Whose Fault Now?

MSNBC (along with the entire national media entertainment industry) spent a lot of Sunday trying to figure out who to blame for the 9/11 tragedies. Bush? Clinton? CIA? Which American?

It reminded me of the time before mid-70's when a woman who was raped was put on trial -- not the perpetrator.

Was she in a short skirt or did she wear make-up? She was asking for it.

Had she had consensual sex any time in her life? Then she was a whore.

If she had been a virgin, how did she know whether she was raped or not? Nice girls didn't know of these things.

Was she a child? Was she traumatized? It was impossible to put a child or a brutally traumatized victim on the witness stand to face her accuser as required by law.

Was she African-American? No such thing as a black virgin.

Was she a divorcee, widow, or lonely? You get the picture.

Somehow, we still haven't progressed past the childish mentality of blaming the victim.

It wasn't our fault. Say it out loud. It wasn't our fault. There are some very sick people out there. People who want to destroy, people full of hate and envy. We need to protect ourselves from them. But we don't need become like them.

We are a good and trusting people who think all individuals are basically the same. If we sometimes trust the wrong people, welcome the wrong people into our homes -- it is a sign of our hospitality. We are not asking for it. We have a lot of room in our hearts. We wouldn't be the Americans we desire to be if we succumb to hate and vengeance. Even if it means wanting to blame ourselves for crimes committed against us.

Remeber, we're the ones who pump money into a country to help rebuild it after the war is over. It is who we are.