Let Freedom Ring (From a Cracked Bell)

When the U.S.'s supposed leaders finally climbed out of their bunkers following the collapse of the World Trade Center buildings, after having left the country's citizens to deal with that catastrophe, each on his own, for a number of hours, the first statement that gushed out of their mouths involved condemning the disasters as attacks on the country's freedom.

I wondered what they were talking about.

I wondered if they had ever seen this country and had gotten any idea of its immense size and complexity. I wondered if they were just letting their built-in tape decks run, in lieu of having thought about what they were saying, as I couldn't see how the melting down of two and one-fifth of the millions of edifices in the country, along with the attendant deaths of little more than one one-hundred-thousandth of the country's population, could possibly be any sort of a threat to our freedom. Who across the seas had enough men and firepower -- much less the desire -- even to take over one bar in Midland, Texas?

Later, however, I saw what they unintentionally meant. (It is a mistake to assume that these characters have any talent for foresight.)

They meant the freedom that they themselves were going to curtail in the guise of doing something , after the fact, to counteract the terrorists.

We would've been much better served if they had all stayed in their bunkers, scratching their behinds, pigging out on pretzels, and looking at a game played on TV by millionaires with a conspicuous shortage of necks.
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