Posted on 09/11/2011 8:59:46 AM PDT by JewishRighter
I don't know about other FReepers, but I am sick and tired of the 9/11 memorials. Maybe you read my headline and thought I am an insensitive jerk, a troll, a liberal or a lunatic who doesn't have the sense to realize the importance of marking this day appropriately. You'd be 180 degrees wrong and that's just my point. I mean I'm sick and tired of the way this day is remembered. I mean the weepy, maudlin preoccupation with the "tragedy" of 9/11. Of course, I don't mean that there should be no solemn observance to pay the proper respect to the victims and to comfort their families. I just mean the obsessive singular focus on the aspects of loss and so-called tragedy to the exclusion of what I believe should be the true American, patriotic form of remembrance.
For reference, I think we should look at the one day in our history that comes closest to the events of 9/11, Pearl Harbor. A study of public reaction from contemporary resources shows a nearly uniform sentiment: dignified rage. Recruiting offices around the country were mobbed with men who shared this dignified rage and knew in their hearts that the correct and proper thing to do is to destroy the vicious and treacherous enemy who dared to commit such wanton acts of murder and destruction on America. Beyond those who were willing and able to bear arms, the entire nation rallied around the flag and their government in full throated support of an unapologetic war to visit annihilation on the perpetrators.
Mind you, the righteous anger of America that blazed on December 7, 1941 and the unity of purpose to destroy our enemies did not wane in 4 weeks or 6 weeks or 6 months as it did after 9/11. Politicians did not tell Americans to just go out and shop or otherwise behave as if nothing had happened. Fierce American resolve from the President down to the private in the foxhole to Rosie the riveter kept burning brightly from the day of the attack until and even after Hiroshima and Nagasaki were smoldering piles of ash. Setbacks along the way did not diminish, but renewed, American determination to see vengeance through to victory.
Of course, there were memorials for the soldiers, airmen and sailors killed at Pearl Harbor. Although I haven't had the privilege to visit, I understand that the Arizona memorial is a most solemn and sobering tribute to the men who died that day. But I find no evidence that Americans reacted to and remembered Pearl Harbor with such intense focus on the victims and their families or that they regarded the attack as a "tragedy". It wasn't a tragedy - it was an outrage, it was the worst kind of villainy, it was evil incarnate and Americans back then knew what to do and how to behave. And, I might add that the American culture of the day was more stoic and more dignified in their sorrow. You didn't have every single surviving family member making tear filled speeches and reading poetry. Again, for those who might misunderstand, I am not taking one iota away from their pain and suffering, but I believe the preoccupation with that part of 9/11 diminishes its significance and the national resolve and sense of purpose that are needed to finish the job of eradicating the barbarians who would visit a thousand 9/11's on us every day if they could.
Separate and apart from the tragedy of the loss of life for the victims and their families, the message of 9/11 and its remembrance on the national level is not one of tragedy at all, but should follow the example of the Greatest Generation: 9/11 should be a solemn, dignified remembrance of loss but it should also be a time to reflect on the vicious, evil atrocity that was done to our country and to renew our united determination to obliterate every last vestige of the people and the ideology that brought death to our shores.
G-d Bless America and Bring Death to Her Enemies!
“The wallowing in and elevating of victimization is not a fitting tribute to those lost.”
It is the MSM that is marginalizing this event by overexposure and demeaning it to soundbites. The press is only in it for their ratings and how they look onscreen....their preening and vanity is always evident. It is fake.
There are fitting tributes but the BEST one-—there should have been two buildings completed that are taller than the old twin towers. Anything else is an admission of defeat and resignation of “past” glory. It is the “poor old me” parade.
We should condemn islam for what the Koran says and commands, and kick that type of thinking off the shores of America. Instead, we pretend the koran doesn’t say what it says, we say it is a “religion” and there is a “right” to kill infidels and apostates by allowing them in the US, and, so goes, ALL LIES about the actual incident.
So—yes, all the government staged memorials are a little bit of the big lie and a fraud and a “give up” statement, and you recognize that.
I love the firemen and true heros of that day, but I will not watch media tripe and lies and these press goons eulogizing something that they gloated about with glee for their ratings. The media whores are evil.
Yes, I did and I wrote long reply, but it won’t change how you view the day nor how I view the day.
If Weeping and reading poetry and remembering seems ineffectual to you as a rememberance, then that is your choice.
I have no problem viewing this as day of loss and if I choose to remember the dead with gentleness, I will remind you that some in my family also went to Afghanistan and Iraq and exacted justice.
There is time to weep and time for war.
Pearl Harbor is my childhood and the defining moment for me. Those were military men, sailors and marines. The Towers dead were not.
Just about everyone I know knows some connected with the loss. These were moms and dads and daughters and sons going off to work that day.
