It's Time To Forget September 11th

[ECH1969]

It’s time to forget September 11th. That’s right. You heard me. It’s time to push it out of our minds.

You can hoot and holler all you want about this concept. You can say I’m anti-American. You can even accuse me of spitting on the memories of all those who died. But you would miss the point of what I’m about to say here, because this has nothing to do with the heroes or victims, and nothing to do with politics.

This has to do with us. At this point, that’s all 9/11 is: Just one crazy day that happened four and a half years ago. It sucked, but we can’t change it. We shouldn’t let it change the American dream.

Look around, and you’ll find the only thing America’s confident in anymore is its military. Take that away—take the pageantry, the yellow ribbons, and the thanks to “our men and women serving abroad” before sporting events—and it’s clear that we think we have nothing to offer. We’ve grown soft in the era of get-rich-quick McDonald’s lawsuits. Our culture is vacuous, and our belief in it is missing. Even the best stuff we have—like our colleges—are too busy being reviled to be respected and enjoyed.

http://www.freeliberal.com/archives/001941.html

[Syrinx]

1. Exactly Wrong

9/11 didn't change everything (unless we let it), as so many people mindlessly parrot.

But it was a chillingly audacious crime. And we mustn't forget about it. We must get to the bottom of it. And hold the true perpetrators (or "traitors" for short) responsible in a real and meaningful way.

EDIT:

I don't know exactly (almost, I do) who THEY are.

But THEY killed Kennedy. They killed King. And they killed Kennedy again.

They tried to kill Reagan.

They promised weapons to Iran if they continued to hold the hostages.

They tried to frame John Lennon to have him deported.

They protect oil interests and military contracts above all else.

[KitchenWitch]

3. I agree with you Syrinx!

[Syrinx]

5. thanks!

:hi:

[Behind the Aegis]

13. Curious about your edit...

Who are the "They?" CIA? If so, why try to kill Reagan or frame John Lennon? Are the "they" big business? Why kill King? The US Military?

Who are the "they?"

[Syrinx]

15. I Never Identified They

I didn't delete anything from my post. I only added.

EDIT:

But the last line is your clue.

[Behind the Aegis]

21. I know you didn't identify "they."

I also know you didn't delete anything from your post.

The last line is they protect oil and military contracts...."Haliburton?"

[Syrinx]

37. the Military-Industrial-Media Complex, and it's friendly CEO

[Behind the Aegis]

39. Gotcha!

I appreciate the clarification!

[asthmaticeog]

34. I think I know EXACTLY who you mean.

[Misunderestimator]

35. Hmmmm... you could have something there...

:tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat: :tinfoilhat:

[CJCRANE]

2. It's time to revisit Sept 11th

and see it for what it really was: an attack facilitated by a small elite group that comprised both foreign and American neocon interests.

[Behind the Aegis]

4. I have to disagree.

We should never forget the tragedy of 9-11! To say something like that is akin to asking people to forget the Challenger disaster, the assassination of JFK or MLK, Jr., or Pearl Harbor. All of those tragedies shape who we, as Americans, are.

I agree that it shouldn't change the American dream, nor should it be used as political leverage of "you are with us or against us," but we mustn't ever forget! Forgive...perhaps, but not forget!

You say, "...that’s all 9/11 is: Just one crazy day that happened four and a half years ago." It is much more than that! It was the day that many Americans finally realized, what many other nations have known for years...NO COUNTRY is immune to terrorism! It was a "wake-up" call that we, Americans, are not untouchable. I don't EVER want my country to return to that ignorant and arrogant state of bliss! We are a part of this world, and we must act as such. The world is not our "playground" based on our terms.

I am proud to be American, but I don't want my home to return to a feeling of superiority (the current government has that covered). We must see the tragedy on our shores and empathize with the tragedies of other nations.

So, NO! It is not time to forget 9-11! It's time to remember that we are one race, human! It is time to remember that, on 9-11, the world said, "we are all Americans today." It is time to remember, that as Americans, "we are of the world, and they are of us. Their pains, should be our pains!" So, I say again, it is NOT time to forget 9-11!

On edit: had to add a word

[KitchenWitch]

6. well stated.

Thank you!

[PBass]

7. Weird and creepy thread. Sorry. Totally disagree with original premise.

Doesn't make a lick of sense, on any level.

Just my opinion.

