I was born and raised in NYC...and lived there for most of my life. I was having coffee with a friend at the Borders Book Store in the World Trade Center the night before the 9/11 attack and knew the Twin Towers well. I watched the towers come down the next morning on television...smelled the burning plastic in the air when I went outside to vote in my Brooklyn neighborhood...and personally witnessed how my fellow New Yorkers reacted to the attack...without fear...and with unimaginable bravery and heart.
This is why I am shaking my head at what Ann Coulter has said about New Yorkers. And this is why I pity her. She truly needs to be put on serious drugs to treat whatever psychosis she is suffering from...and probably locked up for her own protection.
Ann's comments are obviously the product of a deranged mind. People as out of touch with reality as she is deserve to be treated in mental hospitals.
And at the same time, such people do NOT deserve to be invited to participate in our nation's civic discourse. If you saw a person walking down the street...someone obviously crazy because you could hear them ranting and raving at the top of their lungs about how some of the bravest people on Earth were actually cowards...would you invite them to help form the opinions of the citizens of our great nation about how to solve the huge challenges we face today?
I think not!
But don't listen to my opinion. Listen to Rudy Giuliani's. Rudy Giuliani...who led New York through this most difficult and challenging moment in history...who eulogized many of New York City's bravest after they gave the greatest sacrifice a person can give.
Here's what Rudy Giuliani has said about Ann Coulter's remarks as of the time I am writing this (very late Friday night here on the East Coast)...
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
s
That's the sound of silence, my friends. He hasn't said a word so far. Put his and Ann's names into Google...including Google News. You won't get a thing.
Which is why I'm really writing this blog.
I'm calling on Rudy to say something in response to Ann Coulter's remarks.
You know, in 1975 - during NYC's big fiscal crisis - the front page of the New York Daily News screamed "Ford to NYC: Drop Dead!". Well, we New Yorkers didn't let Ford get away with that. (New York voted for Carter in the '76 election) And we won't let Coulter get away with this now.
But, Mr. Mayor, we could really use your help.
Please, Rudy, help us put Ann Coulter in the dustbin of history -- and a padded room -- where she belongs!
We're waiting to hear from you!
---------------
One point of personal information:
My father's brother (my Uncle Laurie) was confined to a state mental hospital in Upstate New York for much of his life. I got to see him any number of times, because my father would drive my mom, my sister, and I to visit him. Uncle Laurie had a good heart and, ultimately, became a semi-functional member of society -- with a lot of help from my father -- when New York State (under then Governor Nelson Rockefeller, if my memory is correct) decided to release all the people like him. As much as I liked Uncle Laurie, you wouldn't catch me suggesting he become public commentator on society's problems...except, perhaps, on the need to plan for providing plenty of social workers to look after people after they've been released from state mental hospitals! (Governor Rockefeller never did that, which is one reason why my father wound up doing so much to help his brother out after he was released.)