How Many Years Can We Flog 9/11?

[AnnieBW]

Okay, this is going to sound very un-patriotic, or un-American, but bear with me.

I'm tired of the 9/11 Grief Porn. Seriously. Yes, we were attacked. It was a terrible thing. But it happened nine years ago. When do we get to the point that we don't have the endless repetition of commemorations, trotting out Rudy (Noun-Verb-9/11) Giuliani, etc. for their stories/viewpoints/etc. When does it stop?

Personally, I would like someone to use the anniversary of 9/11 to explain to the American people exactly WHY people hate us, and why we were attacked. Then tell us why we haven't caught Bin Laden yet. Or, better yet, why we're still busy creating more terrorists in Afghanistan, Pakistan, Iraq, and wherever else. Or why we've sacrificed 5,000 Americans to avenge the death of 3,000?

I remember where I was on that day. I was on the opposite side of a totally gridlocked DC from my unemployed (at that time) husband. The entire Pentagon plane happened over my head, but I wasn't aware of it. It was a very bad day, and I don't want to remember it.

When is it going to end? When we have Bin Laden's head on a pike outside of Ground Zero?

:rant:

[Ishoutandscream2]

1. Don't apologize. I'm right there with you

It all seems so, well, not genuine. Kind of like having a "Support Our Troops" magnet on an suv.

[bigwillq]

2. K and R (nt)

[mmonk]

3. Seems to me it has turned into a high holy day of war and hate

instead of remembrance of those that died.

[Raster]

18. It has. That's the way it was designed. It's that "new Pearl Harbor-type event" every year.

[Big Blue Marble]

45. Isn't strange that this many years after Pearl Harbor

our country was starting to rebuild our relationship with Japan? Yes there was was a lot of residual anger
in the country, but after nine years we were beginning to move past it. And now we are stuck reliving
our victimization by a small cadre of terrorists year after year.

[Raster]

47. We will never be allowed to move most 9/11, not as long as there's still so much mileage to get out

of the situation. And realize, one of the main reasons our country was able to move past Pearl Harbor was that all questions were answered. There were no nagging doubts about who really attacked us. There were no gaping holes in official stories.

[drmeow]

64. There was also that

very satisfying war which we definitely won after some retribution that made Pearl Harbor look like a picnic. After meting out our punishment to those who had wronged us and made them truly repentant, it was easy to rebuild. And we'd been able to round all the locals up and put them in internment camps while we exacted our revenge.

[Raster]

66. IMHO, the tragedy of 9/11 was a well calculated and thought-out exercise in American mind control.

Everything was at the ready: the Patriot Act, the blueprint for Homeland Security, the Amerimeme PR machine. All of it, ready to go. Just waiting for that "new Pearl Harbor type event" to happen. Coincidence? I think not.

[drmeow]

69. But I don't think that's

not why the American people can't let it go. I partially agree in that they were waiting for some 9/11 type event and were more than happy to let it happen even though they could have stopped it.

[Raster]

74. The American people can't let it go because it is pimped unmercilessly.

They go for maximum schlock and awe, throw in some guilt and survivor syndrome and then frost the entire mess over with red, white and blue.

[krabigirl]

37. yep, and that is why it makes me sick.

[midnight]

41. True.... Because to remember those who died might mean,

we would actually have to do a follow up investigation.

[Raster]

46. Oh no! No investigations. Those have been done. Period!

No one wants any more investigating.:sarcasm: They only want to harness the fear and harvest the hate. But don't look too closely, because that would lead to inconvenient questions.

[Brickbat]

4. Totally agree.

[6000eliot]

5. It's not like they didn't have a memorial every hour on the hour

for the first couple of years after anyway.

[femmocrat]

6. Maybe after the tenth anniversary next year?

I didn't watch any of it on TV. Enough is enough.

[Forkboy]

7. 9 and counting so far. I see another 20 years, easy.

And then some.

[Jamastiene]

8. You are just cruisin' for a bruisin' with this one.

It is too soon to say any of that, really. Wait at least a generation.

