OFF TOPIC: Why Does Liberalism Need Apology or Justification?

Do not... regard the critics as questionable patriots.  What were Washington and Jefferson and Adams but profound critics of the colonial status quo?  ~Adlai Stevenson

Nationalism is an infantile disease.  It is the measles of mankind.  

~Albert Einstein, The World As I See It, 1934

Tony Bennett, 85, known more for his velvety voice and gentlemanly demeanor has been called an American icon.

Recently the crooner spoke about his military duty and how being on the front lines seeing scared young boys none of whom wanted to shoot anyone or be shot - on both sides - made him a lifetime pacifists.

Quoted in some media reports as an "admitted" pacifist, as if he were admitting to having committed a crime or some vile offense...Bennett said: “I’m anti-war. It’s the lowest form of human behavior.”

Drafted by the U.S. Army in November 1944, Bennett served as an infantryman in Europe, moving across France, and later into Germany.

“The first time I saw a dead German, that’s when I became a pacifist,” he said.
He told Stern that he was left forever shaken by the sight of death.

“It was a nightmare that’s permanent,” he said. “I just said, ‘This is not life. This is not life.’”

“To start a war in Iraq was a tremendous, tremendous mistake internationally,” he said.

Howard Stern who was interviewing the crooner about his new album  then asked Bennett about how America should deal with terrorists, specifically those responsible for the 2001 attack on the World Trade Center.

“But who are the terrorists? Are we the terrorists or are they the terrorists? Two wrongs don’t make a right,” Bennett said.

Stern asked if he was "one of those conspiracy theorists who claim the US flew the planes." Bennett said no, and in  a soft-spoken voice, said, "No. They flew the plane in, but we caused it,” Bennett responded. “Because we were bombing them and they told us to stop.”

Following seconds of silence, Stern said that his guest was “making some good points.”

Each man must for himself alone decide what is right and what is wrong, which course is patriotic and which isn't.  You cannot shirk this and be a man.  To decide against your conviction is to be an unqualified and excusable traitor, both to yourself and to your country, let men label you as they may.  

~Mark Twain

Benett was blasted for his comments and felt the necessity to issue a formal apology stating:

"There is simply no excuse for terrorism and the murder of the nearly 3,000 innocent victims of the 9/11 attacks on our country," Bennett said in the statement. "My life experiences -- ranging from the Battle of the Bulge to marching with Martin Luther King -- made me a lifelong humanist and pacifist, and reinforced my belief that violence begets violence and that war is the lowest form of human behavior.

"I am sorry if my statements suggested anything other than an expression of my love for my country, my hope for humanity and my desire for peace throughout the world."

WHY?

Why do progressives always have to apologize for our views. Why was he called and "admitted" pacifist? If he were a Quaker or a Christian or a Jew would he be an admitted one? Is Bill Cosby an "admiited" Black man? Is Rush Limbaugh an "admitted" conservative? Only progressives are labeled this way, and Gays, who are often identified as "openly" gay which amounts to the same thing as if all heterosexuals are closeted about ther sexuality. I mean, I don't see Charlie Sheen being called an "admitted" whore master! 

Why is it that any anti-war sentiment riles up some patriots who want to accuse us of being somehow anti-American if we are opposed to the warring policies of the nation yet conservatives are not anti-American for being against welfare or other entitlement programs?

I was an outspoken opponent of the war in VietNam which we were not even supposed to call a war at the time.  It had some other softer term like boms and missles and missions do. We were dirty hippies; we were anti-American...even Commies...for expressing our opinion in a land in whch wars are fought to protect our right to free speech, for God's sake!

I continue to be a pacifist and anti-war. I continue to be berated for my opinion. I am accused of not supporting our troops when I sport buttons and bumper stickers that clearly say: "Defend our troops - bring them home."  

Who are the real Anti-Americans? Those who dare to speak out, or those who try to shut us up?

Calling anti-war protesters anti-American is truly the pot calling the kettle black. It brings back memories of the racist names I and others were called when we marched for civil rights.

There is nothing, in my opinion, more American than exercising our right to free speech and demonstration. I applaud the estimated 3000 sitting in right now in Zuccotti Park in Wall Street, New York for 12 days and counting! BRAVO to them! THIS is patriotism in action!  If I were younger, I'd be right there with them!

Patriotism is your conviction that this country is superior to all other countries because you were born in it.  .... You'll never have a quiet world till you knock the patriotism out of the human race.   

~ George Bernard Shaw

He is a poor patriot whose patriotism does not enable him to understand how all men everywhere feel about their altars and their hearthstones, their flag and their fatherland.  

~Harry Emerson Fosdick

 Patriotism consists not in waving the flag, but in striving that our country shall be righteous as well as strong.  

