9/11 and JonBenet: There's a Lesson Here

One of the standard moves in my comedy writing job is to tie two hot topics from the news together into one joke. If the crowd is already focused on both subjects, then they are very receptive to a connection. It also works with serious subjects and I believe there is one huge potential lesson staring at us from the news these last couple of days. I'm going to compare the JonBenet Ramsey case to the 9/11 investigation, and here is what triggered it. I've been watching pundits discussing their chagrin at the possibility that they might have blamed the Ramseys prematurely. Chris Matthews said he felt one of the things that seemed to telegraph guilt to him was the Ramseys' insistence on being interviewed together by the Boulder Police. It does seem odd. If neither had anything to hide why not just go in and tell the truth and let that amplify your credibility with the consistency? It triggered a memory for me from the 9/11 Commission. First, we all remember how vociferously the White House fought having the investigation at all. Although Bush officials talk about their commitment to national security almost non-stop, they were awfully reluctant to have anyone look into 9/11. Why was that? Certainly our national security depended in part on learning how this happened so we could correct any holes in our defense. When the 9/11 widows forced the White House into the investigation, President Bush and Dick Cheney agreed to appear, but not under oath, and only if they could go in together. I'm sure they had their reasons. I think it would have served the People of this country a lot more, if the same alarm bells that sounded during the JonBenet case had rung in Chris Matthews' head over this. If the media had spent one tenth of the effort in the immediate aftermath of 9/11 looking into that crime, as they did looking into the murder of this young girl, then I believe we wouldn't be where we are as a nation. There are many things that don't add up about each case. If the Ramseys weren't involved how come the ransom note had the exact figure of Mr. Ramsey's bonus from that year? Why was Dick Cheney running war games on the morning of 9/11 that eerily duplicated the actual attack and why did he order our air defences to stand down as a threat approached Washington, ultimately hitting the Pentagon? Wouldn't you like to hear Mr Ramsey's and Dick Cheney's attempt to explain these rather remarkable "coincidences"? What we have witnessed these last few days is a reminder that guilty parties can sometimes go undetected for years. The only difference is that while our media latched onto the Ramsey case and investigated it into the ground, it bought the official story of 9/11, and still does, even though there are a lot more troubling bizarre facts about 9/11. If the Ramseys testifying together gave Chris Matthews a feeling that they might be guilty of one crime, why didn't he have the same reaction when President Bush and Dick Cheney insisted on the same arrangement? Oh well, at least the Ramsey home didn't collapse in a controlled explosion later that same day like what appears to have happened to Building 7 in New York. On the other hand, there must have been some young girls killed in the crime that was 9/11. If we're going to devote so much energy on JonBenet's behalf, we owe as much to their memories.