My piddly little $0.02:

It's bad people lost their lives and the lives of family members that day. The commemorations are widespread and make it to the news quite a bit. That is true, but we do need to give the family members of victims and those who were adversely affected by 9/11 time to work through that loss and grief.

I hate seeing Ghouliani trotted out every time we turn around too. I couldn't agree more on that one. I hate the wars and paranoia about "security" too. I really really agree on that part. I hate the overreacting to every little incident since 9/11 too. I agree on those points.

But, I do think the ceremonies and commemorations for people to work through the bad memories and pain and complete changes to their lives are something I wouldn't complain about. Not at least in this generation.

The other stuff you mentioned should be fair game though. It has been long enough. The Patriot Act and the wars and the extreme paranoia have been around long enough to start talking about using a reasonable amount of security minus so much paranoia, ending the never-ending wars/more enemy makers, and moving forward.

Still, you'll get skewered by some others for the OP, I am sure.

[matt819]

9. I was thinking the same thing today

Actually, I got to thinking about Pearl Harbor. A total of 2,400 people died during the attack on Pearl Harbor - mostly military, but a few dozen civilians as well. We declared war the next day on a very specific enemy - after ignoring events in Europe for more than two years - and geared up all resources to fight the war in the Pacific and Europe. And less than four years later the war was over. I wasn't around until the following decade and so I don't know whether the Dec 7 attack was commemorated annually, and, if it was, until what point. Did we read the names of the 2,400 dead on the anniversary? I can't help but think that nine years after the 1941 attack brought us to 1950, five years after the war ended, a time of substantial economic growth, etc., etc. As they say, the rest is history.

I don't mean to gloss over the war or the rebuilding of Germany and Japan, and I don't intend to be dismissive of the losses, both on Dec. 7 and in the war. But I don't think we, as a nation, engaged in the same sort of "grief porn" that we have since 2001. In contrast, we wallow. We interview the survivors, the relatives of those who died. We hold annual moments of silence and trot out pictures of those who died. Yes, it was awful. Yes, there are still tons of unanswered questions. But, Without diminishing the gravity of the 2001 attacks and the loss of so many, is it not possible to move on? When does it end?

[Fumesucker]

10. If you go on right wing boards you'll still hear crap about the Iran embassy hostage crisis..

From time to time..

That was thirty years ago and nobody died.

The wingnuts will flog 9/11 for as long as it takes, as long as they possibly can.

Fifty years minimum I would say.

[lumberjack_jeff]

11. Remember the Alamo! n/t

[geardaddy]

61. Fifty-Four Forty or Fight! n/t

[inenemyterritory]

12. I will go out on a limb here

but if the Pubs get control of Congress, we will see it become a "National Day of Memorial"

[mitchum]

13. If confederate crackers are any kind of indicator, at least 150 years

[FirstTimeVoterAt37]

14. Consider that the Holocaust is still being politicized

I'm afraid we might as well get used to it, as sad as that makes me.

(All for Holocaust remembrance of course, it's the politicization that gets me).

[Jennicut]

15. I agree it is "grief porn". But we do commemorate every year what happened

at Pearl Harbor and D-Day. But it was so long ago we don't have the media slamming us in the face with it. The images and constant replays of the events on tv will lose their impact over time and cease to make people "entertained" with fear and pain. Give it, oh, 20 years or so. My kids have no memories of it, being born in 2004 and 2005. Eventually, it will mean less.

[Crunchy Frog]

16. There will be an orgy next year. After that, maybe things will begin to fade a bit.

[krabigirl]

36. I tend to agree.

[OmmmSweetOmmm]

17. I had this very same discussion with my son yesterday. He agrees too. BTW.. although I live in the

burbs now, I'm a NYer.

[lunatica]

19. It will stop when it's no longer a political gimme-your-vote-wedge-issue

Unfortunately the date fits right in with wedge issues for election years. It has worked so well to create jingoism and hatred. If you were a politician would you give it up?

