AMERICAN AIRLINES' PILOT SPEAKS HIS MIND

For us to keep our country as comfortable as when we grew up, we need to teach the younger ones the importance of standing together and standing united in their beliefs.  If there is anything to stand united about this is a core trepidation we all have but speak very little about as we are afraid of how it will be interpreted.
Send this on if you believe in the importance and more importantly stand up for what you believe in. 
No name calling, no hatred, no political agenda.

CANADIAN COMMENT  APPEARS AT THE END OF THE ARTICLE AND IS MEANINGFUL. THERE ARE ALSO SOME  RECENTLY ADDED BRITISH AND AUSTRALIAN COMMENTS.

This pilot hit the  nail right on the head in his open letter.
A recent newspaper article stated that some 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.

YOU WORRY  ME!
By Captain 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. 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 with 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 gave 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 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 this nation as a  whole.
The FBI has a list of  over 400 people they want to talk to regarding the WTC attack. Many of these  people live and socialize right now in Muslim communities. You know them. You  know where they are. 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 that HAVE appeared in the media were defensive and  equivocating. They seemed more concerned with making sure that the United States  proves who was responsible before taking action. 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 Khadafi, Hussein, Farrakhan, and  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 gray areas or ambivalence regarding  your allegiance, and it is up to YOU, to show ME, where YOU stand. Until then, "  YOU WORRY ME!"

CANADIAN  COMMENTS:
I totally agree with  this sentiment. I hope you will forget all about the 'political correctness'  mandate we've had rammed down our throats, and see if this doesn't ring true in  your heart and mind. For Canada , with all the multiculturalism 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 predominantly Judeo 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.

AUSTRALIAN COMMENT :  Best email I have had in years it needs to be in every paper every day until we  get some answers.

Doesn't matter if you are Right or Left

http://blog.sfgate.com/morford/2014/07/08/the-best-worst-president-ever/

Did you see the email below from Sen. Bernie Sanders? More than 50,000 DFA members have already signed his petition to raise the federal minimum wage, and that number is growing by the minute.

Sen. Sanders is working hard in Congress to force a vote on raising the minimum wage, but he needs your help to overcome Tea Party obstructionism. If you want to give tens of millions of Americans a raise, don't miss this chance to speak out. Sign our petition and tell Congress to raise the minimum wage to $10.10 today.

http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/3830?t=2&akid=4462.2264341.DKut35

Thanks for fighting the good fight.

- Jim

Jim Dean, Chair
Democracy for America

 

 

Increasing wealth and income inequality in the United States is the great moral and economic issue of our time.  It speaks to whether we will be a nation with a vibrant and growing middle class, or an oligarchic form of society in which a handful of incredibly wealthy families control our economic and political life.

In America today, the top 1% owns 38% of our country's financial wealth. The bottom 60% owns all of 2.3%. In the last several years, 95% of all new income has gone to the top 1%. Sadly, we recently learned that in 2012 the top 40 hedge fund managers in the country earned $16.7 billion dollars, as much as 300,000 public school teachers combined -- almost a third of all high school teachers in America. How's that for national priorities!

In recent months, world leaders from the president to the pope have been speaking out on this long ignored, but critical issue. Several months ago a number of us in the Senate and House urged President Obama to issue an executive order to raise the minimum wage for federal contract workers from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. Recently, the president did just that. I applaud him for taking this important step forward.  But much more needs to be done.

Within the next several weeks Democrats in the Senate will be bringing forth legislation to raise the national minimum wage from $7.25 to $10.10 an hour. If this effort succeeds, 30 million Americans will be getting a long overdue pay raise. And, just last week, House Democrats indicated that they are preparing to undertake what is known as a discharge petition which would force a vote on the minimum wage in the Republican controlled House of Representatives.

Momentum is on our side. Now is the time for Congress to act!

Please join me and Democracy for America in calling on Congress to increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour.

http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/3830?t=5&akid=4462.2264341.DKut35

Currently, powerful forces in the Republican Party, under the influence of the Koch brothers and other billionaire families, continue to call for major cuts in programs desperately needed by working families. While the rich become richer and the poor become poorer, these billionaires are waging a relentless fight to cut nutrition programs, education, health care and more.

Incredibly, instead of supporting an increase in the federal minimum wage of $7.25 an hour, they want to end the concept of the minimum wage -- and create a situation where workers in high-unemployment areas could be forced to work for $3 or $4 an hour. For them, "freedom" means that desperate people are "free" to work for starvation wages.

Working together, our job is to create an economy and a government that works for working families and the most vulnerable Americans, and not just Wall Street and multi-national corporations. And Congress should begin by raising the minimum wage!

Please stand with me and Democracy for America today in demanding that Congress increase the federal minimum wage to $10.10 an hour!

http://act.democracyforamerica.com/go/3830?t=7&akid=4462.2264341.DKut35

Thank you for all that you do.

Sincerely,







U.S. Senator Bernie Sanders

Paid for by Democracy for America, http://www.democracyforamerica.com/?t=8&akid=4462.2264341.DKut35 and not authorized by any candidate. Contributions to Democracy for America are not deductible for federal income tax 

Time once again to stand up and be counted, life is too short to watch someone else commit economic and political terrorism in the US. If you see the light, please share this!