I think about this every 9/11 in recent years. It's time to quit commemorating it

[Bucky]

adapted from 9/11/2022

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--reasons for exultation or gratitude or upholding our highest ideals. 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. The attacks that are always the central focus are remembered for the loss, for the grievance against the world with the audacity to interrupt our first world slumber with a tiny taste of the violence that these deranged fanatics brought from their troubled section of the world back to us. In wallowing in the ever-revisited shock of those attacks, we are subtly reminded of the "need" for a widely expanded national security state--one rooted in the fear of foreigners with foreign ideas. In short, it's a day for celebrating xenophobia. It's a day for the new American idolatry of perpetual grievance. It's a day for indulging the right-wing fantasy that the whole world hates 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 unAmerican than saluting the flag unquestioningly.

As a high school government teacher, I note the boredom and disassociation in the faces of my teenaged students who don't understand this unexplored but always re-dredged trauma that occurred 4-5 years before their births. This love of suffering is the same sentiment that eggs on Palestinian and Israeli kids to hate and target one another, that gets Hindus and Buddhists to gang up on each other, that inspires Russian kids to hate Ukrainians, that kept Hutu and Tutsis ready to slaughter each other. There must be a thousands pairings of longstanding ethnic or religious feuds festering around the globe. But such social ethic of resentment is an insult to the most fundamental of American values. We're supposed to leave hatred at the shores. Of course that's not fully our history; but when we fail to live up to that ideal, the contrast forms the most shameful of our failures.

One of our lesser failures occurred on December 7th, 1941. But we don't celebrate December 7th as we do September 11th. Now, where it's appropriate, at the Port of Honolulu, there is a traditional wreath laying ceremony. It is local custom, but it is contextualized. This happened here; we note our loses, but we move forward. Our nation is defined by defeating fascism in Europe and the Pacific Rim. Twenty-two years after Pearl Harbor, we were celebrating the Mercury Program and building to expand Civil Rights against the stubborn vestiges of slavery--a struggle that led to a new and virtue-building national holiday, Martin Luther King Jr Day. We weren't resenting Japan anymore; we had healed and were now moving in opposition to the xenophobic enclaves in our culture that held us back. Today, across the other 49 states, Pearl Harbor is commented upon, maybe, but not the occasion for a minute of silence, not a renewed digging out at an unhealed wound.

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 (I'm looking at you, Confederate Memorial Day); 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, people who define their Americanism by loss and humiliation, from terrorism to election losses. These are the sentiments that come natural to people who want to grieve, who want to resist the changes that come to our society. The morbid love of grievance is what makes them too submerged in old humiliations to get up off the floor and fix what's wrong in the world. Too submerged in pain to build a better future.

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 country home. We should restrict national holidays to aspirational goals, to make this country a better place. Commemorating 9/11 moves us in the wrong direction

[Ocelot II]

1. We commemorate Pearl Harbor Day, though,

which is kind of similar - a surprise attack that set off a war. But I see your point.

[BigmanPigman]

5. That was my first thought,

even before reading the whole post.

[Rebl2]

23. My thought too

[soldierant]

38. I'll fourth that.

And neither day is a national holiday, both are more or less spontaneously commemorated by yhre people.

I grant that Amreica's sense of victimhood gets reinforce by the commemoration .. but that is because we have not yet gotten the kind of closure we got from Pearl Harbor - we have not gotten the sense of victory over authoritarianism or the sense of looking at a bright future that we got from the end of World War II.

That kind of closure is what we need. And then we could keep commemorating it with no sense of victimhood.

I'm confident everyone here is working toward that. We just ain't there yet. Of course it is harder when so much of the enemy is within.

[Bucky]

45. I think I acknowledged that

But I think Pearl harbor is recognized more than commemorated. And it certainly was never dwelled upon nor used for noxious international policies, nor manipulated to distort a national culture.

The panic didn't induced lasted a few months, compared to the drawn out years of 9/11 madness. I think the flavor of How we mark the anniversary is profoundly different

But I thank you for the nuanced response.