[azul]

34. And political cover for re-newing the state of emergency each year

so that the MIC is kept in a state of perpetual war-profiteering. Oversight of the illegal war spending would be scary and unpatriotic now that we remember. No money is left for social services by design. The decision has been made for the people, by business interests, that oil security is national security and is the number one priority. Boo.

There will be a media stunt like the Koran burning farce each year to re-new the fear and hatred and radicalize people, until we are totally bankrupt. The Bush Torture-Team and attending captains of industry will by then be taking cover in Fort Rancho Paraguayo.

There must be a better alternative, something that would disrupt this whole evil plan: massive sustainable solar electricities jobs project?, local power for every business and home and vehicle?, a less fearful, peaceful narrative? Jobs where we work for bettering ourselves and our communities instead of feeding the fear-mongering and bloodthirsty war machine.

edit:b-thirsty

[Nye Bevan]

20. Yeah. Let's abolish Pearl Harbor day too while we're at it.

That was a very bad day too, and I'm sure nobody wants to remember it.

[Journeyman]

21. The Blue & Grey commemorated Gettysburg together as late as 1938 . . .

The last big gathering was 1913, the Golden Anniversary, when over 50,000 veterans from both sides met as "comrades and friend" a half century after their bloody clash. It was different in '38. The Great War had introduced a new generation of veterans, the Depression had dampened many spirits, and it's said a "more radical and less forgiving leadership" had altered the makeup and intent of the United Confederate Veterans, so that the friendship and camaraderie of the 50th anniversary was usurped by bitterness and enmity.

Perhaps the warnography of the 9/11 event, isolated as it is in place and time, will one day soon fade in importance as a rallying point for assorted jingoists and self-serving jack-a-wipes. If we are fortunate, it will not be upstaged by some other act of violence. We can hope.

[Raster]

22. My dream tenth 9/11 anniversary: the specter of darth cheney* no longer shadows the country,

Tony Blair is on trial for his part in the illegal run-up to the invasion of Iraq and many little "mice" have come out of the woodwork to share 9/11 information previously not known nor heard. I want Wikileaks to have a field day with all the information posted. And I want George W. Bush*, Condolezza Rice and Donald Rumsfeld*, among others, so terrified of their probable upcoming war crimes trials they are shitting blood.

[JI7]

23. Next Years 10 Year one will be even Bigger than anything else we have seen

[slackmaster]

24. 9/11 wasn't about "why people hate us"

Liking people is not a necessary precondition for not attacking them.

N&U

:nuke:

I'm tired of the 9/11 Grief Porn.

Turn off your TV.

[Dyedinthewoolliberal]

25. You asked a very provocative question

that never seems to be posed by our journalism experts, that is; please explain exactly WHY people hate us and why we were attacked.
The destruction of the Towers, symbols of corporate America's power, was aimed, not at the average local, small potatoes citizen. No way, this was a message to multi-national corporations. These same corporations who tell us American interests must be protected or else it's a threat to our American way of life.
If the average American realized what goes on in their name on a daily basis, I'm sure they'd want some changes made. And I'm not talking about banning French Fries or putting my shoes through the scanner at the airport....... :shrug:

[Iggo]

26. How long ago was 'a date which will live in infamy'?

I'm thinking the Cult Of Victimhood can milk this for quite a bit longer.

[a la izquierda]

27. Oh my god, I want to shake your hand.

All day yesterday, I kept thinking, perhaps I should feel badly about today...but I didn't. I grew up across the bay from lower Manhattan. I miss the Towers, because I saw them every single day of my life until I moved to California about a year before 9/11/01. But I still don't live in the area, so every passing year, the towers sort of fade from my reality (though I do have photos in my house). The politicization of the day sickens me, quite frankly. And to be honest, the day has a poignant meaning elsewhere in the world that most Americans would care never to know about or remember: that of the US supported overthrow of yet another democratically elected Latin American president. The aftermath that ensued in Chile is an abominable stain on our country's history, and is a reason we are deeply distrusted in the region. As a Latin American historian, the day has 2 meanings for me.

Anyway, I live in OKC now, and the same weird sort of grief reliving goes on yearly here...so I can assure you, it probably won't end soon.

