I arrived back from my trip to the east coast to find Gail Collins of the New York Times poking fun at Montana’s senators for their opposition to housing Guantanamo Bay detainees at the Two Rivers Detention facility in Hardin. The nerve! Her (humorous) column, titled, “When Did Cowboys Get Wimpy?” questions why Westerners have such a reputation for fortitude and courage when neurotic New Yorkers regularly house dangerous terror suspects in a city already a major terrorist target.
From Collins’ column:
“We’re not going to bring Al Qaeda to Big Sky Country — no way, not on my watch,” said Max Baucus.
“If these prisoners need a new place, it’s not going to be anywhere near The Last Best Place,” said Jon Tester.
This shows us two things:
1) Montana has given itself many nicknames.
2) Montanans are more easily frightened than Manhattanites.
Think about it. New Yorkers live in the top terror target in the nation. This week four new would-be terrorists were arrested for plotting to blow up synagogues in the Bronx. On the same day, President Obama announced that the first Guantánamo prisoner to be tried in the United States would be coming to court in Lower Manhattan.
Even though it appears the guys involved in the Bronx case were deeply, deeply inept, this is still not the kind of news package you want to hear. But nobody had a fit over it. “Bottom line is we have had terrorists housed in New York before,” said Senator Charles Schumer.
snip.
The nation, as we all know, is divided into crowded states and empty states, and I was always under the impression that folks in the empty places were particularly brave and self-reliant. Those of us who live in the crowded parts have many good qualities, but we are not necessarily all of pioneer stock, given the critical importance we assign to restaurants that deliver at 2 in the morning.
Who knew we were tougher than Montanans?