What is disgusting about today is that the nation is wallowing

[Skidmore]

in handwringing and symbolism rather than actively working on ways to make the world better. I detest funerals even when they are just normal culmantion of life. I loathe this type of thing though. The enshrining of the culture of violence and hatred. The best monument that can be erected will never replace the living monument of a lasting peace wrought by people of good will and based on a willingness to reach out to one another.

[Sammy Pepys]

1. Let's all take a cue from this

Rather than wringing our hands and fawning over symbolism, let's get out there and work for 2006.

[Lydia Leftcoast]

2. The reaction to 9/11 is adolescent

At this very moment, MUCH worse things are happening all over the world in places like Iraq, Lebanon, Darfur, you name it. In fact, our government is responsible for most of the death and destruction that have gone on in Iraq, which, by all accounts, suffers the equivalent of a 9/11 every couple of weeks.

Of course 9/11 was a horrible crime and devastating for the people whose loved ones were killed, but for the whole nation to carry on as it is makes Americans look like adolescents who don't want to hear about someone dying of cancer because they themselves are having an acne flare-up.

[tularetom]

3. You got that right - what narcissists we are

like we are the only people who have ever had to live with something like this. We are truly a nation of Paris Hiltons.

[Name removed]

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[asjr]

4. Glad someone else feels this way. I thought

this morning my cynicism has taken hold of me and will not let go. This is more of a photo-op for the thugs in the administration. The media are looking for ratings and thinks wall to wall coverage will "help" us. No one will ever forget what happened in 01, but we have reminders every day of the week. They can run every name in their crawl space at the bottom of the screen, but the victims are still dead. We don't have to prove we care. And quite frankly, showing pictures of the Shrub and his ilk placing wreathes on "hallowed" ground certainly will not make me feel better. Sept. 11 has been commercialized!

[Egnever]

5. You know ....

My son was born 2 years ago on the 12th. My wife was scheduled to have her labor induced and we specifically put it off a day longer to avoid his Bday falling on 9-11 because we anticipated all the wallowing for years to come and didnt want his birthday to be a constant day of national mourning.

[The2ndWheel]

6. Other than actively trying to make the world better

I agree.

See, because we keep trying to make the world better, but all we're really doing is making the problems bigger and pushing them off into some point in the future, when they will actually have to be dealt with, only they'll be far too big to be able to deal with.

[Lone_Star_Dem]

7. Or if they were at the least admitting that things are now worse

That we've lost the support of other nations we held directly after 9/11.

Or angered that our actions since the event have been breeding new terrorist faster than germs in a petri dish.

Or in the very least acknowledging all the innocents who've died since the event to satiate our need for "justice" (read revenge).

No, instead we waste yet more time patting each other on the backs and shedding tears when we should be working toward a common good.

[tenshi816]

9. Yes, exactly.

I grieved for those who died on 9/11, as did the world, but it's time to stop for Americans to stop wallowing in it and time also to stop being afraid of a big bad Muslim boogeyman around every corner.

To put it into perspective, during the Blitz in the Second World War, 43,000 civilians died in and around London alone from German bombs. Poland lost more than 17% of its pre-war population. People remember, and honour their dead, but they don't obsess about it and they don't live in fear.

[Horse with no Name]

10. I have set the day aside

To be online very little. Not watch any television.
It is laundry and housecleaning day.
The 5th Anniversary of 911 is symbolic at best because the world is NOT a better place to live in. The hype of the P911 has worn me down. It accomplished what it was set out to do. To make everyone talk about the movie instead of the failures of GWB. And we did.
Our country is arguably worse.
Osama is still not captured.
I guess you could almost say it was a total failure of administration to bring us to this brink.
We understand, collectively--whether freepers will admit it or not--that we are not safe from foreign terrorists nor domestic terrorists. We are not safe from man-made disasters, nor or we safe from weather disasters.
The anniversary today makes me realize that our government doesn't care about it's citizens unless they are Republicans in the upper tax brackets.
Everyone else can eat cake.
So, I will wash clothes and dust my furniture.
This is not a holiday, although this administration would like to call it Patriot Day. It is not patriotic to sit in an office building or on an airplane and die simply because your government was too busy figuring out how to make it and it's croneys wealthy beyond all belief to take care of business that protected the common American.
It is criminal whether you believe in MIHOP/LIHOP or not.
Giving GWB a holiday and a bullhorn on this day is sacrilege.
I refuse to partake.