[Ocelot II]

50. See my follow-up comment at #30.

It should be commemorated; the question is how. I don't agree that acknowledging the attack feeds American "victimhood." The emphasis should be on remembering the victims and learning lessons.

[xocetaceans]

75. If that is the depth to which this issue has been considered, perhaps a re-evaluation of the . . .

. . . essay in the OP is warranted.

"And it [Pearl Harbor] certainly was never dwelled upon nor used for noxious international policies, nor manipulated to distort a national culture."

The response to which I am replying is incorrect in terms of its history--unless the internment of the Japanese is not viewed as a ". . . distort[ion] of a national culture."

Whether it is a "distortion" or not may be purely subjective, but it is a historical fact that a significant change in the culture of the US occurred on account of Pearl Harbor.

Specifically, see the following reference to the National Archives:

Japanese-American Incarceration During World War II

In his speech to Congress, President Franklin Delano Roosevelt declared that the Japanese attack on Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1941, was "a date which will live in infamy." The attack launched the United States fully into the two theaters of World War II – Europe and the Pacific. Prior to Pearl Harbor, the United States had been involved in a non-combat role, through the Lend-Lease Program that supplied England, China, Russia, and other anti-fascist countries of Europe with munitions.

The attack on Pearl Harbor also launched a rash of fear about national security, especially on the West Coast. In February 1942, just two months later, President Roosevelt, as commander-in-chief, issued Executive Order 9066 that resulted in the internment of Japanese Americans. The order authorized the Secretary of War and military commanders to evacuate all persons deemed a threat from the West Coast to internment camps, that the government called "relocation centers," further inland.

. . .

https://www.archives.gov/education/lessons/japanese-relocation

It's a little surprising that that aspect of US history seems not to have been considered in connection with the OP and the various responses made to defend it.

[Drum]

2. Here in NYC, it's difficult to imagine this date passing w/o remembrance.

Other places, perhaps, but it’s a bit different here.

[spooky3]

34. DC (Arlington, actually) was also attacked. Nt

[Drum]

60. Not holding NYC as exclusive...

…I was extending a little benefit-of-doubt toward someone posting about 9-11 fatigue from an “unaffected” state.
I believe that many of us—NYers, Washington DCers, Pennsylvanians, and many others—may be disinclined to just stop observing this somber day.
I did not mean to sound exclusionary!

[spooky3]

62. And I didn't mean to criticize what you said.

Just adding to it as a place where people may feel like some in NY.

[Drum]

63. ...

[spooky3]

65. It's a sad day.

[ITAL]

3. Point of fact

Memorial Day actually has its roots in the Civil War rather than the two World Wars. Veterans Day has its roots in Armistice Day concluding combat in WWI. Neither VE not VJ Day ever caught on with a standard tribute - though I know there are small commemorations of each some places.

[AllaN01Bear]

21. used to be called decoration day .

https://www.military.com/holidays/memorial-day/how-decoration-day-became-memorial-day.html

[ITAL]

25. Yes

Perhaps in some places it was referred to as Decoration Day much longer than others, but I know I've read articles in old newspapers that even by the early 1900s it was called Memorial Day, even before the two World Wars, here in SoCal.

[BeyondGeography]

4. Sorry, but as a New Yorker I find this rather tone deaf

There’s not a single word in your screed about recognizing the sacrifices of first responders and ordinary people or the suffering that is still all around us here, be it survivors of those who passed, the trauma of actual survivors of the event and the many thousands of people subsequently fallen ill or dead as a result of 9/11. The vibe in this area on 9/11 is much more somber than hateful. In fact it feels like the least political day of the year here for those of us who lived through it.

If the future is what you’re getting at, 9/11 commemorations can have a humanizing effect. It’s a day to contemplate the things that matter most in life; how much we need our loved ones and, ultimately, each other. If none of that gets through to a given individual the fault lies with them, not a 9/11 commemoration ceremony.

[SickOfTheOnePct]

7. Well said

I also take issue with the term "false sense of victimhood". Having lost a neighbor as well as one of my daughter's childhood playmates, the idea that there aren't really victims from 9/11 is pretty flabbergasting to me.

