Well, I turned on the TV last night ad noticed there were more than a few television programs on 9/11. I also noticed Dodgeball was on and watched that instead.
Great movie! Especially the unedited version.
-XT
Remember, remember, the fifth of November, gunpowder treason and plot. For I see no reason why gunpowder treason should ever be forgot.
The british havn’t forgotten, and it’s 400 years since Nov 5, 1605. Odd, I suppose, how silly people keep grudges.
If only it were just media coverage.
I work in the World Financial Center, right across the street from the remains of the WTC. The crater my daily view.
I could do without the parades, the bagpipes, the weepy tourists in with their cameras and their white high-top sneakers, the sanctimony, the flag-waving, and the closure of the west side fucking highway.
I am, however, thankful that my tower did not elect to hang a gargantuan flag over the side the building that faces the WTC. It would have entirely blocked my natural light.
I agree - its being way overblown to by the media. Kudos to anyone who wants to remember and reflect, or organize an event to do so, or who wants to honor the families and the dead…no problems there.
But the wall-to-wall news coverage thats drowing out the tragedy of whats happening in the rest of the world, stupid space-filler comments by the typical pundits, and self-serving gnashing of the teeth only cheapen what happened.
Its gone overboard. I think it was the History channel or some other that ran a special last night on the parallels between 9/11 and the eruption of Mt. Vesuvious. Give me fucking break.
Instead of putting so much energy into the coverage, how about some grass-roots network sponsored events, such as a massive troop drive, or Don’t Drive Your Gas Guzzler unnecessarily day? Something that actually requires people to think and act and sacrifice rather than aborb themselves in self-serving piety.
I’m with Dio on here…the media across the board is forcing this down most people’s throats. Some of us would just like to remember AND move the fuck on.
And those of you who don’t…do whatever you feel that means something to you personally, but don’t support or defend the circus.
I’d celebrate more if this administration hadn’t issued misinformation about air quality at ground zero, which will cost more lives than both towers combined in the long run. Sadly, the 82nd airborne isn’t attacking Christie Todd $hitman for that attack on America…
Just think- our kids will be hearing “Last 9/11 Widow Dies” some 50 years from now. Our grandkids “Last 9/11 Child of Victim Dies” some 90 years from now.
Appropos of nothing but I’ve always thought that Gunpowder Treason would be a kick ass band name.
Yes, exactly this. People seem to forget in all of this “tragic day for America” thing that there are actual people who still live with it every single day. And I’d bet everything in my wallet that the majority of them NEVER want to see that footage again.
Showing the towers falling, over and over, is *not * a respectful commemoration of the people who died. Television channels don’t show the footage to memorialize, they show it so that people will watch. It’s designed to entertain. And that? Is vile.
While I disagree, strongly, with the idea that anniversaries serve no purpose, I will say that I think the phrase above is an excellent summation of how anniversaries usually miss the point and are badly conducted.
There’s a difference between a pointless wallow in tragedy and a calm, objective evaluation of history, and between both of those and simply shutting one’s eyes to the past. For whatever reason, people seem more drawn to the first and third than to the second. That’s interesting anthropologically and psychologically, though naturally irritating in a real-world sense.
Although the real-world irritation can be salved with a liberal application of TiVo. I prescribe it for all my patients.
I don’t get this pitting. Is it wrong to remember the anniversary of important historical events? Is it wrong that human beings tend to place special emphasis on 5th 10th 20th anniversaries? If it’s the bombast, well, that’s American culture for you. I recommend avoiding the NFL at all costs.
Recreational grieving - I think that has hit the nail on the head, for a lot of situations like this. There is value in taking time to commemorate an event such as this one, to remember the lives lost, and possibly also to remember the lives that are still being claimed because of it right now (yeah, that one gets pretty much ignored…)
Now - what I want to know is why there isn’t some full-blown media commemoration of, say, just for September:
The Sabra and Shatila massacres (Sept. 16, 1982)
The September 29–30, 1941 Babi Yar massacre in the Ukraine, where 33,771 jewish Kiev residents were marched over to a pit and machine gunned down
September 9, 1943, The Foiba massacre which claimed the lives of some 5,000-10,000 people
The September 27, 1993 Sukhumi Massacre, where 1200 Georgian people were slaughtered
The Taejon massacre (Korea, September 27, 1950) - 7000 souls
… and so many more. Funny how we forget, so fast, and for all the wrong reasons…
You are absolutely correct in your point that I’m mostly referring to the days and months immediately after 9/11. But I’m talking about things that are directly related to 9/11, so I think that now is the only time we’ll have to reminisce. I doubt that we’ll have any nationwide memorials related to innocent people being victimized on say September 15th , even though it was the direct result of 9/11.
As for 9/11/01, I was in my office when the news mentioned that President Bush was on Air Force 1 flying to an undisclosed location because he was under attack. I thought to myself, someone rammed planes into the WTC and Pentagon. We didn’t have any knowledge about these attacks beforehand and really didn’t know who did it. So how is it that we somehow found out (within minutes after the 2nd attack) that Air Force 1 was under attack? I can’t recall this ever being addressed again.
I apologize if I haven’t addressed every point you made. I probably should’ve waited to post this, since I’m terribly busy at work right now. I’ll get back to the thread later.
Quite frankly, because none of these events happened to us. 9/11 happened within close memory and to people we knew. Human nature and all that.
And it also unfolded Live on TV.
This just in - Generalissimo Francisco Franco is still dead.
I just want to point out that Dio is bitching out the media (quite rightly IMO) and the usual suspects are complaining about it.
Some people are never happy.
xtisme, I believe a Sikh cabdriver in Brooklyn, and some Sikhs in Arizona, were assaulted for wearing turbans. It did happen, which was bad, but considering the level of stress the country was under I think we should be proud that more people didn’t lose control.
xtism, Juggernaut is referring to the murder of Balbir Singh Sodhi in Arizona (Sikh, they wear turbans) and Waqar Hasan and Vasudev Patel in Texas (by the same person). In both cases, I believe the killers admitted the racial motive.
The 31st anniversary of his death will be this November 