Because of the anti-terror campaign George Bush and Dick Cheney waged after 9/11, New York City residents (and the tri-state area surrounding it) were spared a repeat of the horror they went through that awful September day.

No repeats of the months-long series of funerals, day in and day out.

No need to once again sift through mountains of rubble and dust to look for the thimbleful of human remains that would allow a family to finally achieve closure.

For 7 1/2 years, George W Bush and Dick Cheney shielded New Yorkers from having to relive that terrible experience. 

How did New Yorkers repay the Bush administration?  They feted Will Ferrell. And more.

Next time these folks get hit, I’m going to find it a wee bit harder to muster sympathy for them. What an ungrateful bunch.

In order to learn how intensely New Yorkers protested Ferrell’s play, I did the following Google searches:

• will ferrell george bush broadway protest
• will ferrell george bush broadway criticism
• will ferrell george bush broadway mayor
• will ferrell george bush broadway bloomberg

(I included the last two search strings because I figured that, if anyone, the mayor of New York City would publicly express his discomfort with such a mean-spirited play being hosted in a city that George Bush and Dick Cheney had kept safe for more than seven years.)

Well…

• I found no evidence of a public statement or press release by Mayor Bloomberg.  To make sure, I added “statement” to the last string above and re-Googled.  No joy *.
• I did find lots of criticsm about the quality of Ferrell’s performance.  NONE from major news outlets about the mean-spiritedness of the play itself.
• I did find lots of evidence that the play was wildly popular in New York City.   I didn’t find any evidence of any meaningful protest outside the theater.

In more current events, Representative Jerry Nadler, of NY’s 8th Congressional District, is leading the Congressional push to investigate Cheney and the Bush administration.  Here’s what Nadler said following the Obama/Cheney speeches on Thursday:

Rep. Jerry Nadler (D-N.Y.), who is leading the charge for investigating Cheney, called Obama’s speech “powerful.”
“There are some areas where he didn’t go into detail, but I’m very hopeful, given his recognition of civil liberties and values questions,” he said.

According to his Congressional website, Nadler’s district encompasses:

most of Manhattan’s Upper West Side, and continues south to include most parts of Clinton, Chelsea, SoHo, Greenwich Village, TriBeCa, and Downtown Manhattan. In Brooklyn, the 8th District includes parts of Boro Park, Sunset Park, Bay Ridge, Bensonhurst, Coney Island, Brighton Beach, Gravesend, Dyker Heights, Bath Beach, and Seagate.

Silly me…I thought those areas lost people—lots of people—on 9/11. I guess not…

How disgraceful of these people. How ungrateful. How juvenile.

It’s hard not to feel contempt for them. The next time they get hit, I might find that my give-a-dang is a little slow to respond.

* I did find this Mayor Bloomberg press release, about a previous Will Ferrell effort:

Mayor Michael R. Bloomberg Declares Friday, November 7 ‘Elf Day’ in New York City
November 07, 2003

At an appearance on NBC’s “Today” show this morning, Mayor Bloomberg declared Friday, November 7 “Elf Day” in New York City. New Line Cinema’s holiday film “Elf,” which shot partially in New York City, premiered in the City at Loews Astor Plaza on Sunday, November 2 and opens wide in area theatres on Friday, November 7. Directed by Jon Favreau and starring Will Ferrell and James Caan, “Elf” is the story of a toddler, Buddy, who accidentally ends up in one of Santa’s bags and is whisked away to the North Pole where he lives out his entire childhood.

The article goes on to say that the movie production of Elf did employ hundreds of New Yorkers and bring millions of dollars into the city. That’s good.

But it would be nice if the mayor could have said something good about the men who helped keep his citizens safe, so that people like Will Ferrell could come enjoy the wonders and freedoms that still persist in NYC today…

…thanks, in no small part, to the man Will Ferrell mocked for considerable profit, to the considerable adulation of the people who slept safely behind the walls that George Bush safeguarded for them.