[BlueIn_W_Pa]

11. I don't think that's what was meant...

it was that the US as a country portrays a "false sense of victimhood" after the attacks without acknowledging the US foreign policy that created the environment for such an attack.

Well, I guess the same with WW2, Vietnam, etc...

[marybourg]

15. Thank you. As a former N.Y.'er, I was offended by the OP

and angrily composing a response in my head as I ate lunch. You did it so much better, and without rancor. I feel better after reading it and my anger has drained away. Thank you, again. I hope to never read another another opinion piece like the OP.

[emulatorloo]

17. Thank you so much for your reply.

[BonnieJW]

37. I remember that date

as the day one of my children was in Manhattan, one was on Long Island, one was in DC, and my husband was in Pennsylvania.

I remember trying to contact each of them and unable to do so because of busy circuits. I kept trying. At the end of several hours, I was able to contact each of them. Every 9/11, I remember those who kept trying but never heard from their loved ones again. I remember to be grateful for my daughters who went on to marry and give me grandchildren. I weep for those whose phone calls were never answered. I remember and honor those who ran into collapsing buildings to save all those they could.

This day of remembrance should remain and remind us that our country and way of life are precious. Our lives are fleeting and should be treasured. And finally, always kiss, hug and say I love you before you head out the door.

[Bucky]

48. Definitely didn't intend to offend

And of course the day should be it occasion to think of and honor those who ran into danger and their commitment to public service.

I'm just witnessing down here in Texas the manipulation and grievance based co-opting of the tragedy. The marking of the event leans toward militarism and xenophobia, which is just about the perfect opposite direction from where we ought to go with the lessons of History

[BeyondGeography]

53. "Those who cry the loudest are not always those who hurt the most." - Aesop

?si=m03rTdp0xZM5wi0f

[Cha]

74. Mahalo.. I agree.. it's important to me

to honor those who perished, suffered, survived, and Rescued on 9/11. And Rebuilt going forward. They will not be forgotten or ignored..

Those who don't want to can just not.

[qwlauren35]

6. Hmmm...

I think I look at 9/11 differently. I think of it as "inclusive". We are no different from Europe, we are not immune, terrorism can be brought to our shores. I think it is a sign that the world is shrinking, that globalization is real.

I was not born in 1941, but when Pearl Harbor Day comes around, I remember. I'm not saying that I remember who we were at war with, I just remember that we got sucked in because we are not "immune".

I completely agree with you that 9/11 was used to foster xenophobia, or rather to fan its flames. And even today to be a Middle Eastern American, or a Muslim American means automatic discrimination by anyone old enough to remember 9/11. All Middle Easterners must get a visa to enter the US, and no western Europeans are. Trump brought Middle Eastern xenophobia back to the forefront, after there was a chance to put it to bed. I have to hope that Gen Z will finally put an end to it.

It's possible that there is a different way to teach the history of 9/11. Explain the xenophobia, explain the Patriot Act, explain the hysteria, the War with Afghanistan, the War in Iraq. Explain how this has lingered for 20 years. If you don't explain history, we are doomed to repeat it. You are in a position to break the cycle. Not by ignoring 9/11, but by putting it in proper perspective.

[Bucky]

52. Nonetheless in history

I definitely wouldn't want to ignore the event. I teach High School government, after all. But it always lands right in the middle of our unit on the weaknesses of democracy (why did Socrates drink the hemlock?).

It would be like what if when I was a kid, we spent as much ceremony on the Gulf of Tonkin incident, but never recognized how it led to an escalation into Indiochina

[Bayard]

8. Yet, First Responders are still hurting....

https://www.theguardian.com/media/2019/jun/11/jon-stewart-demands-congressional-action-for-911-responders-they-did-their-jobs-do-yours

[Sky Jewels]

9. We had (most of) the world's sympathy after 9-11. Then ...

we went and brutally invaded a sovereign nation that had nothing to do with the attacks. We slaughtered hundreds of thousands of innocents -- the 3,000-person death toll of 9-11 multiplied by, what, 100 or 200? Who knows for sure. So many Iraqis died to boost the profits of U.S. corporations and enrich their politically connected executives. What a despicable shit show.

