9/11 - "Failure of human beings ... to learn to love each other"

Deval Patrick, the current Governor of the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, whose office is less than 5 miles from Logan airport, where the flights which struck the World Trade Center originated, had comments to make during a brief ceremony on 9/11. He spoke for only four minutes, but the length mattered far less than the attitude. It was a bland and banal statement, poorly written*, poorly delivered, and inappropriate to the subject**.

Patrick, speaking in front of the Massachusetts State House, repeatedly referred to the events of that day as a "tragedy." (Well, he did, one time, speak of "a mean and nasty and bitter attack," as if he were talking about a gossipy spat between rival cliques of teenage girls.) No, Deval. There were certainly tragic aspects, but this was an act of barbarism and war. Hurricanes and tornados and floods and bridge collapses can be tragedies - this was something different.

But his main point seemed to be focused on failures, not of security, but of "understanding" and "love."

9/11 was a failure of human understanding. It was a mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States but it was also about the failure of human beings to understand each other and to learn to love each other.

...All we need is love... Clearly Deval is a political disciple of that profound philosopher John Lennon. But wouldn't that message probably be more effective if taught to the perpetrators rather than the victims of that horrific attack?

To quote Michelle Malkin, "there are 9/10 people and 9/12 people." Deval is clearly a 9/10 person. This is not a surprise. This is nothing new. But that was a shockingly bad performance on Tuesday.



The entire speech:

Lieutenant Governor Murray, families, friends and supporters of the victims of 911 to the Massachusetts police honor guard and the song - the singer from the Massachusetts state police, to the 911 fund for all that you do to support the many families affected by 9/11, for organizing today's ceremony and for the 9/11 victim's memorial that was dedicated in October of last year in a solemn and beautiful ceremony.

We meet today to honor the lives of the 205 - 206 sons and daughters of our Commonwealth who were lost 6 years ago in the tragedy of september 11, 2001, and with them the thousands of others from across our nation and across the globe who were lost in that tragedy as well. Our tribute is for each of them and our condolences are with each of you, and the families and survivors so touched by that day.

Each of us felt the impact of the incidence of September 11 but the mothers and fathers and sons and daughters and sisters and brothers and friends of those who died endured perhaps the most profound loss of all. This is your community. And your community is with you today and every day.

We have lived the last 6 years in the shadow of that tragedy. We carry the vivid reminders of the pain and of the anger we felt, but we must also carry the vivid reminders of the compassion and generosity that was shown that day and in the days and weeks that followed. The coming together that happened, not only in communities that lost a loved one, and not only in New York or Virginia or Pennsylvania or in Washington, DC, and not only in the United States, but all across the world. That is the spirit in which we re-convene today, and that is what must last. Because among many other things, 9/11 was a failure of human understanding. It was a mean and nasty and bitter attack on the United States but it was also about the failure of human beings to understand each other and to learn to love each other. It seems to me that lesson and that warning is [sic] something we must carry with us every day.

Fortunately for human beings, the human heart is not designed to carry grief forever. Somehow we manage to move on. And that may be, in some ways, our greatest strength. We live in a rare place where our ideas, our shared goals and our common humanity will, and must be, more powerful, and must ultimately win out over intransigence and anger and violence and division. Tempered by these losses, we will emerge a strong and better place, that is how we best serve the memories of those we love. We do that not in anger at the horror of their loss, but in honor of the beauty of their lives. We miss them not because they are gone, but because they were here.

Now in honor - in their honor, we raise the flag.

Video here


* And I know poor writing... ;-)
** In other words, exactly the kind of thing that one would expect from a Massachusetts Pol.