# 9/11 5 year anniversary -- so fucking what? **URL:** \ **Category:** The BBQ Pit\ **Created:** [September 11, 2006, 2:03pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283 "2006-09-11T14:03:18Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 6
**Author:** ![Martini\_Enfield](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/martini_enfield/32/11123_2.png) [@Martini\_Enfield](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martini_Enfield)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 7:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/102 "2006-09-12T07:43:11Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] Yeah, guys. But what if September 11 just happened to be _your_ birthday? That’s true for the mother of a friend of mine who still feels guilty when she celebrates. [/QUOTE] My birthday also happens to be World Alzheimer’s Day. You can imagine the sort of shit I have to put up with as a result (usually involving poor taste humour like “I forget to get you a present, har har!” or “I totally forgot it was your birthday, har har!”). But you know what? I’m sick of hearing about 11/9 too. I know I’m going to be labelled a heartless, sociopathic bastard, but guess what? I don’t care. 11/9 had nothing at all to do with me personally. I do not know anyone involved- even tangentially- in the events of that day, and 5 years later the only effect it’s had on my life is that it takes longer to get on a flight anywhere and I can’t take my Swiss Army Knife on the plane anymore. Quite frankly, I wouldn’t be even slightly upset if we _did_ largely forget about the events that day and move on with our lives. Memorial services and the like are obviously appropriate for the people involved, but for the 99.99% of the world who were _not_ involved, the day shouldn’t have any special significance, IMHO- especially outside the US. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 8:52am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/103 "2006-09-12T08:52:11Z")
I agree… [Last years rant.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=275497) ---
**Author:** ![Harborwolf](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/h/c89c15/32.png) [@Harborwolf](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Harborwolf)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 10:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/104 "2006-09-12T10:56:55Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] I agree… [Last years rant.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=275497) [/QUOTE] So next year we can start a rant about why people keep starting rants about why the media keeps exploiting the anniversary of 9/11. ---
**Author:** ![ParentalAdvisory](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/p/53a042/32.png) [@ParentalAdvisory](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ParentalAdvisory)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 11:35am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/105 "2006-09-12T11:35:51Z")
[QUOTE=Harborwolf] So next year we can start a rant about why people keep starting rants about why the media keeps exploiting the anniversary of 9/11. [/QUOTE] Yes, yes we can. ---
**Author:** ![AWB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/bb73d2/32.png) [@AWB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AWB)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 12:46pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/106 "2006-09-12T12:46:28Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] Why is it “news” that five years have passed since 9/11? Why do we have to spend all day rehashing all the same shit that no one has really ever stopped talking about anyway? Why is 5 more significant than 4 or 6? This whole thing seems so contrived to me. It’s just an arbitrary excuse to wallow in sentiment. It reminds me of the teenaged girls who would go see _Titanic_ over and over again and bring a box of Kleenex with them to mop up the tears. It’s recreational grieving. [/QUOTE] Well, 5 is more significant than 4 or 6 simply because we have five digits on our hands. About the whole anniversary thing: Princess Diana died on my first wedding anniversary. For the next couple of years, her death’s anniversary was all in the news just before my wife and I wanted to celebrate. Kinda puts the bummer on an evening or a weekend. But fortunately, her death anniversary stopped being newsworth here in the US. I’ve been told, though, that it lingers on in the UK. And next year will be the 10th anniversary of her death, so I imagine that it’ll become newsworthy again in the US. At least my 10th wedding anniversary passed without being overshadowed. ---
**Author:** ![Walter\_Windchill](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/w/eb8c5e/32.png) [@Walter\_Windchill](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Walter_Windchill)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 1:31pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/107 "2006-09-12T13:31:29Z")
[QUOTE=Rysdad] It’s hard to believe that someone can get bored by the marking of the anniversary of the deaths of 3,000+ people at the hands of some crazed lunatics. [/QUOTE] I seriously read that as “It’s hard to believe that someone can get bored by the **marketing** of