I mourn all the innocent people, including first responders, who died in 9-11 and in the days, months, and years that followed (such as those who died from lung disease contracted at Ground Zero). The jingoistic bullshit/police state/mass slaughter that followed those events leave a very bad taste. We became the terrorists. The U.S. military slaughtered people on a scale that dwarfs the horrors of 9-11. I believe we should face up to the pure evil inherent in our invasion of Iraq, own it, remember all the dead Iraqis, and reflect on the mass terrorism committed in our names.

[jimfields33]

10. Worst day of our country will be remembered for a long time regardless if

it’s uncomfortable or if teachers see students bored with the subject as if that’s new. It was a tragic day for America and should never be forgotten.

[Scrivener7]

12. .

[msongs]

13. bush & co murdered hundreds of thousands of iraqis. barely a peep about those dead nt

[Tetrachloride]

18. Having some Middle East years, nuances are many

I commemorate a great many things. Some are several times a day.

[Warpy]

14. 2026 will be the 25 year anniversary

and after then, it will be relegated to remembrances every tenth and twenty fifth year more as a history lesson than an extravaganza of reliving that day because a significant and growing number of Americans will have no recollection of it.

The rest of us will remember where we were and how we heard about it.

I doubt it wil ever be a celebration, just a remembrance the way Dec. 7 was when I was a kid who had no recollection of it. My parents did, and when their generation was gone, so was the formal recollection of the day.

[ITAL]

16. Pretty much

Even when I was a kid, which was a couple of generations after Pearl Harbor I remember commemorations every year and a blurb on the news. After 1991, it became less and less (except for perhaps 2001 which I seem to remember was a bigger deal given the 60th anniversary and in the aftermath of 9/11) because more of the folks who lived through it died.

You still see a blurb on the news every December, but it's smaller every time.

[Lonestarblue]

19. I disagree. I see it as a day of remembrance, a day to honor the sacrifices and bravery of those

who helped rescue people from the WTC as well as those who stared evil in the face aboard Flight 93 and did something about, knowing their lives were all forfeit. It is not a portrayal of victimhood. It is the honoring of those who gave their lives for this country.

[Patton French]

20. Good grief...

“celebrating America's false sense of victimhood”
What? Uh, no. It’s a day of remembrance. And appropriately so.

[wnylib]

22. Remembrance of 9/11 is a way of healing from the trauma.

As long as there are people alive who lost a friend, neighbor, or relative, or who watched the events unfold, or were stranded somewhere when US air traffic was halted, there will be a need to remember, to commemorate, to heal from the trauma.

9/11 could become a day for condemning senseless acts of violence and terrorism. A day for discussing and acting in how to promote peace. A day for remembering victims of violence everywhere in the world, not just in the US. A day for thinking about the effects of extremism and violent ideologies.

[LeftInTX]

42. +1....

I actually was fairly prejudiced against Muslims pre-911. My family was Armenian. 911, actually helped me. Bush said Islam is not the enemy. He actually said some things that I thought were well thought out. Now the military reaction was not good, but in the days following 911, he humanized Muslims for many who saw them as aggressors in previous conflicts.

[wnylib]

46. Glad that there was actually something constructive from Bush and

that you were able to learn from it.

I have known Muslims as co-workers, college students, doctors, and professors, so I did not automatically associate all Muslims with terrorism. I did right away think (correctly) that 9/11 was the work of Muslim extremists, but realized that, like any ethnic or religious group, there is a range of views among them, from extremists to moderates to liberals.

[MorbidButterflyTat]

24. Curious,

do you feel the same way about January 6?

Opening old wounds...no. You assume they've been healed? That every Republican who politicizes first responders, declares patriotism, "backs the blue," but continually votes against funds for 9-11 survivors who are sick and dying, whittling assistance away while enriching themselves every single time...

I watched Jon Stewart testify to Congress, telling them to do their jobs. He referred to "Senators" but I say, NAME THEM. This fantasy that Dems are as bad as MAGAts needs to end, forever. I remember Jon organizing buses from NYC to DC to meet with Senators and Moscow Mitch didn't have the decency to even meet with them, many who are suffering and riding for hours on a bus! just to be ignored and dismissed and it's time to speak their names and their party, not in a useless effort to shame them, but so Americans and whoever else be made aware, exactly WHO consistently votes against Americans' needs; then hypocritically turns around and takes credit for the hard work of Democrats' achievements.

