The Ambassadors of Peace

Published by Real Clear Politics - July 11, 2007
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It appears that we in the United States are in the process of becoming a passive, "non-judgmental" society; above all else we value political correctness, tolerance and dialogue.

But when we are slaughtered, where is the anger? The moral outrage? When we are attacked, what is our response?

We oppose naked brutality with the pitiful weapons of empathy and rationalizations. The pathetic scenario has become all too familiar.

After the slaughter of the innocents, we "come together" in our candlelight vigils, we play our guitars and sing our folk songs, we pray for peace and leave our flowers on the graves. We dutifully honor the dead and seek to understand the murderer's point of view. And finally, we seek "closure" and we tell ourselves that we must "move on" -- which basically means that we must forgive and forget.

The only anger we seem capable of conjuring up is that ineffectual, misplaced anger directed against ourselves, or more precisely, against those among us who have chosen to fight back against the bullies. Here, ironically, the anger and the self-righteous moral outrage upon which it is based are unequivocally relentless and vehement.

We are the children of the children of the 60s. We are the ambassadors of peace. We confront the murderous beast with love and understanding. We smile at him and sing him a song and put a little flower in the barrel of his gun and hope for the best.

God help us.