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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsI think about this every 9/11 in recent years. It's time to quit commemorating it
When we think about the other days we commemorate as Americans--Christmas, Thanksgiving, 4th of July, Juneteenth, Memorial Day, Veterans Day, Martin Luther King day, Easter--they're all about public celebrations or celebrating victories in American history. They're about the progress we've made or the values we hold. Even Memorial and Veterans Day, which ostensibly honor those who served have their roots in VE Day and Armistice Day, the ending of the two World Wars we won last century.
But despite the few efforts to rebrand 9/11 as Remembrance Day or First Responders Day, inevitably it's about celebrating America's false sense of victimhood. It's a day for celebrating xenophobia. It's a day for indulging the right-wing fantasy that the whole world hates against us, which cultivates the maudlin sentiments intended to make you shut up and salute the flag unquestioningly. And I can't think of anything more on American than saluting the flag on questioningly.
We don't celebrate December 7th. We don't commemorate the beginning of the Confederacy or the first arrival of slaves at Jamestown or shoot off fireworks for Zimmerman Telegram Day. Losers might enjoy wallowing in their losses and their setbacks; people who believe the core of our history is behind us rather that being something to build for in the future, people who want to sulk about their lost Glory Days might be attracted to lost causes and the anniversary of when things fell apart.
I think we should choose the future. I think we should recognize the pain of 9/11, take care of the people who suffered serving on 9/11 and in the wars that followed, but constantly revisiting and opening up an old wound doesn't do us any good. I think instead we should celebrate September 17th, Constitution Day, the day we established an imperfect but hopeful form of government that has continually expanded to include more and more people and provide more and more opportunities for everyone who wants to call our portion of this continent home.
onenote
(42,374 posts)It was designated as such back 1994. But ceremonies were being held marking the anniversary of Pearl Harbor Day for many years prior to its official designation.
Like the ceremonies marking 9/11, the focus is on remembering those who perished. I don't think it is "celebrating xenophobia".
There are a couple of obvious differences -- Pearl Harbor happened over 80 years ago. And it happened in Hawaii. And it happened before television. And it involved a military target. In contrast, 9/11 happened in major US cities, was focused on civilian targets, and only occurred 21 years ago. By the time we get to the 80th anniversary of 9/11, I wonder whether it will draw the same attention it does now.
Bucky
(53,795 posts)It's the public pronouncements as if they're still a War On Terror going on. We commemorate Pearl Harbor. The volume concerning 9/11 is louder, prouder, dumber, and far far more prevalent
brooklynite
(93,851 posts)Sympthsical
(8,935 posts)Every single year it's noted in media as Pearl Harbor Day. Usually some ceremonies - the yearly one at the USS Arizona sticks out in my mind.
Now, it's grown less and less prominent over the years as the generation that lived through that time fades away, but we still do it.
September 11th will be much the same. As time goes on, it will be noted less and less. However, it's a cultural marker in our country, and people will remember it. Particularly by those who lived through it. As an older Millennial, that day certainly has great significance. A great deal changed on that day.
People choose to remember what affects them, and it's hard to say that, in modern American society, 9/11 wasn't transformative for many, many people. Whatever you take with you about that day is on you, but those feelings are by no means universal. I don't think of it as any kind of right-wing holiday.
I can't say I've seen too much about Sept. 11th. this year. A news article here and there, but hardly wall-to-wall.
But then, I'm not plopped in front of Twitter, cable news, or the Internet in general for hours, so perhaps my experience is different.
Bucky
(53,795 posts)I chose my words carefully. There have been proposals to treat 9/11 on the same level as Memorial Day or Veterans Day. It gets hyped in ways, two decades after the fact, that never happened to December 7th when I was a kid in the '60s
Croney
(4,646 posts)can't tell you the year that 9/11 happened.
It will gradually fade into history as those of us who were alive in 2001 die. Every 9/11, we remember that my husband was on a plane from Boston to NY that morning--but not THE plane, which I didn't know for hours.
We're not celebrating 9/11, we are remembering. Soon it will be said that "hardly a man is now alive who remembers that famous day and year" as Longfellow wrote.
Tetrachloride
(7,723 posts)I remember and get back to work.
I may discuss the remembrances if people voted for Biden.
Polly Hennessey
(6,746 posts)We should remember just as we remember Pearl Harbor. The reading of names seems unnecessary. I dont recall name reading on Pearl Harbor Day.
I will never forget that day. I will always remember those who perished and those who suffered its aftermath. To me, it is in the process of dimming through the haze of history.
bobnicewander
(791 posts)live in a free country where all can acknowledge the day as we want to.
Hekate
(90,189 posts)Voltaire2
(12,624 posts)through the 60s.
But yeah it really is time to let it go.
Jspur
(578 posts)but was born and raised in the US I hate 9/11. It just brings back a lot of bad memories for me. I was 18 years old when it happened, and I was in college. It ruined my college experience for me in every aspect socially since I faced xenophobia from a large number of students on campus. Even though I'm of Indian descent it was all brown people who were stereotyped to be radical Muslims granted I have nothing against Islam.
I'm actually happy as time goes on it becomes more of a distant memory and it brings a smile to my face when a young 20-year-old doesn't know much about it. For me it always serves as a memory of not about America uniting together for good but more so America coming together against brown people.
Hell, I was even happy today how Queen Elizabeth's death still dominated the headlines and how Football has comeback. I enjoyed watching a football game with my younger brother and not even thinking about 9/11. That's the way it should be.