When do we stop wallowing in 9/11?

The BBQ Pit
41

It is sad and pathetic the way some people want to set themselves apart as iconoclastic and so above the common masses by denigrating and condescending to people who want to mark the anniversary of a tragic event. If you don’t like the memorials, if you don’t like the remembrances, if you don’t feel the need to commemorate a historically significant tragedy, then don’t. Don’t watch the tv coverage, don’t read the newspaper articles and don’t attend any events.

Why must you disparage those who still feel an emotional connection to the tragedy in which 3,000 or so people died – in a particularly horrific, historically significant way? If it doesn’t have any particular significance to you then okay. I kind of wonder how that can be, but why would you resent others marking the anniversary? We all respond different to tragedies, and if you don’t feel any need to mark an anniversary, fine. Why would you piss on those who do?

This kind of faux superiority, this posturing that you are so above the rest of us because you aren’t going to go out and wave a flag on 9/11, because you don’t feel any need to pause and reflect on that loss, that’s just sad.

42

:dubious:

43

Luckily, Senator Lautenberg has spearheaded a moment of remembrance at 1pm on 9/11. In his words

No, Senator, we are not liable to forget 9/11, or terrorism, it’s been mentioned practically every day by every single media source in the country for the last 10 years.

How do you have a “remembrance” for something that won’t go away?

44

One can reflect on the loss without waving flags. And one can appreciate the loss without the sensationalistic media pumping our living rooms full of their glurgy schmultz.

The loss belongs to *all *Americans (more so the New Yorkers who lost loved ones, natch). That loss can be expressed by weeping and throwing dust on our heads and tearing our robes in grief, or it can be expressed by rejecting the huge fuss that is kicked up each year. Many people dealt with it in their own way, years ago and choose not to partake in the annual 2 Minutes Grief. That doesn’t mean one thinks they are superior to those that do want to grieve in their own way each year.

45

I honestly do sincerely question people who still have an emotional connection to an event that did not affect them save in a national sense ten years later. Spouses stop actively mourning their loved ones sooner than we’ve stopped crying over what is, at a national level, a scraped knee.

I’ve got nothing against those who’ve actually lost someone on 9/11. I think first responders should get all the healthcare they need without whinging from Congress. I’m perfectly happy bin Laden is rotting at the bottom of the ocean. It was one hell of a shock to be attacked on our own soil, and it’s worth remembering in that we should not forget we’re not invincible.

But at this point it’s pretty much turned into one giant pity party for ourselves, which is a hilariously sad double standard when we’re still actively occupying other countries who have in the long run been hurt far, far worse than we have.

46

All those thousands of talking heads have to do something with their air time. Its not like there is anything else to report. Lindsey Lohan is doing OK. That kid that disappeared is, well, forgotten I guess. That girl in Italy seems to be getting some attention but that story only requires a few dozen reporters to cover. And the hurricane is gone. That’s it for the news. Time for a look back at 9/11 - It was a bad thing.

The important thing to remember is that we should all be very afraid and we should do whatever our leaders tell us.

47

For me it was Tuesday.

48

[QUOTE=shiftless]
The important thing to remember is that we should all be very afraid and we should do whatever our leaders tell us.
[/QUOTE]

And the fact that thousands of our fellow American citizens died because of a foreign attack on our own soil is really beside the point. Nothing to see here…move along. Right?

Seriously, if it annoys you guys so much don’t watch. Change the channel. Thus far this week I’ve managed to avoid watching all but one show on 9/11 (and it was a repeat of the 9/11 Truthers vs debunkers show on the Science Channel, which I watched mostly for ammo when the next idiotic Truther wanders in to start a stunning new thread on this YouTube video I JUST HAVE TO SEE!!). I’ve even watched the news without seeing a lot about 9/11, and haven’t been forced to go to any 9/11 remembrance rallies or propaganda meetings yet!

-XT

49

Great! :smiley:

50

No, I don’t think that is beside the point. The 9/11 attacks were a terrible thing, I remember it, I heard the boom when the Pentagon was hit. What more am I supposed to do? Tear out my hair and wail on cue? Who gets to decide when I do this?