the anniversary,” the first time I read it… I had to do a double take. Of course “marketing,” would be more descriptive of what Dio is complaining about… not marking or remembrence, but the overwrought media fanfare. It is not hard to imagine the research teams planning out the ratings-boon of these memorials. It is probably a bitter disappointment to them that the events didn’t transpire during ratings week. It’s not that hard to get where he’s coming from. Someone who bitches about Valentines Day would rarely be taken to task for hating “romance,” or “love,” but merely the cheapening of those values by creating a mandatory shopping spree. You can disagree, saying you simply love bunkering down for the day to enjoy 12 hours of CNN theme music, video replays, and inevitable punditry on “what it all means,” but if someone is repulsed by that infotainment and thinks it’s bullshit, I’d hope you’d attempt to understand, rather than presume he’s actually despising the actual vitims of 9/11 rather than the exploitation by the mainstream media. ---
**Author:** ![Cervaise](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/cervaise/32/16693_2.png) [@Cervaise](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Cervaise)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 3:30pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/108 "2006-09-12T15:30:47Z")
In a hundred years, when there is a September 11th Linen Sale and Ice Cream Social at the local cybermall, we will know that all is finally well. ---
**Author:** ![elucidator](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/8edcca/32.png) [@elucidator](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elucidator)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 4:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/109 "2006-09-12T16:42:56Z")
Ridiculous! Commercialize 9/11? Worse than _politicizing_ would be! Never happen. It can’t happen here. ---
**Author:** ![DianaG](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/7ab992/32.png) [@DianaG](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DianaG)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 4:44pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/110 "2006-09-12T16:44:56Z")
Seriously. Exactly what kind of monsters would do [that](http://www.nycwebstore.com/SearchResult_9-11.aspx?CategoryID=26)? ---
**Author:** ![monstro](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/ba9def/32.png) [@monstro](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/monstro)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 4:54pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/111 "2006-09-12T16:54:59Z")
[QUOTE=Zoe] Yeah, guys. But what if September 11 just happened to be _your_ birthday? That’s true for the mother of a friend of mine who still feels guilty when she celebrates. So, originally because of her, I observe “Celebrate Life Day” each year on September 11. That is _also_ a way of acknowledging the losses. Make it a point to value what survives. And that brings me to my greatest concern. All of the wreaths and tears and genuine sentiments mean nothing if we don’t help those rescue workers who have begun to suffer from terrible respiratory illnesses. Last night I heard the statistic that 2/3 of the rescue workers are showing signs of respiratory problems associated with breathing in the dust of a toxic combination of concrete, lead, asbestos and glass. Some have had trouble getting Workmen’s Compensation because of the amount of time that elapsed before the symptoms showed up – even though the coughing began immediately. The Feds are going to provide some money, but only enough to last for about three years. This problem isn’t going to go away. At the Pentagon, the rescue workers were _required_ to wear masks that filtered the air. Only about half of the workers in New York had them. Are these women and men any less important than the ones who died five years ago? Can’t we find _our_ courage to do for them as they did for others? That makes a lot more sense than picking at the scab on the wound every year. Let helping them be our yardstick. [/QUOTE] _doing the holy ghost dance_ THANK YOU! It seems to me that it is incredibly easy for us to celebrate and memoralize the dead but give nary a cary to those who are still living. We pushed out hundreds of millions of dollars so that suburbanite housewives could keep their McMansions, but where are the fundraisers for all those First Responders who are suffering from very serious illnesses and can’t work? What about them and their families? Where are the ribbons we can wear in support of them? I cosign with the OP 100%. I’m tired of the pseudo-mourning and the faux-praises, the overwrought spectacle and the self-pitying pageantry. 9/11 was a horrible, terrible thing and I’m still angry about it. But 9/11 happens all over the world everyday. There’s a 9/11 happening in Iraq and one in Sudan. All of it is equally painful and unjust and deserving of attention. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 6:33pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/112 "2006-09-12T18:33:47Z")
[QUOTE=ParentalAdvisory] I agree… [Last years rant.](http://boards.straightdope.com/sdmb/showthread.php?t=275497) [/QUOTE] Two years ago, actually. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 7:02pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/113 "2006-09-12T19:02:23Z")
