Woebeit I’m so sick and tired of hearing Americans in general, and/or made in America Africans in particular, lament about 9/11, until I hate to turn on my TV, read the printed media or even turn on my radio that stays tuned on stations supposedly targeting us Black folks. It’s not so much that I’m not as aggrieved as everybody else over the tragedy of so many unnecessary deaths of fellow human beings and senseless destruction of treasured landmarks-- as it is having to hear the shallow-minded, almost childish rhetoric ventilated by talking heads that claim to be analytical, deep thinking members of the “Fourth Estate.”
There is one whiny, tired voice that’s ideal for lamentations in particular that turns me off, that can be heard over KCOH radio (1430 AM), from 8-11 a.m. each day. Yes, I’m talking about Michael Lawrence Harris, the pride of Shady Grove (outside Texas on the Louisiana border), by way of Galveston, Texas’ “Red Light District.”

Hey, I’ve done my part to make peace with him, but there seems to be a failure to communicate that even Jesus the Christ’s sacrifice on the cross can’t salvage. Even so, it’s something that the self-aggrandizing talk show host keeps regurgitating that inspired this epistle, although I had taken a solemn oath to never talk with him Person-to-Person, or write another line about 9/11 again. For some insane reason, Harris (like far too many brothers and sisters that fail to grasp the concept of warfare), keeps alluding to how those sneaky Muslim fanatics killed “All of those innocent people,” on the morning of Sept. 11, 2001… when those stolen airliners crashed into the World Trade Center’s twin towers in downtown New York, N.Y.

The logic, espoused by made in America Africans’ intelligentsia (that swears they’re not a monolithic people, although they’re apparently brainwashed to think alike and buy the same brand named products), is that Osama bin Laden’s unforgivable sin is that his suicidal al Qaida targeted sites populated by innocent citizens, rather than military targets as the rules of war dictates. Thus, it becomes incumbent upon this old African warrior to take you into the Twilight Zone of history, to confirm that General William T. Sherman was dead right when he explained, “There is a boy here today who looks on a war as all glory, but boys, it is all hell!”

For sure, since Sherman spoke those words at a G.A.R. convention in Columbus, Ohio on August 11, 1880, they have evolved into the popular cliché “War is hell,” but you have to be like those four handicapped primates (see, hear, know and speak no evil), not to know where he was coming from. I suspect Sherman was alluding to the fact that brothers killed brothers during the Civil War.
Whether he was or not, that’s certainly a good example to use to validate my Twilight Zone perspective that there are only two side (enemies and allies), in a war and it makes no difference if you’re dropping bombs on Baghdad, or taking sides during a domestic quarrel between your momma and abusive daddy. But what about all of those innocent people in the World Trade Tower that didn’t even study war?

That’s a good question and I’m glad you asked. Hell, when Wheatley beat Charlton Pollard in Beaumont for the first time back in 1956, everybody that was on the bus became the enemy, although the fight started on the football field.
However, it wasn’t long before somebody slugged a Wheatley cheerleader and then it was really on. Legend has it that the late, great Mattie Overton Robertson and the entire Wheatley band came out of the stands swinging and woe be unto anybody that was on Wheatley’s side that simply came along for the ride.

Yeah, you’re right. War is too serious a topic to joke about, so let’s get serious.
In fact let’s get downright Holy and recall how old Herod searched for the “innocent” baby Jesus. Ah, come on brothers and sisters you know you learned in Sunday School how Mary and Joseph fled to Egypt with their new born, one step ahead of Herod’s death squad?
Okay, since I’m sure there are a few “Heathens” among my Eyeview mavens, mayhaps I should cite chapter and verse (Matt: 2:6), to wit: “Then Herod, when he saw that he was mocked of the wise men, was exceeding wroth, and sent forth, and slew all the children that were in Bethlehem, and in all the coasts thereof, from two years old and under, according to the time which he had diligently enquired of the wise men.” Hey, Herod was actually reacting to Jeremiah’s prophecy that spoke of a Messiah that he thought would make war and over throw the Roman government, thus, he wasn’t taking any chances.

Like any warrior, he knew babies grow up to become soldiers. Hell’s Bells, just listening to patriotic Americans rallying behind Pres. George W. Bush’s saber rattling vows to seek out and kill terrorists and anybody who sympathize with them, including their camels that carry the al Qaida’s machine guns and other weapons, one could tell that the cheerleaders would quickly become soldiers if they got the call.
For sure, if it was possible to ask the victims of 9/11 if they would defend this great nation with every fiber of their being, you would get a resounding, “In a New York minute.” Ergo, how can anybody fix in their malleable-minds that Americans that are ready, willing and able to kill their own momma for this great nation are innocent citizens?

History certainly records that through out the ages, conquerors routinely killed children while they were yet in their mother’s wombs, to make damn sure they wouldn’t have to face a mighty warrior 20 years later. You can bet your last dollar that there are a whole bunch of racist, angry White men who wish that they had castrated Daddy King long before he begat Martin, Jr. I wonder if anybody understands where I’m coming from?