[stray cat]

28. Those who lost loved ones are tired of missing them and want them back

my opinion about 9-11 is nothing compared to their loss. Those who sacrificed their lives to save others count for something more than the average blogger as well.

[Raineyb]

54. First of all, it's not a sacrifice, sacrifice implies deliberately giving up something for the

greater good and the only people who could arguably be said to have done so were the people on Flight 93. Second of all, people lose loved ones every day, it does not entitle them to an annual televised exercise in grief pornography.

The living have every expectation to being respected as the dead can no longer lay claim to. When we spend more time rendering clothing and sitting in ashes for the dead while not doing shit for those who survived there's something seriously wrong going on.

Enough of this nonsense!

[Yeahyeah]

29. This post is wrong.9/11!

[Terry in Austin]

30. The flogging will continue until morale improves

:evilgrin:

Tragedy, yes; fishy doings, maybe -- but whatever the true circumstances of the attack, we do know that Bushco milked it for all the political mileage they could get.

[True Earthling]

31. If you're excusing or justifying the attack and saying the 3,000+ people who died deserved it...

I'm not on board with that. If you're saying there should be more understanding by the American people as to why these 19 individuals were motivated to pull off such an atrocity I'm with that as long as it is a fair assessment which includes all the contributing influences... U.S. foreign policy, intolerance, religious fanaticism etc.

>Personally, I would like someone to use the anniversary of 9/11 to explain to the American people exactly WHY people hate us, and why we were attacked.<

[Loge23]

32. Do you grieve enough?

This question seems to be where we are as a country at Year 9.
How much of a "patriot" are you?
Or, "I lived in NY for 20 years and moved away two weeks before 9/11" - that now seems to qualify you for a spot at the podium for your new towns' annual 9/11 remembrance, or maybe ring the bell.

What do I remember, besides the obvious?
The missed Richard Clarke memos that must have laid on Condeleeza's unread "Cosmopolitan" pile.
The shameless co-opting of legitimate outrage and grief for political gain. Rudy, please, for the good of society would you please drop dead?
...and of course, the still-burning inferno of hate and fear that has all but consumed any chance of reason in our country.
We all saw the horror and none of us has to qualify our grief by endlessly restating where we were or what connection - however obscure - we have with this tragedy. In the end, it's a personal tragedy.

It's time. Finish the memorial (which appears to be quite beautiful btw) and let the families heal in their own way.

[Odin2005]

33. As long as the powers that be get away with manipulating minds.

[krabigirl]

35. I'm right there with you as well. It's sick.

[marmar]

38. No need to apologize.....You're saying what I'm thinking.

And it's forced on you, along with the usual spouting of platitudes. It's rather sickening.

[ZombieHorde]

39. Until the Sun dies. nt

[LatteLibertine]

40. +1000

IMO we win by rebuilding the towers bigger and better, as well as living our lives to the fullest.

Reliving it and holding annual sobbing ceremonies just give terrorists something to jerk off over.

Again, the "memorial" to the tragedy ought to be rebuilding the towers bigger and better.

[jimlup]

42. Just wait for next year...

The 10th anniversary is going to hard to take.

[Zanzobar]

43. About as as long as you remember dead loved ones on their birthdays

Or holidays, or when your kid does something awesome that you wish grandpa could have seen.

It's a commemoration of a turning point in the countries history. It's worth the discussion and remembrance.

[rainbow4321]

44. I don't think it's discussion and remembrance that anyone has an issue with

It's much like the saying "the flag belongs to ALL of us" when the repuke group tries to make others believe they are the only ones who care about this country.

For the last nine years their side has tried to claim 9/11 for themselves or to use that day as a tool to push their extremist beliefs. We went thru 8 years of hearing chimp giving speeches where every other word was 9/11..gooliani using it as a verb/noun/adjective..and so on.
If everyone would cut the political rhetoric and manipulation OUT of 9/11 each year, it would make the remembrance alot more tolerable.

