WOW! We’re allowed to wear red, white, and blue to work if we wish on Patriot’s Day, 9/11.
Um, ok.
I work on board a Naval Air Station at a facility that overhauls Navy aircraft, engines, components, and electronics. Our dress code is pretty lax – I wear jeans and t-shirts, and the people whose work is in non-air conditioned areas are allowed to wear shorts when it’s hot. There are requirements to wear steel-toed shoes on the hanger deck, and certain protective garments are required in certain of the industrial areas, but mostly, as long as the naughty bits are covered, we’re free to wear what we want.
But our Commanding Officer put out a memo saying we may wear red, white, and blue on the 11th. It’s not mandatory. It’s not a suggestion. It’s not being encouraged. It’s just OK if we want to. Someone took the time to write a memo to say that. The CO is offering fashion advice. :rolleyes: And after work we can go have hamburgers and sausages at one of the picnic areas on base.
I admit it, I’m already sick of hearing about all the stuff leading up to all the remembrances. Tragedies have happened before. Tragedies will continue to happen. People will lose loved ones. People will say that we must never forget. And life will go on. I don’t say this to minimize the grieving or downplay the horrible nature of what happened. But it’s become a huge glurge-fest on so many levels, and this is just one more sappy piece of that fest.
I don’t know what my point is. Maybe I’m using this cynicism to avoid dealing with my fears. Maybe I’m just an old grouch. Maybe I’m sick of getting stupid e-mails at home, and now I’m getting them at work. I don’t know. But I think I’ll dress in green – just because.
It’s sounds like the same thing that annoys me is annoying you. It’s not the suggestions on how to remember 11 September. It’s not that the suggestions are wrong, or misguided, or anything but genuinely well-intentioned ideas. It’s the implication that were it not for these suggestions we wouldn’t remember, or that we need special remembrance accessories to prove just how damn much we remember.
It’s sounds like the same thing that annoys me is annoying you. It’s not the suggestions on how to remember 11 September. It’s not that the suggestions are wrong, or misguided, or anything but genuinely well-intentioned ideas. It’s the implication that were it not for these suggestions we wouldn’t remember, or that we need special remembrance accessories to prove just how damn much we remember.
I think you hit the nail right on the head FairyChatMom…GLURGE FEST.
It’s a fucking Glurgefest.
I just get this sinking feeling that it’s going to turn into a maudlin battle of who can out-memorialize who, rather than taking maybe fifteen minutes out of your day to pray or meditate or think about and reflect on how our lives were changed so drastically.
my boss is closing the office for four hours in the morning so we can do what we wish in terms of memorial. Then, at noon, it’s right back to business, with scheduled meetings and regular dress code. I think that’s classy, and I plan on avoiding a lot of media that day.
Patriot’s Day is recognized as a holiday in Maine and Massachusetts on April 19th. Oddly, I received one of those little wallet-size plastic calendars for 2003 with “Important Holidays” on the back that listened September 11 as “Patriot Day.”
I hear ya FairyChatMom sometimes I just think to myself “Can I go a single hour without a mention of 9/11?” I feel like I’ve been innundated with this event every single day for the last year. Yes, it was a terrible, life changing, world changing event, but do I have to hear about it every day? Does every event have to have a 9/11 component? I’m just tired and worn out about it.
Anyway, I don’t consider this glurge at all. If they were trying to cram sentimentality down our throats, they would have made the attire mandatory. FCM’s memo did say the employees could wear the colors if they wished.
Now, if a company issues a memo that says, “We’ll all be meeting in the cafeteria to remember 9/11. Everyone must wear something red, white, and blue. There will be speeches, and we will have a television to watch the coverage on CNN. Attendance is mandatory,” then I’d say that’s overbearing.
A competition?!? Criminy, even we’re not going to be that tacky - at least not this year - but if the Rec Committee ever gets wind of it…
I don’t think the suggestion of the CO was glurge - I was referring to EVERYTHING ELSE - TV specials, newspaper columns about “Where were you when…”, merchandisers slapping flags on junk as a sales gimmick, sappy “tributes” in the form of badly-written songs. It grates on me so.
I believe the Boston Marathon run on Patriot’s Day.
Charles Krauthammer has column complaining about the use of the word “tragedy” for September 11. It was an attack by an organized group of people who will continue to murder Americans until they are defeated.
There’s a reason to remember September 11 more than a natural disaster that killed the same number of people. The rememberance helps remind us that there’s still work to do – that is a war on terrorism to fight.
Well, it was a tragedy. Anything that kills nearly 3,000 people is a tragedy.
FCM, Howard Kurtz has discussed that issue a few times in his column in the Washington Post (he examines media coverage), and he agrees with you - as do I - that there are a lot of people out there who basically are trying to commercialize 9/11, whether it’s one of a seemingly endless number of documtaries or 24-hour coverage of the day’s events.
I think it was Jim Lehrer on the Daily Show who said he was asked about what the media should do on 9-11. He said they should do absolutely nothing, because it should be a time of personal remembrance and observance, and the American people don’t need the media to do their grieving for them. It was probably the most intelligent statement I’ve heard from anyone in the media in a long time.
Ick. Your husband’s office could lessons in class and respectful decorum from your office. Despite my trepidation I must ask – does the winner receive a prize and if so, what is it? Ick, again.
I’ve been “up to here” with the hollow flag-waving ever since those towers came down. What people don’t seem to realize is that a flag doesn’t make you a good American. Try doing your jury duty. Try voting. Try cutting your elderly neighbor’s grass. Teach someone to read. Stick a rainbow flag in your window. Give to the homeless. This bandwagon patriotism is so obnoxious I could puke. I saw a guy with a flag the size of my kitchen flying off his car. His patriotism was going to land some innocent person in the hospital. Remember, but please, try not to make a religion out of it.
I gotta go with EchoKitty and others on this one. In the awful days following 9/11, I flew the flag to show solidairty and support for my fellow citizens; but now it seems that flying the flag is losing its meaning, so I’m leaving the flag in the closet for now.