Look towards New York, **Dio**. Do you see that group of men, women, and kids? Of widely diverse ethnic and social backgrounds, they’re united in giving you the finger. Who are they? They’re the parents, spouses, lovers, partners, kids, brothers, sisters, and friends of the 343 FDNY members who perished on 11 SEP 01. Any one of the 343 had more dedication to their fellow man and woman than you’ll ever possess. The fire service buries somewhere around a hundred brothers and sisters every year, yet outside the group, very few give a shit. It’s obvious that you don’t. For those of us who stand ready to protect your sorry ass, it’s a day of remembrance for our fallen brethren. Don’t like that? Sorry. Turn off the TV and read a book. Asshole. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 7:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/114 "2006-09-12T19:23:47Z")
[QUOTE=danceswithcats] Look towards New York, **Dio**. Do you see that group of men, women, and kids? Of widely diverse ethnic and social backgrounds, they’re united in giving you the finger. Who are they? They’re the parents, spouses, lovers, partners, kids, brothers, sisters, and friends of the 343 FDNY members who perished on 11 SEP 01. Any one of the 343 had more dedication to their fellow man and woman than you’ll ever possess. The fire service buries somewhere around a hundred brothers and sisters every year, yet outside the group, very few give a shit. It’s obvious that you don’t. For those of us who stand ready to protect your sorry ass, it’s a day of remembrance for our fallen brethren. Don’t like that? Sorry. Turn off the TV and read a book. Asshole. [/QUOTE] I have a great deal of respect for the first response people who died that day. That’s why I find it offensive for politicians and the media to keep fucking their corpses. Don’t let me keep you from your tragedy porn, though. Knock yourself out. ---
**Author:** ![RTFirefly](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/c77e96/32.png) [@RTFirefly](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RTFirefly)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 8:25pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/115 "2006-09-12T20:25:35Z")
[QUOTE=danceswithcats] Look towards New York, **Dio**. Do you see that group of men, women, and kids? Of widely diverse ethnic and social backgrounds, they’re united in giving you the finger. Who are they? They’re the parents, spouses, lovers, partners, kids, brothers, sisters, and friends of the 343 FDNY members who perished on 11 SEP 01. Any one of the 343 had more dedication to their fellow man and woman than you’ll ever possess. [/QUOTE] Maybe they should give the finger to [Rudy Giuliani](http://www.prospect.org/web/page.ww?section=root&name=ViewWeb&articleId=11973) instead: > [@](#): > > U.S. Attorney Mary Jo White, who ran Giuliani’s former Southern District office throughout his mayoralty, says neither she nor any of the trial assistants were ever asked to brief Giuliani or his staff. In the summer of 1994, she invited Giuliani to address the whole office. He sat at his old desk and gabbed before delivering a speech and taking questions. > > “I don’t recall the subject of terrorism coming up,” White said. Her chief assistant, Matt Fishbein, remembered that a dozen members of White’s and Giuliani’s top staff talked for a while before the speech, and no one mentioned the bombing or terrorism… > > “We didn’t have any substantial discussions about terrorism until after 9-11,” White said. She was also sure that no one from her terrorism unit was ever asked by the police or City Hall to “sit down and focus” on what it knew. White assumed that all Giuliani wanted was periodic intelligence about specific threats or events, not a broader terrorist picture, and she believed he got that from the FBI. “He could have picked up the phone” if he needed a fuller context said Fishbein. Counterterrorism chief David Kelley said his highest-level interaction was with a deputy police chief, and that he relied on the detectives in the Joint Terrorism Task Force, which he oversaw, as the “conduit available to city government.” > > He acknowledged that the city never increased the number of Task Force detectives before 9-11. He didn’t know “how the information went up the ranks” and simply “assumed” Giuliani was briefed… > > Command-and-control failings were not the only city response errors with possible catastrophic effect that day. There was also the destruction of the ballyhooed Emergency Operations Center (EOC) – the infamous “bunker” – which Giuliani had proudly positioned 23 flights up at 7 World Trade Center. > > The 9-11 Commission’s senior counsel, John Farmer, cited a number of ways that an operating command center might have saved lives. If the center had been located elsewhere and thus able to remain operational that day, he says, “I really think it would have made a difference. Maybe the failure to communicate among the agencies doesn’t happen that day because that thing is functioning. That’s the point of it. I’ve never been convinced that they could have done that much better with civilians, but I think the number of responder