Solons Irked Over Visit Of Khatemi

WASHINGTON — The State Department's decision to grant a visa to Iran's former president is sparking a rebellion among Republican members of Congress who seek a tougher line on the rogue country as it flaunts the latest U.N. deadline on its nuclear program.

Yesterday afternoon, the chairman of the House Subcommittee on the Middle East and Central Asia, Ileana Ros-Lehtinen, a Republican from Florida, began collecting signatures in Congress for a letter that she plans to send next week to Secretary of State Rice expressing "grave concerns" about the visa for Muhammad Khatemi that will allow him to speak before audiences at the National Cathedral, Harvard University, and the Council on American-Islamic Relations.

I must have forgotten…

I have forgotten all the times that the American media interviewed Hitler and Goering and Goebbels during WWII. I have forgotten the many interviews conducted with the German and Japanese populations duly recorded and reported, criticizing our conduct of the war and the conduct of our allies.

I have forgotten the days when justice was reliable and wrong-doers were punished according to their deeds.

I have forgotten when sexual perversion was not a matter of personal opinion and was recognized for what it is.

I have forgotten when it was a matter of deep humility and gratitude to realize I was an American, charitable, forgiving, altruistic, deeply courageous and committed to a society of individual hardiness, celebrating risk takers, entrepreneurs, and a national pride and culture of rugged self reliance.

I have forgotten the time when children played in safety, trusting of every adult, free to roam and discover the many joys and wonders of childhood, safe in the neighborhood, policemen and firemen, nurses and teachers were not merely jobs but avocations that every little boy and girl respected and many yearned to be.

I have forgotten when children were taught to become adults and responsible by mastering newspaper routes and lawn mowing and snow shoveling and garage cleaning for neighbors and friends.

I have forgotten when a father could counsel his son that a bully was easily dispatched with a solid punch to the nose and a refusal to be intimidated, rather than advising my son that if you are hit you must run away or be charged with assault (Rhode Island).

I have forgotten a time when teachers and pastors alike reverenced their Creator and instilled God’s moral laws and authority on their young charge’s minds.

I have forgotten a time when misbehavior was punished by a brisk paddling by the principal and a worse paddling at home.

I have forgotten a time when schools were patrolled by a friendly, avuncular janitor armed with no more than a wide broom and wonderful stories, who was never to busy to listen to and joke with the children.

I have forgotten a time when the schools were open to parents at any time, for any reason, and when metal detectors, policeman, locker searches, and body searches and drug tests were unthinkable invasions of the dignity of a civil society.

I have forgotten when teachers and principals all thought and believed as we did and social workers and case officers were unknown and unimaginable.

I have forgotten a time when only the most depraved among us would abort a living child for convenience’ sake and declare that doing so was a sacred right.

I have forgotten a time when the presidency of the United States of America was honored and when need be, feared by foe and friend alike of our society.

I have forgotten when the safest travelers on any continent were those who carried an American Passport and the respect shown for all who were so fortunate to have that great privilege.

I have forgotten when a man or woman in uniform were honored and respected for their service.

I have forgotten many things. I wish we could all remember. I hope we all have said goodbye in regret. I wish we had a government that eliminated the people that have destroyed the world we once knew before they eliminated our freedoms:

• Freedom of Speech
• Freedom of Association
• Freedom of Worship
• Freedom from confiscatory rapacious government taxation
• Freedom from having to raise private militias to defend our national borders
• Freedom from having to tolerate in our midst those who wish and actively seek the destruction of our values and personal and national sovereignty
• Freedom from violence and pornographic media piped into every home and on every shelf in every store—for those inclined to enjoy same there were always nasty, dirty little shops in only the seediest section of town

In the end I miss the white hats winning over the black hats and the celebration of manly and womanly virtue we were taught to emulate and carry on by our parents, teachers, neighbors and shopkeepers every day.

I miss America. I miss it so much I cannot say. I think what I have forgotten was a shadow, a dim reflection of the possibility and promise of the best that man could envision in the birth of America, in comparison to the promise of God’s Kingdom to come. We were a placeholder, magnificent, rowdy, fearless and ever optimistic for a better tomorrow. Tomorrow arrived. It was not the dawn of promise, it is a nightmare of violence and depravity, corruption and disease, war and brutality, vanity and pride, calling evil good and good evil.

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