
"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.
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