[Behind the Aegis]

8. My post doesn't make sense?

Or were you talking about the "thread?" The reason I ask is because your response is to my post.

[LittleClarkie]

9. It's history. As such, it must be put in context.

Studied, understood, and the like. The old adage holds true: "Those who forget history are doomed to repeat it"

Sad thing is, there are things that should have been done after 9/11, just as there were things to be done after the Twin Towers were attacked during Clinton's presidency. And he did them. He reacted like it was a criminal act, and he brought those criminals to justice.

What we need is to stop letting Republicans beat us over the head with 9/11, using it to bludgeon dissent.

[cornermouse]

10. Let's face it, PR works.

The problem with 9/11 is the fact that from the start they've used PR, 9/11, and patriotism as an excuse and a baseball bat to push through policies and laws that they would never have dared to attempt prior to 9/11. Welcome to the new version of Political Correctness.

We may or may not have grown soft, an argument could be made for either side of that, but lawsuits aren't the base cause. PR has been very effective at making us forget that lawsuits are the only way we've ever really had to directly hold a corporation's "feet" to the fire, to make them accountable when they have made serious life altering/destroying mistakes, or worse yet, decided that it was more cost effective to make the mistake and pay when forced by court for individual cases out of the profits created by their refusal to correct the mistake.

Our vacuous culture... I think I've more or less heard that before. Was it Socrates?

In other countries, college and the promise it holds of a future has always been one of the first things to go whenever a repressive regime takes power. Now that our colleges are under attack, perhaps we should think about that fact.

He may not have noticed but cheaper doesn't mean better, it usually means junkier. That means you're going to be buying a replacement sooner which means money spent doesn't tend to "last" as long as it used to. Its a false savings.

The fabric most of these cheap imported clothes is made from simply doesn't hold up and before you buy, you better check the length of the sleeves. I've also had some problems with cheap appliances not working. It also drives down the wages of the few remaining jobs in this country. Again, a false savings.

[Bluebear]

11. Good luck with that! "Liberals want to FORGET 9/11!!!!!!!!!!!1111111"

I can hear it already, no matter your premise.

[Kurovski]

12. I will never forget.

I will never forget what happened to the people around me. the fear that shut many down, that disrupted lives. Government failed on too many levels for it to have been a believable error.

The survivors and the dead are owed answers, and justice. if there are no answers forthcoming, it will hang over the American psyche for another 50 years or longer and in the same way as Kennedy's assassination did and does.

It will fade on its own as history passes, and not a minute before.

[zippy890]

14. No

weird post, and creepy

as if we can erase that memory.

[BIG Sean]

16. I wish I could, but then I close my eyes again

Maybe it is different for those of us that were there that day.

[CJCRANE]

17. How can you forget the greatest spectacle

of the 21st century?

We need to know who really were the hijackers? Who paid them? And why it appears that countries that funded them are "allies" whereas Bushco attacks a country which had nothing to do with 9/11?

[marions ghost]

18. say what?

This writer is all about getting back to bidness. That is the bottom line in his unrealistic (in many ways crass) proposal that we should all get over 9-11. Sorry, there was a little too much Shock and Awe that day. And 9-11 is integrally connected with everything that has occurred during the B**h regime.
The legacy of 9-11 extends far into the future. The writer is a complete lunatic.

(I'm assuming the OP is playing devil's advocate in posting this).

-------------
From the article:

"It’s time to pack our bags and move out of here—time to get out of post-9/11 America, and time to return to our senses. Americans need to believe in themselves again. We need to get back to business. This country didn’t become great because of some abstract freedom imposed by an army. It became great because of the tangible things inspired by our zeal to be free. If the country that gave the world electricity, light bulbs, telephones, airplanes, moon landings, and cyberspace needs a fence on its border and a pledge to “buy American,” then that country can’t compete with the world anymore, because that country’s not dreaming the American dream."
---------------

Hasn't he heard, the old American Dream has died? The new American Dream has yet to be conceived. This article sounds so, so...pre 9-11.

[CJCRANE]

20. The "American Dream" will be replaced

by the "Patriotic Duty" or the "Homeland Loyalty".

[marions ghost]

24. If that's true

It wouldn't be an American Dream...only a righteous Goose-stepping Zealot Dream.

I'm hoping the next American dream won't be all about how many things you can acquire and equating buying power with "freedom."

Personally I'm dealing with too much hard reality right now to do much dreaming...