deaths could have been greatly reduced.” > > Examining the real-life costs of the lost command center is a decidedly personal assignment of blame, since the location of the center was unquestionably a decision made by the hands-on mayor. Even the Giuliani champions at Time called it “a mistake” to locate the command center at 7 WTC, part of a complex viewed long before 9-11 as one of the top terrorist targets in the world. Richard Sheirer, who became Giuliani’s emergency management director, ridiculed the choice before and after 9-11. At a top-level meeting of the Giuliani administration, Police Commissioner Howard Safir fought the mayor’s attempt to put the EOC there, branding the location “ground zero” years before 9-11 because of the 1993 attack. > > Giuliani, however, overruled this advice. Rejecting an already secure, technologically advanced city facility across the Brooklyn Bridge, he insisted on a command center within walking distance of City Hall. With then OEM head Jerry Hauer unwilling to put a facility underground in the City Hall area because of flooding concerns, Giuliani wound up settling in 1997 on the only bunker ever built in the clouds, at the only site in the entire city that had been shaken to its foundation four years earlier by terrorists who had vowed to return. ---
**Author:** ![danceswithcats](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/9e8a1a/32.png) [@danceswithcats](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/danceswithcats)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 10:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/116 "2006-09-12T22:19:20Z")
Throw me a bone, **RT**. How is any part of your cite germane to the OP or my response thereto? **Dio** is pissing on 9/11 remembrance, in general. I’ve offered the fire service angle, yet he continues to spew his vitriol, typical of someone on whom bums would piss. If you want to whack Rudy, start another thread. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 10:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/117 "2006-09-12T22:23:32Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] We don’t. I don’t give a shit about any of that stuff. I think anniversaries are stupid unless they have some kind of personal significance like a birthday or wedding anniversary and in those cases, I don’t expect anyone else to give shit but me. Anniversaries are not newsworthy because nothing _new_ has happened. [/QUOTE] Why won’t you cry more about it, seriously? How about you cry about other meaningless traditions, too, like the 7th inning stretch, or “the wave” at football games, or carving pumpkins for halloween and etc. ---
**Author:** ![Martin\_Hyde](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/m/47e85d/32.png) [@Martin\_Hyde](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Martin_Hyde)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 10:27pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/118 "2006-09-12T22:27:07Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] It’s almost as bad as the law forbiidding people to bitch about what’s on. [/QUOTE] Which in itself is almost as bad as the law forbidding people to mock whiney little bitches like yourself. ---
**Author:** ![Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/e99b99/32.png) [@Diogenes\_the\_Cynic](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Diogenes_the_Cynic)\ **Post date:** [September 12, 2006, 10:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/119 "2006-09-12T22:37:20Z")
[QUOTE=Martin Hyde] Why won’t you cry more about it, seriously? How about you cry about other meaningless traditions, too, like the 7th inning stretch, or “the wave” at football games, or carving pumpkins for halloween and etc. [/QUOTE] If they went on for a solid week on every channel, I probably would. Also, none of those traditions are so blatantly predicated on exploiting a tragedy to make money. ---
**Author:** ![Kozmik](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/8dc957/32.png) [@Kozmik](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kozmik)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 4:50am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/120 "2006-09-13T04:50:49Z")
[QUOTE=Diogenes the Cynic] It’s just an arbitrary excuse to wallow in sentiment. [/QUOTE] Yes, but it is also an excuse for the politicians (Rudy Guliani, Andy Card, Ari Fleischer, ect) to talk about that day. I would go though the entire day of sobbing drivel if only to have the chance to catch them slip up and tell inconsistencies about what they said or did on 9/11. I did, and I caught many gems from Card, Fleischer, Bush, et al. So I look forward to every 9/11 anniversary if only then the truth will come out. ---
**Author:** ![CanvasShoes](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/c/74df32/32.png) [@CanvasShoes](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/CanvasShoes)\ **Post date:** [September 13, 2006, 5:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283/121 "2006-09-13T05:06:32Z")
Well, at least you practice truth in advertising. Cynic for sure. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283.md?page=5) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/9-11-5-year-anniversary-so-fucking-what/372283.md?page=7)