John Maniscalco
American Airlines Pilot
I've been trying to say this since 911, but you worry me. I wish you didn't. I wish when
I walked down the streets of this country that I love, that your color and culture still
blended with the beautiful human landscape we enjoy in this country. But you don't blend
in anymore. I notice you, and it worries me.
I notice you because I can't help it anymore. People from your homelands, professing to be
Muslims, have been attacking and killing my fellow citizens and our friends for more than
20 years now. I don't fully understand their grievances and hate, but I know that nothing
can justify the inhumanity of their attacks.
On September 11, ARAB-MUSLIMS hijacked four jetliners in my country. They cut the throats
of women in front of children and brutally stabbed to death others, hacking their necks,
over and over, with box cutters. They took control of those planes and crashed them into
buildings, killing thousands of proud fathers, loving sons, wise grandparents, elegant
daughters, best friends, favorite coaches, fearless public servants, and children's
mothers.
The Palestinians celebrated, the Iraqis were overjoyed as was most of the Arab world. So,
I notice you now. I don't want to be worried. I don't want to be consumed by the same
rage, hate and prejudice that has destroyed the soul of these terrorists. But I need your
help. As a rational American, trying to protect my country and family in an irrational and
unsafe world, I must know how to tell the difference between you, and the Arab/Muslim
terrorist.
How do I differentiate between the true Arab/Muslim Americans and the Arab/Muslim
terrorists in our communities who are attending our schools, enjoying our parks, and
living in OUR communities under the protection of OUR constitution, while they plot the
next attack that will slaughter MORE of the same good neighbors and children?
The events of September 11 changed the answer.. It is not MY responsibility to determine
which of you embraces our great country, with ALL of its religions, with ALL of its
different citizens, with all of its faults. It is time for every Arab/Muslim in this
country to determine it for me.
I want to know, I DEMAND to know and I have a right to know, whether or not you love
America .... Do you pledge allegiance to its flag? Do you proudly display it in front of
your house, or on your car? Do you pray in your many daily prayers that Allah will bless
this nation; that He will protect it and let it prosper? Or do you pray that Allah will
destroy it in one of your Jihads? Are you thankful for the freedom that this nation
affords? A freedom that was paid for by the blood of hundreds of thousands of patriots,
who have through our history, given their lives for this country? Are you willing to
preserve this freedom by also paying the ultimate sacrifice? Do you love America?? If this
is your commitment, then I need YOU to start letting ME know about it.
Your Muslim leaders in this nation should be flooding the media at this time with hard
facts on your faith, and what hard actions YOU are taking as a community and as a
religion to protect the United States of America. Please, no more benign overtures of
regret for the death of the innocent, because I worry about who you regard as innocent....
No more benign overtures of condemnation for the unprovoked attacks, because I worry about
what is unprovoked to you. I am not interested in any more sympathy; I am interested only
in action. What will you do for America - our great country - at this time of continuing
crisis, at this time of war?
I want to see Arab-Muslims waving the AMERICAN flag in the streets.. I want to hear you
chanting 'Allah Bless America'. I want to see young Arab/Muslim men enlisting in the
military. I want to see a commitment of money, time and emotion to the victims of this
butchering and to our returning wounded and to this nation as a whole.
The FBI has had a long list of people they’ve wanted to interact with regarding the
threats that they believe to be ongoing. Many of these people live and socialize right now
in Muslim communities. You know them. You know where they are. Give the FBI a heads up as
to where they may be. Better yet, hand them over to us, NOW! But I have seen little even
approaching this sort of action. Instead I have seen an already closed and secretive
community close even tighter. You have disappeared from the streets. You have posted armed
security guards at your facilities. You have threatened lawsuits. You have screamed for
protection from reprisals.
The very few Arab/Muslim representatives, like CAIR, that HAVE appeared in the media were
defensive and equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United
States apologize and take responsibility for actions defending our own people. They seemed
more concerned with protecting their fellow Muslims from violence directed towards them in
the United States and abroad than they did with supporting our country and denouncing
'leaders' like the late Khadafy, the late Hussein, Farrakhan, and the late Arafat.
If the true teachings of Islam proclaim tolerance and peace and love for all people, then
I want chapter and verse from the Koran and statements from popular Muslim leaders to back
it up. What good is it if the teachings in the Koran are good, pure, and true, when your
'leaders' ARE teaching fanatical interpretations, terrorism, and intolerance? It matters
little how good Islam SHOULD BE if huge numbers of the world's Muslims interpret the
teachings of Mohammed incorrectly and adhere to a degenerative form of the religion.