It makes me sick.

"One of our lesser failures occurred on December 7th, 1941. But we don't celebrate December 7th as we do September 11th."

Who the fuck do you think is "celebrating?"

December 7 was an attack on the US, not a US "failure;" and those who died are not "lesser." SMH

So, no. September 11, 2001 will continue to be recognized and commemorated. You don't have to participate. But you don't get to condescend to insult those of us who do.

In conclusion, your attitude sucks.

[betsuni]

67. +1

[inthewind21]

76. You equate

J6 with 9/11? Interesting.

[IronLionZion]

26. It should be a way for Americans to come together, look out for each other, or something positive

rather than yet another excuse for racists to discriminate against brown Americans.

[Recycle_Guru]

27. 22 years later, I experience visceral reaction when I watch 9/11 unfold

this is on an altogether different level of tragedy--we should commemorate it. Not with a holiday, but with our own way of grieving/acknowledging the loss and also a keen awareness of how evil humans can be to each other.

[xocetaceans]

28. ". . . it's about celebrating America's false sense of victimhood." Really?

So, how would you describe what happened on 9/11?

How would you describe the people who died on 9/11?

What would you now name them?

[Scrivener7]

35. Yes. I suppose my friends and neighbors were just "false victims."

And those of us who remember them on the day they died, or on the day of the event that caused their later deaths, are just self pitying and wallowing.

It's a day, mind you, that is not an official commemoration, that no one needs to mark if they don't want to.

But I guess it bothers some so much that some of us do remember our loved ones that they can't just go about their business and ignore it. No. It's real important for them to denigrate us for remembering loved ones.

[xocetaceans]

77. Maybe . . .

. . . the OP is trying to express a different point that's tangled in the text of the OP, but it's difficult to express the degree to which that charitably supposed attempt at expression fell short of being either well considered or expressed. Completely tone-deaf if not highly disrespectful is about the kindest way to say what it is.

[Danmel]

29. I strongly disagree- personal loss never goes away

In the NYC area, it never goes away. I knew a local firefighter who died that day. He was a young man with a family who was a marrow donor for a young girl with cancer.
https://www.insideedition.com/how-the-legacy-of-terry-farrell-new-york-firefighter-killed-on-911-continues-to-save-lives-20-years

My parents had friends who were Holocaust survivors, whose only child, a young man with developmental disabilities worked in the mailroom at Cantor Fitzgerald and was killed.

I have friends who ran for their lives when the towers collapsed.

My brother worked in Brooklyn overlooking the towers and saw desperate people plummeting to their deaths from the burning buildings.

I work with a now 60 year old man, who has end stage interstitial pulmonary fibrosis from his exposure to toxic chemicals at ground zero, where he was a first responder. He uses an oxygen concentrator 24/7

I have a friend who was widowed that day. Her kids are now in their late 20s and never knew their dad.

I could go on, but I think I've made my point.

[Ocelot II]

30. It's not whether we should commemorate it, but how.

As I mentioned above, we still commemorate the attack on Pearl Harbor - and even though it was so long ago hardly anyone is still alive who remembers it, it should be remembered. 9/11, also a surprise attack, is different in many ways, particular wrt to the terrible foreign policy decisions that followed. While the OP makes some fair points, the notion that 9/11 commemorations celebrate American "victimhood" isn't one of them. There are many lessons to be learned from 9/11 and especially the consequences, and it's still important to both acknowledge the loss of life and the fact that the US fucked up spectacularly both before that day and especially after.

[Hekate]

56. This. We need to remember, and accurately. As one columnist said, "We went from being a country that

…that forbade torture, to one that permits it.” Can’t remember who it was, but she was writing during BushCheney’s war, and she had a list of things like that. We went from this — to that instead.

We did indeed fuck up spectacularly.