[HughBeaumont]

48. I say let conservatives own that day. It was a collective failure of THEIR government to prevent it

Before, during and after.

And yes, I'm also not looking forward to next year. It's going to make Reagan's 24-7 dirtnap coverage look like a blip.

[chrisa]

49. I personally don't have a problem with remembrance on 9/11.

But there's 9/11, and then there's 9/11(tm). 9/11(tm) is the term itself, which is passed around as a propaganda tool. 9/11(tm) is a cliché used by people who could care less about the event, but want to use it to advance themselves in some way. 9/11(tm) users will never refer to the day as anything else (such as September the 11th), because they use 9/11(tm) as a political / marketing / etc. catch phrase.

I don't have a problem with people remembering 9/11. I have a problem with people who don't care about 9/11 using it as a faux-appeal to others in an attempt to advance themselves, or get phony support.

[AnArmyVeteran]

50. I agree with you AnnieBW... Bush was Bin Laden's wet dream.

Every anniversary Americans have 9/11 related events it gives the enemy one more victory. Since 9/11, this country has done everything wrong to fight terrorists. And they have done everything Osama Bin Laden could have dreamed about. Because of Bush and his two wars, torture, Gitmo and countless other examples it has led to the increase in the numbers of terrorists. And our freedoms have been stripped and no one is trusted any longer. The idiotic, incompetent and corrupt leaders of our country have handed Al Qaeda win after win and now our country is the most restrictive and invasive one in our history. The terrorists have won. And the businesses set up to spy on us and the war machine have won. Bush was Bin Laden's wet dream.

The tenth anniversary should be the biggest yet, and I'm sure the terrorists are already planning something big for that day to further strip Americans of their freedoms and rights guaranteed under our Constitution and Bill of Rights.

[A wise Man]

51. Until we the ......

PEOPLE OF THESE UNITED STATES....get some back bone and KEEP ASKING FOR AN INVESTIGATION OF THAT HORRIFIC TRAGEDY AND ARREST THOSE THAT PERPETRATED 9/11 INSIDE THE U.S. AND OUTSIDE...PRESIDENT OR NOT. We can't allow ourselves to dumb down the memory of 9/11 and why the BUSH ADMINISTRATION REFUSED TO HAVE AN INDEPENDENT INVESTIGATION. Yes we must continue not to celebrate...BUT DEMAND THE ARREST AND CONVICTION OF ALL WHO KNEW 9/11 WAS GOING TO HAPPEN.

[felix_numinous]

52. Fake news saturates the airwaves with politically correct stories

about 911, to forever replace an actual investigation or a real memorial, or discussing the event internationally. Politically correct stories keep discussions myopic, without the context of any deeper meaning, so people are stuck in the stage of shock and awe.

[CrispyQ]

53. I had to turn the TV off.

Someone on DU said they felt 9-11 is overtaking July 4th as our national holiday/identity. What a commentary, huh? We've gone from the Declaration of Independence to the day that spawned the Patriot Act.


This should be required reading for every American on this day, because this is why they hate us:

A Brief History of U.S. Interventions:
1945 to the Present
by William Blum
http://www.thirdworldtraveler.com/Blum/US_Interventions_WBlumZ.html

K&R

[slackmaster]

59. I couldn't take the Hitler Channel any more after surfing in and seeing a man and his briefcase...

...falling from one of the towers.

[Codeine]

55. Serbs are still wailing about shit that happened in 1389AD.

So I imagine we can drag it out for quite a while.

[Gregorian]

56. It's about resources.

It stops when we stop taking resources. We stop taking resources when we start paying instead of stealing. And that isn't going to happen, for the most part.

The bottom line is something that sounds silly. And is threatening. It stops when we get out of our cars. It stops when we stop building more houses. It stops when we stop breeding more humans.

Nobody wants to hear this stuff. Not even me, since I'm building a house.

[LibDemAlways]

57. 9/11 has never been properly investigated. Bush's sham

commission was a cruel joke. I hope I live long enough to see a real investigation and those in the previous administration who were complicit held accountable.

