit the shallowness of their lives, but few are willing to face the truth and change what they know to be wrong. I respect and admire your honesty with yourself and your audience. Thank you for pulling us all in to inspect our own failings.
A very brave andmoving piece Mr. Sayet. Thank you.
A very brave and moving piece Mr. Sayet. Thank you.
As a very ex-Liberal myself I can attest to the cultural snobbery, arrogance and elitism Sayet writes about. I had the educational pedigree, the world travel, the career track, the right friends and most importantly my Liberal ideology. It was the jewel in my elitist crown. Sayet refers to himself in those days as a "master of the universe." I called myself a "child of destiny." LOL. Talk about believing the hype. Today, I'm older and wiser (i.e., a conservative), and I know better. The only thing that elevates anybody is their character. Pure and simple. Absolutely nothing else. And those cops and firefighters showed more character on 9/11 than a hundred elitist Liberal turds put together. They are too good for that Liberal twit who before 9/11 would have condescended to them behind their backs as intellectual lessers. They are the best among us. Courageous, dedicated, unhesitating. God bless their memories, and God bless America.
Evan just got a run for his money on great posts. Thanks, Stergeye. Evan, thanks for posting such an honest and personal story. Those are the ones that mean the most.
I remember the days and weeks after 9-11, almost immediately hard-core leftists (you people are not liberal you are illiberal) started making fun of President Bush's reaction when he was told of the first plane hitting the tower, they started accusing Bush of cowardice because in the hours after it was determined we were under attack the Secret Service had taken him to a safe place, on the eve of the first strikes in Afghanistan the Dems were criticizing Bush for not reacting soon enough. If I wanted to take the time to do some research I could find many more instances of how "united" the left was with America and how the Dems "rallied" behind Bush.
Like the left used Columbine (and every other school shooting), Hurrican Katrina, the bridge collapse in Minnesota, shooting victim James Brady, the four 9-11 widows (oops, Dems using 9-11 for political purposes?), the current recession and job losses (and the list goes on), as political weapons against their opponents.
Awesome work.
I cut and paste to win.
Perhaps, and this is just a thought, if so many on the left had not so soon decided to make America the villain and had not taken every opportunity to undermine the president on every aspect of national security, then maybe the Islamic Jihadist movement would have faltered under overwhelming opposition to their goals. But alas the left as usual saw 9-11 as another opportunity to attack America's free market system and to try to portray the terrorists in Marxist terms as oppressed peoples suffering from neo-imperialism. Read up on the Muslim Brotherhood and Sayyid Qutb and you will see that Islamic extremists have been at war with Western secular democracies for decades.
I can't either.
Good thing he hasn't done that here, eh?
yawn. There will always be some group at war with someone. You on the right accuse the left of pursuing "utopia" (which we do NOT) but you on the right are at least that pollyannaish to dream of ever vanquishing "terror". Talk about pursuing utopia!
What we should concern ourselves with (not fear, but not ignore either) is power at home and abroad that seek to empower those that would do harm to us. And I mean empower very practically. I mean that in the sense that Michael Moore brings up when he shows how buddy buddy we are with the Saudi princes (yes Obama is guilty too) even though Saudi schools preach anti-Americanism. Why has both Bush and Obama let this continue? We need to solve that problem!
but in a different sense, when we act in a way that props up or legitimizes groups like your Muslim Brotherhood or Sayyid Qutb… we hurt ourselves there too.
on that token, I suggest to you all to consider that Osama Bin Ladin rejoiced on that day in March 2003 when we invaded Iraq. I think there's a problem there that more people like you all need to think about.
People like you really need to read a little history, especially concerning the Islamic Imperialist project that began in the 7th century and then read the writings of the founders and chief theorists of the Muslim Brotherhood. They are not at war with us because of what we have done, they are at war with us because of who we are and what we stand for. They hate our secularism, they hate the freedoms we have, especially those we give to women, they hate our pursuit of material comfort, they hate everything about us. They hate that our western culture is influencing their people and they want to eradicate it at the source. The leftist propaganda is that our actions in Iraq, Israel or wherever legitimizes those groups but that is simply nonsense. As far as our relations with the Saudi princes go, perhaps if the leftist environmental wackos and the government had not spent the past few decades preventing development of all our various energy resources then they would have no influence. Really, read their own words instead of watching agit-prop from fat, rich idiots like Michael Moore; you might actually learn something.
When watching the documentaries of 9/11…on 9/11…it breaks my heart to watch the resolution, if not slight confusion, on the faces of the firefighters and cops. How calm they were walking towards the destruction while the citizens fled the scene.
And when Tower 2 collapses, hearing all those personal sirens the firemen wear….. rips my heart to shreds.
That's funny. I have my own 9/11 anecdote. As I was glued to the TV that morning like so many, then interviewed some general who immediately started intimating all this stuff – basically along the lines of "the dems have failed to get the can of woop a$$ out long enough… its time to get the can of woop ass out!" It was pretty clear that the immediate effect of 9/11 was that all of the Hawkish elements of American society and power were going to be empowered and a "whole lotta pain" was going to reign down on the world.
stuff like: who actually attacked us? Who should actually be targetted in retailiation? Oh that's all secondary. we'll find someone to attack, that's all that matters!
This vibe was clear ly surfacing HOURS after the attacks. And look how things have gone since!
What bothers me most is the displacement of responsibility that continues to afflict not only our enemies, but our own cultural gate-keepers; academics, politicians and media. Muslims have real grievances in the world, but those who believe that if America just abdicates its global responsibilities (what the left calls "imperialism"), then the hatred and the jihad will subside…are terribly, terribly naive.
Muslims have been waging war upon infidels since the inception of Islam 1400 years ago. They're not inclined to abandon the dictates of their prophet, that Islam shall reign supreme upon the earth.
The Left has ONE thing right: Muslims don't just hate us for who we are, they hate us for our policies. Why? Because our policies are an impediment to their aspirations of destroying Israel and achieving global hegemony. In short, their hatred is a badge of honor for us….and proof positive that we're doing something right. Tragically, very few seem to get it.
thanks, Evan.
Excellent article. It hurts the sensibilities of the repented liberal… apparently, they truly are heartless.
"The leftist propaganda is that our actions in Iraq, Israel or wherever legitimizes those groups but that is simply nonsense." Legitimizes? No. There is no one serious on the left suggesting that our actions legitmize them. But our actions do embolden and empower them, which is still a problem.
like I said: Osama Bin Ladin rejoiced on that day in March 2003 when we invaded Iraq.
I have to say, I'm a fan of everything you do Mr. Sayet! I've never understood liberals until I saw your heritage foundation speeches. I still don't understand them but at least I know the formula to what they live by. I am working hard on saving Americans from Liberalism too. I have at least 20 under my belt and I do it by sending them facts and good articles. I talk about articles that I've read and ask them if they want me to be added to my political group. I Let them decide. As you say, the hardcore leftists are lost causes but the ones who are normal and get their news from CNN are the ones that are easy to convert because they are propaganDemocrats. Once they get real information, they have second thoughts.. If everyone converts one Democrat, we can save America once again.
Thank you for coming to Big Hollywood and keep up the great work!
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