[Roc2020]

31. I can't help but rememeber

To me it's the worse attack to happen to the U.S in my lifetime. 911 Changed the world. Changed the U.S. Changed how the U.S viewed the world and how the world viewed the U.S. It's not 'victimhood', it's respecting the lives that was lost and also remembering that unforgettable rude awakening 21st century day that profoundly and permanently changed America.

[A HERETIC I AM]

32. This is very well written.

In wallowing in the ever-revisited shock of those attacks, we are subtly reminded of the "need" for a widely expanded national security state--one rooted in the fear of foreigners with foreign ideas. In short, it's a day for celebrating xenophobia. It's a day for the new American idolatry of perpetual grievance. It's a day for indulging the right-wing fantasy that the whole world hates 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 unAmerican than saluting the flag unquestioningly.

Just fucking outstanding and exactly my sentiments.

Way too many Americans just LOVE to wallow in self pity, it seems.

On that morning I was in Houston, waiting to fly back to Florida.

A long story shortened, after I found a rental car to drive back home, I was in a cab going to the place to get it (a hotel on the other side of Hobby Airport) and the driver was of Middle Eastern descent. I knew right away that our fellow citizens of similar extraction were in for a hell of a shit fight from their overly aggrieved fellow Americans in the coming months, and told him so. I also apologized for that on behalf of all rational Americans and told him that we can expect a whole lot of "Rah Rah Rallying around the flag", but I also said the fact that American foreign policy is in large part to blame can not be dismissed. He was well more than grateful to hear that from a white guy only a few short hours after the events of the morning.

Your point that we are "supposed to leave hatred at the shores" is well true, and in fact has been done in the past to stark relief. Stories of German Soldiers brought to the US POW camps in the American south being treated better than the black people who were born there! Contrasted of course with the plight of Japanese Americans forced into internment camps during the same time period.

And this;

The morbid love of grievance is what makes them too submerged in old humiliations to get up off the floor and fix what's wrong in the world. Too submerged in pain to build a better future.

is again, spot fucking on.

Really well written, and I applaud your perspective.

[Red Mountain]

36. The attackers were Saudis

we ignore that fact. Why? Because we still need their oil. It's a world market and we pay our national oil companies whatever they can get for the oil they pump from our American soil. They are not our friends (I mean the Saudis but it works for the oil companies, too). They manipulate oil prices to manipulate our elections to elect people they think will benefit them.

I wonder how much better off the world would be if we had attacked the source of the rot........not the most visible manifestations.

[A HERETIC I AM]

39. Indeed.

The accounts I've read suggested that Bin Laden was absolutely pissed at the idea of an American presence in Saudi Arabia, on what he considered holy ground, and that was in large part what caused him to plan the attacks. He wasn't alone in those sentiments.

This section of the Wikipedia entry on him alludes to this;

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Osama_bin_Laden#Formation_and_structuring_of_al-Qaeda


If it wasn't for the technology of American firms helping the Saudi's get the oil out of the ground in the first place, it would still be a poor desert kingdom. They pretty much owe their wealth to American know-how.

[inthewind21]

78. Bin Laden

put out several video's telling the whole world what his grievances were, how he he intended to retaliate, and how he intended on accomplishing it. How different could things have been had the American powers that be had maybe, oh, I don't know, FUCKING LISTENED!

[A HERETIC I AM]

80. No kidding

Just so no reader misunderstands my position, 9/11 was a horrific tragedy and a bad day for humanity in general. I in no way defend the actions of those 19 hijackers, the support behind them or the men that planned it.

But, as others have mentioned, it didn’t happen in a vacuum and it wasn’t because “they hate us for our freedoms” - one of the biggest lines of bullshit ever uttered.

They hate us for our insensitive and often ham handed foreign policy and meddling.

Did we as a nation deserve what happened 22 years ago this week? No. We didn’t. No innocent civilians deserve to die because of the stupidity of their government. But, as you point out, we had plenty of warnings and did nothing to mitigate it.

[Drum]

64. Let us know if your opinion changes, in the event such a calamity happens in your town...

[A HERETIC I AM]

66. ....

Really?


LOL......OK, I'll do that!

[TiberiusB]

68. For those willfully missing the point of the OP...

"In short, it's a day for celebrating xenophobia."