[CJCRANE]

25. Well, at least B*sh's disapproval rating shows

that 60% of Americans are dreaming of NOT becoming the United Emirates of Patriotica...

I think a combination of Gore, Feingold and Clark could revive a more eco-friendly and progressive "21st Century American Dream".

[rucky]

19. Figurative language is wasted here.

Most people either didn't read or missed the point. Good stuff, but good luck asking Americans to give up their right to act self-righteous.

[CJCRANE]

22. IMHO

Americans will only be able to eventually forget 9/11 once they know what it was...

Right now 85% of American troops think that Iraq was responsible for 9/11...

Others are confused as to why funds and operatives for 9/11 operation came Saudi Arabia and UAE and yet they're Bushco's "allies in the war on terror"...

[rinsd]

33. "to give up their right to act self-righteous"

Oh the irony....

[rman]

23. Remembering the past limits the capability of the W regime

to create its own reality. Which is why they want us to not remember.


"The aide said that guys like me were "in what we call the reality-based community," which he defined as people who "believe that solutions emerge from your judicious study of discernible reality." ... "That's not the way the world really works anymore," he continued. "We're an empire now, and when we act, we create our own reality. And while you're studying that reality—judiciously, as you will—we'll act again, creating other new realities, which you can study too, and that's how things will sort out. We're history's actors . . . and you, all of you, will be left to just study what we do."
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Reality-based_community

[Disturbed]

26. "How can you forget the greatest spectacle?"

Around 3K people died on that day and around 270K have been killed in Iraq and Afghanistan. Aren't Americans satisfied with the blood letting yet?

[Behind the Aegis]

27. If that is all you see...

...then the tragedy is truly lost on you.

That day was used the wrong way, but it was also the day that America realized that she was really a part of the world and no longer "insulated." Why should we forget that?

[CJCRANE]

30. But even that narrative

compelling as it may be, isn't accurate.

America was still "insulated" in 2001, there was no practical reason for 9/11 to happen except that the PTB let the hijackers into the country and gave them a free pass (plus funding from the neocons' "allies") and facilitated their successful operation.

[rman]

28. You think people remember out of lust for sensation?

Have you no heart?

If there's any blood letting to be satisfied with, it's in Iraq. Though that to is not by choice of The People.

[laruemtt]

29. NEVER FORGET!

and the criminals who caused it must be brought to justice - whoever when truth finally emerges it turns out to be!

[RandomKoolzip]

31. Wow, what a horrible thing to say.

I guess you didn't have a loved one die on that day.

[HughBeaumont]

32. Among this "liberal's" many gems -

"The reaction to Dubai Ports World resembles 9/11’s immediate aftermath in every meaningful way. The only reason anyone cared about this transaction was because this Arab company was just that: Arab. No one cared that they were also just that: a company. "

"I would think the quest for better, less expensive products—wherever they come from—is patriotic. After all, it’s capitalism. And capitalism’s the American way."

"Let’s do business with Dubai. Let’s do business with Cuba. Let’s welcome a little competition from China and India."

"We should never forget September 11th happened. And we should never forget the lessons of the carnage that it caused. But just because 3,000 people died four and a half years ago doesn’t mean we should stop believing in the power of what we believe."

Wow, contradiction, pro-offshoring AND missing the point entirely on just about everything.

Sounds like something straight out of a Tom Freidman column.

So yeah, fuck this guy.

[jsamuel]

36. You don't learn from history by forgetting about it.

I do think we need to reevaluate 9/11 though.

[Peter Frank]

38. What an idiotic and irresponsible post!!!...

You said, "...that’s all 9/11 is: Just one crazy day that happened." If you believe that, then you're not prepared to hold accountable those responsible.

You have become an apologist for this administration which blocks access to the facts of 911.

With your infantile rant, you indeed denigrate the legacy and the families of those who died that day. How can you sleep at night?

I'll bet that if you were a fireman on 911 -- you'd be speaking as an adult right now. But for now be content to be an extremely hurtful, ignorant, and immature loudmouth without a clue to the adult practice of humanity.

Sleep well.

[Twist_U_Up]

40. 9/11 was an inside job, why do that ?

We need to talk about this non-stop and not stop till the culprits are frog marched to Levenworth.

[Peter Frank]

41. You Are Correct Sir...

The greatest enemy of a free society is silence.