[Evasporque]

58. As long as Republicans can capatalize on 9/11 they will....

They have from September 12, 2001

[geardaddy]

60. Excellent post.

We are not learning from our mistakes in foreign policy. That classic definition of insanity comes to mind.

[COLGATE4]

62. K&R

[mike_c]

63. K&R-- I'm with you....

:thumbsup:

[negativenihil]

65. YES!

"I'm tired of the 9/11 Grief Porn. Seriously. Yes, we were attacked. It was a terrible thing. But it happened nine years ago. When do we get to the point that we don't have the endless repetition of commemorations, trotting out Rudy (Noun-Verb-9/11) Giuliani, etc. for their stories/viewpoints/etc. When does it stop?"

EXACTLY!

I am really getting sick of hearing "Never Forget!" every year. There is NO way i can ever forget that day, so how about the media actually gives me a CHANCE to try and forget just for a while?

[old mark]

67. As long as someone somewhere can make money off of it...In America, we take

days of remembrance - like Memorial Day, a special day dedicated to remembrance of the dead of all of Americas wars, and use it for an occasion for special summer clothing sales and picnics.

I am sure there will be ten year special TV programming, and 15 years and 20 years...and on the 25th anniversary some 25 year old NBC News geek with great hair will drag an old 9/11 widow out and ask her how it felt...and then cut to commercials.

mark

[Phoonzang]

68. 911 years. nt

[Ron Green]

70. September 11: George W. Bush Legitimization Day.

When people finally start thinking of it this way (and I believe history will bear out such a view), then maybe it won't be such a big steaming pile of flag-waving and "Amazing Grace" on the bagpipes.




BTW, the bagpipes are just fine for "Scotland the Brave" and other selected tunes. There just ought to be a law against "Amazing Grace" played on them.

[Lucian]

71. +1

Bad shit happens, but there's got to be a time where we can move on from the grief, and I think it should've happened about four or five years ago.

[femrap]

72. Just wait

until next year....the One Zero. I dread it. I just don't watch TV.

[AnnieBW]

73. I don't want to denigrate those who died there

or at the Pentagon. Or on Flight 93. Goddess knows that I mourn their losses. I don't deny any commemorations. However, the excessive flogging of 9/11 leaves me cold. The "where were you on 9/11" and all of the maudlin songs. I admitted that I disliked the song "Proud to Be An American" on FB, and was called everything but a traitor. By people who knew that I've worked for the Federal Government for almost 25 years. Yeah, I'm such a fucking "traitor" that I gave up making a big fat salary to work for the "guvmint".

I really think that all of this over-produced grief porn isn't doing any good. It's like ripping a scab off of a wound. Especially for the families. A solemn commemoration, like we have for Pearl Harbor day, Veterans Day, etc. is one thing. But the constant images of the Towers falling, trotting out Ghouliani, etc. is really getting on my nerves.

[OmahaBlueDog]

75. I suspect that next year will be a "peak" of sorts

..being 10 years and all.

I think part of the issue is that the Freedom Tower hasn't been built. The site is, quite literally, an open wound (albeit one that is finally healing). For example, if there were a completed building on the site, I'm not certain this mosque controversy would have been nearly that bad.

However, I don't remember anything like this kind of ongoing grief for the Murrah Building victims.

[northernlights]

76. K&R

I was wondering the same thing myself over the weekend, what with all the maudlin media crapola.

I found myself wondering if 10 years after Pearl Harbor there was still the big media and political hand-wringing and sturm und drang and flags at half-mast and crap. Wondering if this is going to continue for the rest of my life. Thinking I'll be happy to retire to somecorner of the world that doesn't have our media.

Frankly it's an embarrassment. And why don't we commemorate the 100,000 - 1,000,000 people we killed in Iraq. Fuck, we can't even be bothered to count them.

Over 37,000 Americans died in car crashes in 2009. I don't see annual anything commemorating them.
Over 550,000 Americans died of cancer in 2009. I don't see an annual anything commemorating them.
Over 1.5 million American children are homeless. I don't see an annual anything commemorating them.