An article I read today. . .(9/11 stuff)

The BBQ Pit
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That article I read was one of mine, but I thought I’d post it here to see what kind of reaction it’d get. Here goes,

I was reading some posts on the Straight Dope Message Boards when I found some dipsticks ranting about Afghanistan should be a parking lot, warning bin Laden of all the painful tortures we’re going to put him through, etc. This raised several different emotions out of me, one of the first things being one of the most disturbing. It hasn’t even been a year since that fateful day. How much do we really care any more? Has it already become just another day on the calendar that we honor because we are supposed to, but none of us really care for the feeling of it, like Vetern’s Day?

When September 11, 2001 came around, we were an unsuspecting, ignorant, self-assured people, as far as terrorism goes. We really didn’t show off a lot of outward pride in our nation. We took everything for granted and thought that our oceans would protect us from attacks like those in Israel. And then the buildings fell. Lives, thousands of them, lost in the blink of an eye. And a nation, suddenly gripped in fear, glued to it’s television news programs. We just didn’t know how to respond to a Palestinian suicide-bombing style attack (on a grand scale, mind you). When we finally moved our eyes away from Dan Rather and Peter Jennings, we exploded in a patriotic fervor, which I wouldn’t have had a problem with. But this was taken as the only American thing to do. If you were not caught up in the same blind devotion to the every word spewing forth from Uncle Sam’s mouth, then you were viewed as an ally to terrorists. If you did not fantisize about Afghanistan as a parking lot, then you were obviously one of them. Well, I disagreed with that then, and it bothers me even more now.

In any case, here we are, almost 365 days later. What have we learned? We learned to turn back to our old way of life. Unpatriotic as it may be, it was good. In our old way of life, we did not have the fear that caused us to forfiet our basic rights of free speech and privacy. Our worst fear? Baseball might strike! (Luckily, this was averted. I applaud you, MLB.) This was so until somebody brought up the whole “no baseball on 9/11” thing. And then the senseless flames of patriotism were fanned again. Well, I’m sick of it.

People, if you feel I’m talking to you, listen. Love your country or don’t. Don’t just love it for two days out of the year. Also, don’t look down on your fellow Americans because they don’t show off their pride as much as you do. That is a cardinal sin against the country that you claim to love. Also, do NOT bring God into this. He can decide who needs his blessing without your help. And you know what else? One of the beautiful things about this country is that you can believe in God, Buddha, Vishnu, Allah, or even no god at all if you want to. The rest of us are tolerant people, we would appreciate it if you were too.

I swear, if this keeps up, I’m moving to Canada.

–JimSox5

Oh, PS, I don’t remember what thread it was I read now. Sorry.

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“We really didn’t show off a lot of outward pride in our nation.”

Huh? :slight_smile:

“We took everything for granted and thought that our oceans would protect us from attacks like those in Israel.”

Your oceans?

Where is this published? Don’t you think you give a bit of a onesided view of what the SDMB is all about?

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It’s inevitable that over the next week many of the threads started on September 11 last year and in the following days will be bumped - I hope you’ll take the time to read them JimSox5, because while there were certainly posts and threads like those you discuss, there were very many more threads in which people explored the nature of patriotism and how appropriate it was; in which people asked questions about the nature of Islam; in which people discussed the wisdom or otherwise of bombing Afghanistan.

Most of all, though, what those threads reflect is the sheer shock and uncertainty people felt at the time, when it was totally unclear whether further attacks were imminent. They also reflect an amazing amount of very genuine concern for posters many of us have never met, full of offers to make phone calls for those having problems getting in touch with relatives, to keep emailing people, to keep the information flowing for those who were unable to access news services.

New York hats are on sale here this week; our networks are going to live coverage of the services in NYC and have scheduled “retrospective” programming for September 11 (I wish somebody would tell them that it was September 12 here when the events occured). While I have no personal interest in ever again seeing the footage of the plane hitting or the towers falling, it’s pretty clear that there’s enough interest in “one year to the day” for the networks and newspapers to abandon normal programming for the day.

Even the current September 11 threads reflect the diversity of this community, will many people planning to avoid the hyperbole as much as possible while others intend to participate as fully as possible in what they believe to be an essential part of moving forward from the events of a year ago.

If you look for threads expressing an “excess” of patriotism or a “bomb the fuck out of everyone” attitude, you’ll certainly find them, but you’ll also find a great many other threads expressing a variety of viewpoints about the events of September 11 last year.

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And that’s why they settled the strike? I hadn’t heard that.

Um, if what keeps up? We can’t give your rant a score if we can’t tell what you’re ranting about. Or against.

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Ducky, that Canada thing was just a joke to lighten the mood. Don’t take it seriously.

Who’d want to live in Canada anyway? :smiley: j/k. . .I loved Canada when I was up there.