A form that has been demonstrated to us over and over again.
A form whose structure is built upon a foundation of violence, death, and suicide.
A form whose members are recruited from the prisons around the world.
A form whose members (some as young as five years old) are seen day after day, week in and
week out, year after year, marching in the streets around the world, burning effigies of
our presidents, burning the American flag, shooting weapons into the air. A form whose
members convert from a peaceful religion, only to take up arms against the great United
States of America, the country of their birth. A form whose rules are so twisted, that
their traveling members refuse to show their faces at airport security checkpoints, in the
name of Islam.
We will NEVER allow the attacks of September 11, or any others for that matter, to take
away that which is so precious to us -- our rights under the greatest constitution in the
world. I want to know where every Arab Muslim in this country stands and I think it is my
right and the right of every true citizen of this country to DEMAND it. A right paid for
by the blood of thousands of my brothers and sisters who died protecting the very
constitution that is protecting you and your family.
I am pleading with you to let me know. I want you here as my brother, my neighbor, my
friend, as a fellow American. But there can be no grey areas or ambivalence regarding
your allegiance, and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand. Until then, "YOU WORRY
ME!"
CANADIAN COMMENT:
We Canadians totally agree with this sentiment. I hope you will forget all about the
'political correctness' mandate we've had rammed down our throats by so many on the left,
and see if this doesn't ring true in your heart and mind. For Canada, with all the multi-
culturalism we've been told is so important.... why should we not, as Canadians, expect
that the millions of new people immigrating to our country will show their love for our
country, their allegiance to our country, their willingness to obey the laws of our
country, and acceptance that we are a Christian country? Just because they are able to
enjoy exercising their own religion, they should NOT expect us to be ashamed of ours. They
knew Canada was a Christian country when they came here. Why are we erasing Christianity
because immigrants who are unwilling to adopt our way of life expect us to? There is just
too much insanity in the world, and we have to start taking a stand. I hope you will
forward this, so that others will feel they are not alone if they are starting to feel the
same.
BRITISH COMMENTS:
At last a clear non-racist example of the concerns that the vast majority of our Nations'
population probably share. The pilot's letter encapsulates all that is fair and just about
national pride and protection of one's national culture. I fear it may be too late here in
UK, BUT we too want our country back in the form that attracted all these different
cultures to come here in the first place!! In all our conversations with a wide range of
friends and acquaintances we have not met one that disagrees with our own views. If only
we all had the courage of our convictions to pass this on, it is a statement that should
be accepted as the heart-felt feelings of someone with honest commendable national pride.
Not all Muslims are terrorists but all terrorists to date have been Muslims. Stand and be
counted!
AUSTRALIAN COMMENT:
Best email I have had in years it needs to be in every paper every day until we get some
answers.
poetryrepairs #224 15,05060
LAURIE CORZETT
Lesson of the Great Depression
Lesson of the Great Depression
The machines stand patiently
ready to act on human command.
Workers expectantly arise
to resume their duties.
Tools, systems, routes, logistics
lined up for service.
Plants to sow and reap; structures
to build, maintain, repair, replace;
commodities to be united with
their markets; music to be played;
enchanting murals to paint;
shows that must go on; coffee
to be made; errands to run;
endless activities and professions
imposing order on entropy.
Teach the curious,
heal the sick or broken,
enforce the law,
tend to the poor.
Society’s capillaries clogged by
a powerful voodoo. All is
needing to be done, but stopped
dead or cancerously
receding from living
for want of the magic beans,
the mysterious force of money,
a social construct gone mad,
constricting the flow of life.
poetryrepairs #224 15,05060
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John Maniscalco
A newspaper stated that a Muslim doctor is saying we are profiling him because he has
"been checked three times while getting on an airplane"". The following is a letter from a
pilot. This well-spoken man, who is a pilot with American Airlines, says what is in his
heart, beautifully.
LAURIE CORZETT seeking outlet for those crazy thoughtstreams, is always moving into new (or resurrected) projects, including Emerging Visions visionary art 'zine: http://emergingvisions.blogspot.com -- Issue #22 "Gifting Gaea" celebrates our Earth
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