Are We A Nation Of Scab Pickers?

[cali]

The NYT today has a huge front page story on the 9/11 tapes and an accompanying obligatory photo of people jumping from the buildings. I can't see that all this brouhaha about the tapes does anything but open painful wounds, particularly for family and friends of those that perished. It's not like Americans have forgotten, or are in danger of forgetting, the horrors of that day.

There's no doubt that the tapes are useful for first responders, revealing as they do, the flaws extant within the 9/11 emergency system, at the time of the disaster, but that doesn't mean that their public dissemination is necessary.

My neighbor has told me that she can't help comparing the reaction of Americans to 9/11 with the reaction of Brits to the blitz. She was a young girl living in London at that time. She believes that Americans tend to believe that 9/11 was the most awful thing that's ever happened and that the Brits took the terrible events they lived through far more stoically and much more in stride.

I'm sure many people will look at this as strictly a freedom of the press issue. To me, the big deal being made about them is indicative that Americans really are a nation of scab pickers

[monktonman]

1. Pick, pick, pick

I like the way they taste as well

[Warpy]

2. I worked with an Irish lady who'd gone through the Blitz

and who said when she went home to Ireland on holiday, she couldn't sleep because of the quiet.

People in flyover country, especially the religious hysterics, do seem to think they personally have experienced all the events of 9/11, while the New Yorkers who actually did are taking it in stride.

I'm wondering if it wasn't the same in Britain, with people in London coping while people outside of Leeds felt every bomb personally.

It's just idle speculation, but it does seem to be a pattern stemming from a desire to experience firsthand the important events of one's time.

[hedgehog]

6. It seems the more unlikely you are to be a target, the more

worried you are about terrorism. The only thing I can figure out is that these people sat and watched television and saw the towers come down over and over again for three days. New Yorkers had to deal with it and get on with it. It's like suburbanites watching crime shows night after night who are terrified of criminals vs people who ar actually at risk of getting mugged. The people at risk can't leave and do the best they can to minimize the risk. The suburbanite sees the boogyman everywhere and is constantly trying to build a better fortress - bright lights on all night outside, security alarms, gated communities etc.

[Blue_Tires]

3. some people out there like to

stoke the emotional embers from 9-11 from time to time, but don't....

EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVER EVAR!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!1111111111111111111111111111111one

....Ask for a true investigation of the unanswered questions on what went wrong before, during and after the event...Because that of course would be unpatriotic, disrespecting the lives of the 3,000 lost, and emboldening the terrorists.:sarcasm:

[MrPrax]

4. Difference between the Blitz and 911

was that Britain KNEW it was Nazi Germany bombing them, since the Germans did declare war.

Oh yeah and it went on for months all over most of the country.

Hey who did the VietCong phone when the US carpetbombed them for years? How well did the 911 system work in Iraq? How well did the first responders do when confronted by the thousands who were burned alive in the slums of Panama City?

"the Vietnamese took the terrible events they lived through far more stoically and much more in stride."

Stick to Pearl Harbor, guys

[frustrated_lefty]

5. Nah, more like an ADD nation.