I don’t think the gentleman was referring to a few dozen ill-bred idiots selling t-shirts. He was making a generalisation. I mean, really, you can find more german nazis, more arab terrorists, more irish suicide bombers, more czech communists, more sdmb regulars to the right of december than you will find 9/11 street vendor assholes in ny. This is not a debate about a dozen or so loonies.
The gentleman was not referring to lone nutcases, I think… he was making a statement about the general mood of Americans.
I do apologise if he was, in fact, referring to a lone nutcase or two.
Well I’m glad to see that your regret at resorting to petty insults and name-calling lasted all of 10 seconds. Congratulations.
I agree with the OP on the issue of 9/11 mourning. I don’t want to ignore it, I don’t want to forget it. I simply want to move on. I understand that some people are, for whatever reason, not ready to do so yet. That’s perfectly understandable and I hope they get some kind of relief from their grief in the future.
When I was young and my father was away for a few days, I remember waking up at midnight and walking downstairs to see my mother crying, an empty wine glass in front of her, watching 'Tora Tora Tora' on the late movie. Evidently there had been a boyfriend that she was quite serious about who had gone down with the USS Arizona. Almost 4 decades had passed and she still felt anger, rage and hatred. I don't expect that I'll be much different in 40 years.
Yes, friends died that day. Faces who I didn't know but whom I saw on the train daily disappeared. And the morning crowd of 'lemmings in suits' crushing through Hoboken's yellow tiled walls to the PATH, a group that I had been up until that point a daily member of, seemed much smaller. I know I'll never forgive the STUPID FUCKERS <this is the Pit, I'm allowed> that did this, no matter the reason. But that's my own private hatred. I don't think I can ever completely let it go. I know I can't let go most of it until we catch Osama Bin Laden. And we're not even looking anymore.
About The Politics:
In WW2, one party never claimed to be the party of ‘Liberty’ or that it alone had a monopoly on the flag. No party would have Dared to. Have the American people lost so much intelligence since then as to have allowed themselves to be manipulated so blindly? Or were words like ‘Quizling’ and ‘Nazi’ and ‘Propaganda’ and ‘Fatherland Defense’ just fresher in our minds?
“Naturally, the common people don’t want war, but after all, it is the leaders of a country who determine the policy, and it is always a simple matter to drag people along whether it is a democracy, or a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. it is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacefists for lack of patriotism and exposing the country to danger. It works the same in every country.”
-Herrmann Goering, Hitler’s Reich-Marshall
at the Nuremberg Trials after WWII
I am in New York. It has affected me deeply emotionally and the economy has not recovered, which means I haven’t had a permanent job the whole time since I was laid off because of the downturn in business cause by 9/11. Life is still divided into “before” and “after”.
Coincidentally, there’s an column about it in NY Times today.
Look, if you’re indifferent, just shut up and ignore the commemorations, but please don’t impugn those of us who want to remember. Our tears are and were real and have nothing to do with who we voted for.
Last year on the 1st anniversary, they played a radio spot here in Reno by…one of the members of Incubus, I think. Anyway, it went something like (completely and totally paraphrasing) “Turn off your television, turn off your radios, be with your family and friends and loved ones and tell them how much you love them.”
Since this is the Pit, I’ll kindly ask you to bite me.
Just because some of us have enough respect for the victims of 9/11 and don’t want to see their deaths turned into political trimmings for anybody (least of all the candidate whose campaign staff already has plans to do just that) is no justification for you to get pissy about it.
Fuck you. Get off of your imaginary high horse. You came in here to piss on the thread with a partisan cheapshot, and now you’re hiding behind “respect for the victims.”
Well, in your opinion, is there any way for Bush to commemorate the 9/11 anniversary that you would consider apolitical and respectful? No matter how much you despise the man, he is the president of this nation, and he is expected to observe the occasion in his official capacity.
All you need is a blond wig and falsies to be the Ann Coulter of the left, for you are a perfect match for her brand of incendiary venom and partisan backbiting. I have no use for Dubya whatsoever, but no matter how much I disagree with him and his policies, I can rise above my partisan feelings to stand alongside him as an American marking an event which shook all of us, left and right alike.
Anybody noticing an email spam spike in “9/11/terrorist/al-quaeda/etc memorabilia” etc? I haven’t gotten it yet, but I tend to use spamcatcher email addresses to sign up for stuff anyway. And I never check that address, so…
At least the “Iraqi dogs of war deck of cards” (or however that went) emails have stopped…
By timing the start of his re-election campaign to coincide with the third anniversary of 9/11? If the cite above is correct, then I hope we can agree that this is a completely inappropriate way to “observe the occasion.”
To me, this is exactly the sort of shit this thread is about: abuse of the tragic events of 9/11 to further one’s political career. If it’s true, Bush and his political advisors deserve every bit of bile that can be heaped on them for this. Any poltician, left or right, should be thoroughly raked over the coals for this sort of thing. Frankly, it disgusts me to think about it.
Mind you, I’m not giving full credence to that report just yet… I’ve not heard that claim substantiated, and it may be just a rumor. I wouldn’t put it out of the realm of possibility, but I at least have hopes that even the worst politicians would have the smarts not to stoop that low.