I’m not going to memorialize the killers and murdererous Islamists who did this by giving it a martial tone.
And as always, this is IMHO.
“You want to strike back at the terrorists and commemorate 9/11? Rebuild the damn Twin Towers! NOW! And forget the weepy memorial crap. Make it a shrine to free enterprise! And rebuild our economy! Nothing says screw you to the terrorists better than good old American success!”
Bravo! I have been saying this since 9/12/01.
Right. It’s simply the political class using the tragedy for face time. No different than he Memorial Day or President’s Day sale mentality.
I find it particularly repugnant that Bush would allow himself to be anywhere near The Usurping Marxist Onada. But then Bush seems to have a fetish for being attracted to the very people who’ve demeaned him over the years. If he thinks he’s leaving the impression he’s above it all he’s dead wrong. He just looks like a Schmoo punching bag.
As much as I want to get involved with these ceremonies, I cannot.
First, I think that in many cultures one year is considered the official grieving period. I understand that varies from culture to culture, but there are no cultures I know of where TEN YEARS is a time of grief. Too many of these ceremonies are focused on evoking emotions similar to what one would have when a loss had just happened. The time of grief is over. The time of applying the lessons has long since arrived. We are in the time of occasional remembrance and sustained rebuilding.
2. Second, it is hard to be involved in a national event that officially excludes you. People of faith have been excluded altogether from the New York event, and people of evangelical faith have been excluded from the Washington event.
Thank you for sharing a very thoughtful opinion in a respectful way. I just happen to think as you say, “there is a time for war and time to weep” and I think the focus needs to be on war.
Fine. But if it's a local thing, why televise it nationally? 9/11 may have had the most immediate impact on the NYC area, but it has had a profound effect on the lives and liberties of all of us.
I agree with the author of this excellent essay. Let this ten year anniversary mark the end of maudlin and the beginning of resolve. The best way to remember the victims is to avenge their murder.
Tune in to Pamela Geller’s event a 3 p.m. today. Don’t lump us all together here in NYC.
I don't recall the last time I thought about 9/11. It's good to take time this morning to remember what did happen on that day.
I agree, this is the problem.
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I agree with you. New York liberals have hijacked the 9/11 commemoration and made it one more celebration of their politically correct mush. There’s plenty of room on the podium for Bloomberg and the other politicians, and irrelevant, drippy folk rock has-beens like James Taylor and Paul Simon, but not for firemen and cops? I remember, at the memorial right after the event, a fireman got up on stage and said something to the effect that Osama bin Laden could kiss his royal Irish ass. That was tonic then, and that’s the spirit I’d prefer to see. You put it well - “dignified rage”. That’s what’s missing.
“The September 11th attack on America, in which devout Muslim believers carried out the greatest single jihad raid in history, and Muslims around the world cheered and danced in joy over this great blow to the infidel, should have awakened America and the West to the nature of the 1,400 year old warrior religion of Islam. Instead, while triggering a “war against terrorism,” the 9/11 attack inspired liberal America to embrace and approve of Islam much more than it had done before, even as Americans allowed themselves to be placed under permanent and humiliating security measures out of the liberal imperative to avoid the slightest hint of discrimination against Muslims.
These unexpected and devastating outcomes of 9/11 are perhaps the greatest single illustration of Auster’s First Law, which says that the more alien or dangerous a nonwhite or non-Western group reveals itself to be, the more our liberal society approves of it, accommodates itself to it, and forbids any criticism of it. To speak the truth about the unchangeable Islamic command to wage eternal war by violence and stealth against non-Muslims and about Muslims’ 1,400 year long obedience to that command, is to place oneself outside the respectable mainstream. In America you don’t get put in jail for speaking the forbidden truth, you just lose your job and career. This is the reign of fear under which we live.
In sum, the result of 9/11 has not been Western self-defense against Islam, but the prohibition of Western self-defense against Islam. And all the official 9/11 commemorations, notwithstanding their patriotic appearance, will carry that message of American and Western surrender. And that is why they should be avoided.”
LA
I’m not lumping anyone together! You and the other 3 conservatives in NYC are not who I mean. /s
Really, I’m making a larger cultural statement about the condition of the country reflected in how we conduct ourselves on this occasion.
Brilliant! Where is that from?
That sums it up PERFECTLY.
Thank you
” you shall blot out the memory of Amalek from under heaven; you shall not forget.”
I have been saying this from Day One. And I can’t say more because the anger is still fresh, still raw, and amalek is bolder now...much bolder with the help of the world it seeks to destroy.
I wish this country paid a liitle more attention to the building of the new towers rather than than the obsequiousness of politically correct memorial services. Let’s show some resolve by erecting magnificent buildings that attest to this nation’s greatness. I believe that would be the greatest testimony to the victims and the spirit of renewal for this country.
I think as time passes, the tone of the memorials will change.
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