"First Responders and Clergyfolk are not very important to the powerful and the enlightened"

"Join us and thousands of patriots at the AFDI/SIOA 911 Freedom Rally at Ground Zero on the afternoon of September 11th. We will have a priest and a rabbi for the invocation as part of our program (just as we did last year). Be there," writes our sister grizzly in arms Pamela Geller from the front lines of the battle to retake the Shining City. Above, our own photo of The Divine Miss G at Joe Lieberman's victory party back in November of 2006.

"Sissy Willis, are you trying to start a revolt? :-)" twitters Elizabeth Scalia aka The Anchoress in reponse to our response to her fightin' words this evening regarding NYC Mayor Bloomberg's smug pronouncement that no first responders nor religious are welcome at the Big Apple's 10th-anniversary observance of 9/11. Quoting one of her commenters, we twittered:

I say that the people who MATTER should organize a memorial of their own. Just show up.

It turns out our old friend Pamela Geller of Atlas Shrugs is way ahead of the curve (see caption above). To get ourselves and our readers up to speed on the issues, a few excerpts from Scalia's transcendent must-read rant, some more telling comments from her commenters and finally our own take. Here's Elizabeth:

First Responders and Clergyfolk are not very important to the powerful and the enlightened. They only protect us, rescue us, resuscitate us, console us, pray with us, bless us and bury us. And when they die doing it, well, one does feel terrible about it for a whole news cycle or two. And then one takes a private jet somewhere, and tries to forget …

I don’t know why I should be surprised. Priests and First Responders are, like our troops, front-line folk. They’re like heroes in the cowboy flicks; they ride in, shoulder the burden, help put things to rights, and then — while the elite get on with assuming their power and asserting their primacy — they recede into the background. Only the very few stick around to say ‘thank you’ and wave them off. Sometimes children ask them to come back, or to stay.

This from Dave in the comments got our tea-party juices flowing:

Hmmm; a public event that is not public? I submit a “what if?” question … What if off-duty FDNY and NYPD show up, in uniform? Or, further suppose that priests, members of religious orders and the faithful also show up? Let us even invite the religiously inclined of all faiths. What if the ironworkers, laborers, and those who provided volunteer services for weeks and months to the site workers came without the “proper” invitation? All of those would be hard to ignore. Even though I am a former firefighter, I am part of larger community of persons sustained by ritual, tradition and faith. I cannot imagine that persons of power, wealth and inflated egos could wish to exclude those who gave so much for all of us.

Then this from Mark L:

Well. You can tell it has been ten years, can’t you.

Reminds me of an old piece of doggerel about sailors and soldiers (who are much like first responders):

The sailor/soldier and God alike are adored
When danger’s at hand, and not before.
Once danger has passed both alike are requited:
God is forgotten and the sailor/soldier is slighted.

"Just show up. Be there. Americans have the freedom of assembly," wrote commenter Lee:

Assemble at Ground Zero: NYC first responders, first responders from elsewhere who came to help, people who were there and remember, people who lost a loved one, people who have not forgotten what happened. And clergy: ministers, priest, rabbis, etc.

Start the REAL memorial commemoration: not this idiot thing organized by people who work for the idiot Bloomberg. And make the REAL memorial the one that MATTERS. A grass roots effort to commemorate an important moment in our country’s recent history.

Reminds us of Rick Santelli's "Rant for the Ages" from the floor of the Chicago Board of Trade back in February of 2009, a truth-to-power call for a new "Tea Party" in response to President Obama's redistributionist mortgage-bailout plan. For us the great awakening had begun with Sarah Palin's emergence onto the national stage in August of 2008, when we fell head over heels for the mama grizzly's fierce determination and authentic American voice long before the "lamestream media" moved in for the kill. We got our activist feet wet in the Tea Party gatherings of spring 2009, then earned our wings helping Scott Brown dislodge the democrat establishment from the "Kennedy Seat" in January of 2010. November 2010, now November 2012. It's not just the democrats. It's the Ruling Class of both parties, and we're learning how to fight like a girl!

Update: Instalanche! Thank you, Professor Reynolds.

Crossposted at Riehl World View.

Comments

[jennifer]

Did America fall with the towers?

Signed with of a pastor,
mom of a first responder.

