I thought idiotic far-left legislation was mainly confined to California. I was wrong. New York is attempting to one-up California with a new bill that would require K-12 students to learn how the terrorist attacks on 9/11 have contributed to American xenophobia and Islamophobia.
The important lesson here is NOT that the coordinated attacks killed almost 3,000 people in the Twin Towers, the Pentagon, and a Pennsylvania field.
It is not how the strikes inspired Americans to unite in righteous antipathy and retribution against Al Qaeda and Osama bin Laden.
The REAL issue, the one that has New York Assemblywoman Catalina Cruz’s knickers in a twist, is how those attacks triggered an inappropriate response that she believes was steeped in xenophobia and Islamophobia.
Oh my. What a hateful, bigoted people we are.
Did I mention that Ms. Cruz happens to be a Democrat?
So, are we surprised that it would take a woke Democrat to come up with such an imprudent and nonsensical bit of legislation?
I can’t help thinking that if Ms. Cruz were around on December 7, 1941, when the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor, she would have been appalled that we responded with all the military might we could muster and eventually crushed Imperial Japan.
Was there xenophobia in the U.S. after that attack? You bet there was. There was also a lot of hatred and vitriol directed at Japan—and with good reason.
We were attacked. More than 2,400 people died. And America declared war on Japan.
Fast forward to 2001. After 9/11, America declared “war on terrorism” and those who were behind the attacks.
Declaring war—whether officially via Congress or unofficially by a president—is serious business. In either case, you do so with malice.
War isn’t a gentlemanly pickleball match.
But, back to Ms. Cruz and her dubious bill, which was introduced last December. Under the legislation, the state education commissioner would be required to create a 9/11 “awareness curriculum or instruction” for all school districts.
The curriculums must be “age-appropriate” and contain various “themes,” including how the attacks contributed to “Islamophobia and xenophobia” in politics, domestic and foreign policy, media, and “general public attitudes,” according to the bill’s text. Additionally, students would learn how an “increase in hate crimes and discrimination” followed the attacks.
“Schools may include the curriculum or instruction as a component of its social studies curriculum or in any other manner the school deems appropriate,” the legislation reads. But it must be included to offset the xenophobia and Islamophobia that may have slithered into students’ minds.
The bill currently sits in the New York State Assembly’s education committee.
Unsurprisingly, it doesn’t consider the 6,817 American men and women who died in Iraq and Afghanistan fighting terrorists.
The important thing is that 9/11 caused some outraged and misguided Americans to single out innocent Muslims for retribution.
Was that fair to American Muslims? Of course not.
Nor was it fair to the 125,000 Japanese-Americans who were rounded up by the Democrat regime of President Roosevelt and forced into 75 different concentration camps between 1942 and 1945.
In both cases, however, the instinctive human response was to assume those targeted could not be trusted.
Suspicion and distrust work both ways.
For example, in Japan, Americans and Europeans were also interned during World War II.
And you really didn’t want to be an American living in or visiting assorted Middle Eastern countries while American soldiers waged war in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Who can forget the seemingly ceaseless beheadings of Americans and other infidels by ISIS?
Fortunately, not all New York legislation regarding 9/11 is as irrational and imprudent as Cruz’s bill.
A law signed in 2019 by former Gov. Andrew Cuomo requires New York State public schools to hold a moment of silence annually on Sept. 11. The law is designed to “encourage dialogue and education in the classroom” on the state’s response to the attacks.
Assemblywoman Stacey Pheffer Amato, a Democrat from South Queens and one of the law’s sponsors, said at the time that the measure would ensure that the “deep impact” 9/11 on New York State is never forgotten.
“As no student currently in K-12 was alive during the attack, it is imperative that our public education system take the time to educate students on both the loss and heroism experienced on Sept. 11,” Amato said. “By mandating a brief moment of silent reflection every year on September 11th, we ensure that future generations will better understand this day and its place in our history.”
However, requiring that the overstated and hyperbolic concepts of xenophobia and Islamophobia be injected into the classroom not only creates confusion about 9/11 for impressionable children but also denigrates and devalues the victims of the attacks in an effort to mollify the woke mob.
Accordingly, Ms. Cruz, America’s response to the 9/11 attacks had nothing to do with xenophobia or Islamophobia.
It was clear-cut retribution delivered appropriately and lethally to those behind the attacks.
Amen.
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