I confess, I so dislike these moments of national mourning.

[cali]

they're so artificial. It's theater that lacks anything real. It just makes me queasy and uncomfortable.

[GreenPartyVoter]

1. I know what you mean. I feel that way sometimes, too.

[dave29]

2. Understood, but many if not most people

need an event like this to help move on.

[marmar]

3. I read an interesting piece on that subject:

.....(snip).....

There’s a moment, in the beginning, when the enormity of the violence feels genuine. We’re compelled to wonder: How did we get here? How did we consent to live in a culture where an unstable 22-year-old can acquire a sophisticated weapon with such ease? Where his disturbed passions are not only tolerated, but reinforced, enlarged, given shape?

He didn’t just wake up one day and decide to murder a politician. He made a plan.

*

But remember: it’s just a moment. It dissolves.

Then we’re in America again and it’s all moving too quickly – our eyes, our screens, the facts. Someone says lone gunman. Someone says crosshairs. A surgeon in a strange hat announces that the bullet fired into Giffords’ head passed “through and through” and, after a moment, we understand what he means.

It’s like watching Kabuki theater, a saga of contrived sorrow and recrimination, the voices of a thousand news people sounding grave because it’s their job. After a while, we realize that we’re not just watching the Kabuki. We are the Kabuki. .......(more)

The complete piece is at: http://therumpus.net/2011/01/surely-some-revelation-is-at-hand/

[Poll_Blind]

14. That is an excellent and thoughtfully-written piece. Thank you for linking to that.

:thumbsup:

PB

[jannyk]

4. I so agree, they make me very uncomfortable. eom

[jannyk]

18. And now that I'm watching, this one does so more than most. nt

[babylonsister]

5. I imagine these moments might be comforting to those

individuals and communities affected. I luckily have no first-hand knowledge of that.

[RainDog]

6. if it's part of your immediate community it's real

after a white supremacist executed a student in my town, people wanted and needed a way to mourn those actions. Reno spoke at the event - but that wasn't the part that mattered so much - it mattered for the student's parents and officials, I'm sure.

but for the people who live here - people who knew others who had been targeted - there was a silent candlelight walk to the place where the student was shot. That moment was one that had great meaning for many here. The community was rejecting the action.

When you're removed from the immediate place or have no connection to the people involved - it's something else entirely. In that case, if it makes you uncomfortable, maybe you shouldn't watch it.

[stray cat]

8. You are right and if you see others as part of your larger community as well

[Imajika]

10. Really good point...

n/t

[HockeyMom]

12. 9/11

We did this in the school where I worked on LI on the anniversary. Since we actually knew people who died and lost loved ones, including teachers spouses and parents of the children, it was more thinking about the people we knew, how much they lost on that day, and how their lives were changed forever.

I have moved away since then, yet I still on that anniversary think about these people and wonder how they are doing today.

[Dappleganger]

17. All great points.

We need to remember it isn't about US unless we live in that community--they need this.

[Name removed]

7. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Raine]

9. I have mixed feelings about them. I'm sure it gives

some "closure" (hate that term) to some because of the release of emotions. Myself though I feel kind of like a voyuer (sp?).

[sad sally]

26. That's a good way to describe it - voyeurism

I watched tonight, and was glad to hear what the President had to say; but, as the camera panned over to the families it just didn't feel right to me. Kept noticing the husband of the neighbor who took little Christina to the mall on Saturday - who was interviewed this week and said his wife (who is in the hospital) is devastated. He looked so uncomfortable and I felt embarrassed that I kept watching his reaction - a voyeur.

[Gregorian]

11. Pick and choose mourning. We don't mourn the war deaths, per se.

I find it highly hypocritical that we can just let a million people die for some unknown reason of an invasion. And then concentrate 100% on a figure like Michael Jackson, or Elvis Presley.

[RoseMead]

13. Vigils and other ways of mourning and showing respect don't bother me.

However, I will never forget how creepy it seemed to watch Congress singing together after 9-11. I imagine that was meant to be a way of showing unity, but it was just....weird.

[Toucano]

15. For me, it's the way the tv media covers it like the Macy's Thanksgiving Day Parade.

Everything doesn't require commentary.

[onenote]

30. says someone offering their own commentary

Its not at all like the Macy's Parade, unless of course you were watching some coverage in which there was a running commentary on each person who came to the podium, plus commercial interruptions. What I saw was an uninterrupted coverage of an event in which local, state, and national leaders addressed a community that is trying to come to grips with a horrific event that took place in their midst. The President addressed not only the events of the weekend, but how the nation has reacted to them and his hopes for how the nation reacts in the future. And then commentator, after the event concluded, offered their views on it. Just like a whole lot of people did here.