[Number Six]

The Widow's Uniform is not the soldier-man's disgrace.
For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

[syn]

I agree, Mayor Bloomberg's decision is appalling and repulsive in every way. Just as appalling as when he encouraged the building of the Ground Zero Mosque and basing his argument on 'freedom of religion'.

Bloomberg is the main reason why I fled NYC last Dec 2011, fed up with him and with providing his vulgar and obnoxious constituients tax dollars so they could afford the luxury of Nanny-Bullying me to death.

Question is with regard to permitting clergyfolk, the how can we get around the argument made by so many during the Ground Zero Mosque that this is NYC-thing only and that we should keep our noses out of it, as well as, the argument made by so many that this is democracy, there must be separation of church and state?

[syn]

Correction: I fled Dec 2010 (after twenty one years of living in the Rotted Apple)

[AD]

Number Six, above, had the correct response.
It's amazing how the "learned" have the same response today after all of their "enlightenment", as did their Victorian predecessors, whom they have saved us from.
Selfishness knows no age!

[Amy K.]

syn said: "how can we get around ... the argument made by so many that this is democracy, there must be separation of church and state?"

Last night on Fox, Fred Thompson said concerning that question regarding the 9/11 memorial, (paraphrase), "fine, let's get the state out of it."

[goomp]

The ruling class is supposed the be the people and not a group who perpetuate themselves as rulers. The Tea Party speaks for We the People.

[arnonerik]

Bloomberg is a fool. It's too bad for New York City though. I ask myself, How do we get so many fools in office? Oh yeah, we vote them in don't we?

[Evan]

Once again Bloomberg gives full evidence on why he's unfit to be NYC's mayor, let alone hold any higher political office.

[SDN]

Kipling was probably the person who understood it best.

The Sons of Mary seldom bother, for they have inherited that good part; But the Sons of Martha favour their Mother of the careful soul and the troubled heart. And because she lost her temper once, and because she was rude to the Lord her Guest, Her Sons must wait upon Mary's Sons, world without end, reprieve, or rest.

....
They do not preach that their God will rouse them
a little before the nuts work loose.
They do not teach that His Pity allows them
to drop their job when they dam'-well choose.
As in the thronged and the lighted ways,
so in the dark and the desert they stand,
Wary and watchful all their days
that their brethren's days may be long in the land.

.....

And the Sons of Mary smile and are blessed
-- they know the Angels are on their side.
They know in them is the Grace confessed,
and for them are the Mercies multiplied.
They sit at the Feet -- they hear the Word
-- they see how truly the Promise runs.
They have cast their burden upon the Lord,
and -- the Lord He lays it on Martha's Sons!

[Richard]

SDN

I was going to mention Kipling too, but 'Tommy':

"O it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Tommy, go away";
But it's "Thank you, Mister Atkins", when the band begins to play"

Of course having mentioned Sarah Palin as mamma grizzly, "The Female of the Species" is also appropriate.

[A. C.]

For it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' "Chuck him out, the brute!"
But it's "Saviour of 'is country" when the guns begin to shoot;
An' it's Tommy this, an' Tommy that, an' anything you please;
An' Tommy ain't a bloomin' fool -- you bet that Tommy sees!

Rudyard Kipling, 1890

And nowadays, whether Tommy's a soldier, sailor, fireman or policeman, Tommy also votes.

[Ritchie The Riveter]

This is how an elitist political technocrat ... a card-carrying member of the Best and Brightest, at least in his own mind ... thinks.

Oh, but Bloomin' sure loves having those first responders around tonight!

I have a suggestion ... for this ceremony, they can start with replacing Bloomin' with Rudy as the host ... then replace the glitterati with those for whom this day is more than just another photo-op-and-statement session ...

... including those who were the first responders to the dire spiritual needs on that day, who -- no matter what name they call their Creator -- backed their beliefs about His endowment of life and liberty to ALL men with their lives and sacred honor.

As for the GZ mosque ... this is one time I am glad that the trade unions are strong enough to be gatekeepers ... I mean, how is it going to get built in NYC without them?

[Chaz Chackaverti]

Sissy, right now I am just thinking about how God heard my prayers when I prayed for him to spare you in Massachusetts and Dan Riehl in New Jersey from Hurricane Irene.

Thanks to God, you and Dan survived that awful tempest sent by Satan.