Sometimes the mind makes associations between seemingly unrelated items.  Our local cable system sells local advertising which the city of Denton uses to push various bits of propaganda.  Since the local utilities are run by the city, we’re often treated to various exhortations to conserve energy.  One of which is the recommendation to set your thermostat to 78 in the summer and 68 in the winter.  This led me to consider the issues of pessimism, left-wingers, and terrorism.

Are most left-wingers horribly pessimistic?  Very often their response to a problem is to tell us to “learn to live with it.”  We’ve had many years of technological advances in heating and cooling efficiency.  What’s the point of having these devices if you aren’t going to be comfortable using them?  If they’re using too much energy, then let’s concentrate on making them more efficient.  But the idea of setting the temperature to uncomfortable levels seems like capitulation and pessimism to me.

But how does this relate to terrorism?  The same people that want us to stop driving SUVs and to be uncomfortable in our homes are the sames ones that tell us that Americans should “just learn to live with” terrorism. 

America has long had a “can do” attitude with regards to just about everything.  It may seem corny and old fashioned, but I believe in the ability of Americans to overcome obstacles.  We’re not the type of people to just sit back and “learn to live with” something.  Whatever the problem, American tenacity, ingenuity, and technology can usually find a solution. 

I think the problem is that some factions see our “can do” attitude as arrogance, especially among the elites in Europe (who have, unfortunately, infected many of the lefists in America).  As in, “Those simplistic American cowboys are going to screw everything up because they just don’t understand the complexities of the issue.”  They’ve been unable to stop the terrorists themselves and they are trying to live with it.  They can’t understand our worldview and they think that we don’t understand the problem.

We’ve decided that we’re not going to live with terrorism, which means rooting out the terrorists and bringing them to justice (or bringing justice to them, Hellfire style).  We’re fully aware of the scope of the problem.  But instead of saying, “it’s just too big, we can’t do it”, our response is “what will it take and how do we make it manageable?”

I’ll take American “can do” spirit over left-wing pessimism any time.