[Toucano]

33. Yes, I am the national television media.

And I'm pleased to finally make your acquaintance.

[ChimpersMcSmirkers]

16. Meh. It's kitchy for sure, but I do think it helps. This shit freaks people out.

People in Tucson and elsewhere are disturbed. Getting some attention helps people to deal with it. They aren't alone, ya know?

[etherealtruth]

19. I think it has more to do with how one views grief and mourning

"Grief" is a very personal experience for me I prefer to mourn with those I love or alone .... but, I understand that there are many that feel support from ceremonies and "mourning en masse." I figure that those that are comforted will be there (or watching) and those of us that aren't can continue working on reports in an overly heated hotel room :-(

[spanone]

20. it is what it is. people showed up and this is what it is.

artificial would have been to try and make it something else.

we are, after all, humans...highly imperfect

[kath]

21. The public mourning after the OKC bombing (local, not national) got to be way over-the-top.

"news"readers reading poems on the air for weeks and weeks afterwards, other queasy-making stuff. It was very weird.
It also made me queasy how folks in this backwater seemed to really relish all the national attention (and they seemed to *hate* it that the NYC bombing had bigger numbers, and was now "the largest terrorist attack on American soil". Sick.)

[cynatnite]

24. Well, to be fair I do understand why they feel that way...

Millions of dollars were donated to the 9/11 victims and their families. Some of the victims of the OKC bombing were financially ruined and never got the support that 9/11 victims got.

I don't think that it was a matter of size or anything. I think some people felt they got short-changed since they were victims of a terrorist attack as well.

I'm from Oklahoma. I've got family in OKC and my cousin had just left downtown when the explosion happened. He was knocked off his feet. What we got was a lot of resentment from people who didn't like Clinton coming there and felt that the media was sucking the blood out of them for money. There was a segment of the population who felt that way.

[kath]

27. You make a good point about the donations and all.

Several issues:
A fair number of the families from the Sept 11 bombing were *quite* comfortable financially - victims who worked for high-powered investment firm, etc. and made high 6 or 7-figure salary, left behind a hefty insurance policy and investments. Do people like that really need donations from commoners? (the lower-wage workers are a much different story, of course. Some people got a *lot* of money out of the deal.

(I said this after the OKC bombing)- DOZENS of people are murdered every month in this country (remember the Time Mag. cover back in the '90s titled "Death by Gun"? (or something like that)- that issue showed photos of every American murdered by gun in the US in a given week or month). Many (if not most) of them are poor or middle class. Each of their deaths is tragic and leaves a devastated family behind. Because a group of people are killed en masse, why does that make their deaths more "important"? How are they deserving of donations, compensation, etc, when the other thousands of murder victims get NOTHING. And all the attention - my sister-in-law was murdered,leaving 2 young children and a devastated family behind, and that story got 2 or 3 lines buried in the middle of the newspaper. Many murder victims don't even get that much coverage. The trial didn't get any coverage either.

Are the murders (or deaths in general) of people who die one-at-a-time less tragic than those of people who die en masse??? Are their families less entitled to money, assistance, or sympathy?

I know I'll be flamed for this, but so be it.

[InvisibleTouch]

22. I guess I have a hard time understanding "mourning" for someone you didn't know.

For friends, family, neighbors, co-workers, etc., of the victims, of course they're in mourning. I even understand it for a famous person whom people didn't know personally, but felt they had an emotional connection to. But for someone whom they didn't know existed a few days ago? I understand shock, certainly. Sadness, anger. The desire to honor and pay respects. The attempt to make sense of the senseless. Sympathy for those who have truly lost someone special in their lives. I feel all of that when I see the smiling photos of the people who were killed. But mourning? Grief? I'm not sure those are the applicable terms. Maybe these events function as a catharsis for other grief that can't be easily expressed in our modern lives.

[cynatnite]

23. I think what makes this different is the attempted assassination of a congresswoman...

I think this resonated with a lot of people. Add to that the death of a little girl and a federal judge and it can affect an entire nation the way this has.

People are moved emotionally and I think that's a lot of what we see here.

[Fleshdancer]

25. I lived in MN when we lost Wellstone

I'm sure his memorial seemed artificial to other people, but the anger and extreme sadness was so very real for the people who were there and the memorial service helped with closure. I assume this is the case for the people of AZ.

[REP]

28. Vulgarity and worshipping the maudlin are two of America's greatest values

As Mencken said, "No one ever lost money underestimating the taste of the American public."

[kath]

32. Don't you just love the "RIP" stickers, w/ name and birth/death dates, on the backs of SUVs?

EWWWWW.

[Pathwalker]

29. Does this look artificial to you?

Link:http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=439x189921

Their pain and emotions look damned real to me.

[KansasVoter]

31. Thanks, I feel the same way!