~James Bryce

We need a type of patriotism that recognizes the virtues of those who are opposed to us..... The old "manifest destiny" idea ought to be modified so that each nation has the manifest destiny to do the best it can - and that without cant, without the assumption of self-righteousness and with a desire to learn to the uttermost from other nations.  

~Francis John McConnell

Patriotism, the virtue of the vicious.  

~Oscar Wilde
  

Patriotism is a kind of religion; it is the egg from which wars are hatched.  ~Guy de Maupassant 

September 11th: War Orphans?

Political upheaval, strife, poverty, war, epidemics, and natural disasters such as quakes and tsunamis often leave orphans in their wake....and are quickly followed by a rush of flesh peddling baby brokers eager to exploit the situation and fill their pockets with fees eagerly paid by those in stable, Western, affluent, industrialized nations.

1,300 children were orphaned on 9/11.

In fact, the Twin Towers Orphan Fund was founded on Sept. 12, 2001, to help provide tuition and other support for these children.

NOW...imagine if you will, in the wake of the attack on 9/11/01, foreigners rushing in to adopt children orphaned. Exploit the terror, the fear, the confusion and come to their "rescue."

Impossible? Would never happen in the US? COULD never happen?

Think again, the US is perhaps the only country in the world that both IMPORTS and EXPORTS for adoption.

In November, 2000 the British press reported the case of “Baby J”. Adopted at two days old in Texas and immediately taken home to the UK to live with a mar-ried couple and their 15-year-old son in the south of England. Seven months later, instead of having the adoption finalized, the baby was ordered returned to the US.
The court found that the initial social worker's report was completed by an independent operator, reportedly with no qualifications. The residency requirement for adopting couples in the US was waived, ignored or never raised. No follow-up checks were possible because the child was permitted to leave the country. Even if, by some legal loophole, all that was permissible, the adoption agency did not see fit to contact its opposite numbers in the British social services. It was the latter who contacted the agency when Baby J was somehow "brought to their attention" back in Britain. Neither the independent social worker nor the adoption agency had paid any regard to arrangements by the UK Government for inter-country adoptions, the judge said.
Social services in Britain "believed there were compelling reasons why the couple should not be regarded as able to provide a safe and secure home for J". Mr Justice Johnson, one of Britain’s senior Family Division judges, said: "I do not think anybody could begin to believe this was a proper way of deciding the future of a human being."
"This little girl is American and her future should be decided by an American court and by American procedures and by American ways." The court ordered the return of the baby, per the Hague Convention, stating: "It might be that this is a thoroughly bad example of the way things happen in the US."
While unconfirmed, it is likely the Texas agency is The Gladney Center for Adoption. Whether these rumors can be substantiated or not regarding this one specific agency, the fact remains that American children are adopted by the very wealthy class in Mexico who prefer white babies. American infants are also exported to Germany, France and the Netherlands, though few are reported in the media, although one such story of a baby born in Philadelphia and adopted in Germany appears at the website, Emmas-Adoption-in-USA.de/.
According to Thomas DiFilipo, president of the Joint Council on International Children's Services in Virginia. "Approximately 800 American children a year find a home and a family with citizens from other countries such as Canada, Mexico and France," adding that Irish families who wish to adopt privately from the US are also free to do so.
Approximately 18-19 states including Oregon, Washington, California, Texas, Florida, New Hampshire, and Arkansas allow “home state finalization” for the international adoption of US children. Some states require the family to return for the finalization while others do not. In Texas a family can finalize within 90 days and in California it is 6 months. In Oregon the finalization takes place within less than 10 days usually. All families are required to have a home study with FBI cleared fingerprints.
In 2007 another baby exported from the US to Great Britain made headlines. It was the second such adoption for British Foreign Secretary David Milliband and his wife. The second baby they scooped up straight from the delivery room in a little over two years. British press said it revealed the existence of “a much darker side to adopting…in the U.S. that means big business for the thousands of private adoption agencies, which can easily procure a newborn for those prepared to pay up to $40,000.”
Miliband’s wife, 46, said: "It was just like doing it myself without having to go through the whole pregnancy and labour…It was our baby from the word go. It was a perfect scenario - an easy and pleasant experience." It was also, "very, very expensive."
The UK Daily Mail reporting on the case notes, “in the UK, the purpose of adoption is clearly defined as being to help children in need of a secure and stable home. In the U.S., the emphasis has been turned on its head, with many private adoption brokers twisting the procedure into a lucrative way to satisfy the demands of desperate childless couples…. On the rare occasions that a baby is available for adoption in the UK, it cannot be adopted before it is six weeks old.”
"There's a strong imperative in [British] law to sup-port families and keep them together as much as possible and to make decisions for each individual child. The welfare of the child is at the centre of everything,” according to David Holmes, chief executive of the British Association for Adoption and Fostering.

From The Stork Market, revised edition

IMAGINE...imagine OUR children being grabbed up and taken away...