Those people (politicians and news people, I’m looking at you) who use the event to spread fear and hate for their own gain by are the ones you should be chastising.

51

Could we focus on something that’s important? I’m not saying we should forget 9/11 either, but our economy isn’t doing so good, unemployment’s still high, banks are still fucking us over, corporations rule the world, caps are being placed on welfare, etc., etc., and here we are, throwing ourselves the world’s biggest Pity Party! For a month! Can we focus on the real issues that are bothering us day-to-day instead of relapsing into the past.

52

It’s even sadder how some people will glom onto what was a very personal tragedy for the people who were actually affected by it, just to feel like part of something.

People die all over the world every day and you don’t give a shit. I don’t either, but I don’t pretend otherwise, let alone pick one event and pretend that it’s worse than all the others, ever, because it happened in the same enormous country I happen to have been born in.

It’s even sadder to pretend it’s your loss. Get your own damned life.

53

So when Hitler and his supporters droned on about, say, the stab-in-the-back, or the Reichstag fire, the best approach would have been to just ignore it? Hey, why worry about that kind of nationalism-building rhetoric? If it’s not your cup of tea, just tune it out! Don’t criticize it! After all, what’s the harm?

(Hey, you’re the one who started with the Godwinizing.)

54

I can’t speak for you, but yes, I do have an emotional connection to 9/11 even though I didn’t lose a member of my family. If you don’t, well, okay.

55

I completely agree with the sentiment expressed by the OP. I’d like to forget it ever happened, but that’s not likely. I certainly hate being reminded of it. No disrespect is intended. That day was very painful and hard as I try to tune out all the commemorations, it’s impossible. Some of us have no need to be reminded and find the memories difficult indeed.

Bri2k

56

Wow. I know this is the BBB Pit, but damn… the Straight Dope can be straight up heartless.

57

No, some of us just try not to be enablers.

58

What the hell is the BBB Pit? Is that where the BBB puts all the complaints that they don’t have any intention of investigating?

59

[QUOTE=shiftless]
No, I don’t think that is beside the point. The 9/11 attacks were a terrible thing, I remember it, I heard the boom when the Pentagon was hit. What more am I supposed to do? Tear out my hair and wail on cue? Who gets to decide when I do this?
[/QUOTE]

See, that’s the cool thing about living in a free country…you don’t HAVE to DO anything. If you don’t want to tear your hair or wail you don’t have to. You can, you know, change the channel. YOU get to decide.

What seemingly is burning the biscuits of a lot of folks in this thread is that a lot of Americans have decided that they DO still care about 9/11 and want to watch shows and see news about it. I’m not one of them…personally the memories are still painful despite the fact that it was 10 years ago.

[QUOTE=Anaamika]
Could we focus on something that’s important? I’m not saying we should forget 9/11 either, but our economy isn’t doing so good, unemployment’s still high, banks are still fucking us over, corporations rule the world, caps are being placed on welfare, etc., etc., and here we are, throwing ourselves the world’s biggest Pity Party! For a month! Can we focus on the real issues that are bothering us day-to-day instead of relapsing into the past.
[/QUOTE]

Well, we COULD, I suppose, but the thing is that perhaps what interests you (and me) aren’t the same thing as what interests the majority of the public. Or, to put it a different way, cable and satellite providers aren’t filling the air waves with shows about 9/11 because they are being told to (by evil politicians or whatever), and they aren’t doing it out of the goodness of their hearts…they are doing it because a large segment of the population WANTS to see such shows and is interested in watching them. As noted by another poster earlier, more focus is generally given to advertising and other silly things (name any reality or dancing show out there) for longer than a month in any given year, so it’s really not all that over the top. It’s not limited to the US either…consider the attention in the UK over the recent (well, relatively) royal wedding and the run up and aftermath of that…or the attention and run up to any large sporting event or team patronage by fans (say the run up to the World Cup). To ME, sports be silly, and the whole Dancing with the Stars thingy is completely lost on me…but SOMEONE is watching this tripe, obviously, or it wouldn’t be on.

-XT

60

Then you’re a drama queen. It’s just like grown-ass adults who can’t get over their shitty childhoods. If you still have an “emotional connection”, the healthiest thing really is to let it go.