You mean like when a particular world leader steps to the microphone and says the thing he almost certainly knows won't be controversial or cost him votes, who says,

That’s why the terrorists targeted us in the first place – our freedom, our openness, our institutions. They failed. But we must remain vigilant”

Or does everyone agree that the U.S. wasn't attacked for it's decades of destructive foreign policies, but because it's just too awesome?

It sure sounds like wallowing in self importance, dismissing any culpability, and pointing the finger at foreigners.

[TiberiusB]

69. Oh, and for those that haven't guessed...

President Biden said those words...yesterday...not 22 years ago.

[inthewind21]

79. I have to say

I was always baffled at that statement. And how easily the public fell for it hook line and sinker. "They targeted/hate us because of our freedom." And the solution was the Patriot Act, which by the way was just swell with a very large swath of the country. W.T.A.F! The biggest public con ever.

[AwakeAtLast]

33. My question

How do we commemorate the service of our soldiers beyond 9/11? There are 22 years worth of soldiers without any kind of celebration, a la Viet Nam. 9/11 was the trigger.

Speaking as an OIF Veteran's wife : 2005-06 Ramadi/Fallujah/Habanayah

[A HERETIC I AM]

41. It will probably happen

Eventually there will be a "War on Terror memorial" in DC, I'll bet.

[ITAL]

44. Already in progress

https://www.gwotmemorialfoundation.org/

[A HERETIC I AM]

51. Well there you go!

I guess I should have used the magic Google machine first!

[AwakeAtLast]

54. Thank you for that link!

I will share it with my husband!

[Bucky]

57. I agree. We have a long history of forgetting veterans from unsuccessful wars

They deserve a homecoming. They deserve much better treatment than what we're giving them.

They deserve a functional VA and a thank you for putting them country ahead of their own health, sanity, serenity, and lives.

[Raine]

43. Disagree ... I don't think it's asking too much to commemorate

it once a year, geesh!

[sarisataka]

47. SMH

Another day I learn I'm not too old to be shocked.

Did I just read an analogy comparing commemorating 911 to commemorating the founding of the Confederacy or the arrival of the first slaves? Yes, yes I did.

[SYFROYH]

49. You're entitled to your POV, but it is very different from mine.

For me and the people I know in the Deep South, 9/11 is a solemn day of sadness. It is a not day of hate, false victimhood, wound reopening, or xenophobia.

Your mileage definitely varies from mine. Good luck with that.

[brooklynite]

55. Um, we don't CELEBRATE 9/11 or Pearl Harbor Day...

...we commemorate them.

No reason to stop.

[Drum]

61. Precisely!

[MOMFUDSKI]

58. Talked to a guy from NYC here at our vacation hotel the other day.

9/11 came up. I discovered he is a truther as am I. I told him the fact is that I understood how badly that it shook NYC folks but, truth be told, the rest of the country not so much. He understood completely. Quite the conversation we had. Flame away if you must.

[W_HAMILTON]

70. "False sense of victimhood?"

Tell that to the ~3k VICTIMS that died that day.



And it's not a """celebration""" -- it's a remembrance. Your entire viewpoint is tainted at the outset by falsely thinking it's some sort of celebration.

Do you watch the ceremonies? Do you call that a """celebration?"""

[betsuni]

71. Commemorating the dead is done around the world. The dead are always here.

Last edited Tue Sep 12, 2023, 04:35 AM - Edit history (1)

Bush administration policies are responsible for the disastrous reaction to 9/11 and the only ones "celebrating xenophobia" are right-wingers, a minority. The U.S. is not uniquely bad or good. Civilians just trying to live their lives aren't responsible for their government's bad policies.

[Donkees]

72. As Baba Bush advised: ''Why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that?''

''But why should we hear about body bags, and deaths, and how many ... Or, I mean, it's, it's not relevant. So, why should I waste my beautiful mind on something like that? ''

[betsuni]

73. Republicans, Republicans, Republicans NOT BOTH SIDES.

[EX500rider]

81. "with a tiny taste of the violence" ?!

2,977 dead in a hour is a "tiny taste of the violence"?

I'd delete this thread.