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!
I’m not quite with you on that. I think a lot of firefighters kept going into the buildings and climbing those stairs after it was extremely dangerous and that is beyond the call of duty. Otherwise your formulation means that no soldier is a hero since he/she is just doing their jobs.
I remember 9/11 like I do 12/7.
I agree with your post.
I tend to agree with you that 9-11 memorials are becoming overdone.
Besides Pearl Harbor another date that is remembered is D-Day June 6, 1944.
Maybe in time 9-11 will be remembered in the same fashion as Pearl Harbor and D-Day.
Are you my long lost brother? I feel and think exactly the same.
Thank you for posting this. The media is just focused on the sadness, not the rage that should be at the forefront of this nation's mind.
The same maftir (closing paragraph) is read the shabbat just before or after Purim (about half a year before and after this time of year - I forget whether it is always before or always after, or sometimes one or the other).
ML/NJ
Yes, Bush’s speech was, I guess, better. But he wedged in his own political message—with which I firmly disagree.
He advocated for our fighting for “freedom” around the world and sounded an awful lot like a young Barack Obama in 2001 when he essentially argued that it was poverty and lack of opportunity that turned innocents to terrorism.
We know full well that it tends to be not the “deprived”, but if anything middle- to upper-class Islamists with college educations who fight the infidels. It is the Islamic ideology, not global pockets of poverty, that is the root cause.
I also disagree with Bush that a neocon global war for Islamic “democracies” is the appropriate answer.
Are you sure you read my essay?
Are you sure you read my essay? I don’t advocate that we should forget.
All I can remember is how fast NY turned on President Bush and said he did it. I remember how they condemned him for fighting back like they asked him to. That’s what I remember about NYC.
Pray for America
I agree with JewishRighter. Those who charged into those burning buildings were heroes.
But that doesn’t mean the way we’ve politicized and sentimentalized 9/11 since is the way to honor them.
It is designed to make the young never forget. Old jerks like us won’t forget and do not need it.
Drugged up liberals need the drama and the children glom to edu-tainment.
It's a memorial. The people being memorialized were slaughtered by Muslims. I think it's a good think not to forget it.
Once upon a time in America, grown men and women kept their most passionate grief private and observed their loss with solemnity in public.
The event I'm watching at ground zero is solemn.
I just think, as others have said, it’s come the point where we are wallowing in it.
Sorry. We have a long tradition of memorial events in this country. I think that's a good thing.
Apology accepted and thanks for taking the trouble to read the rest.
Well written ‘Vanity’, and I tend to agree.
Oh, we absolutely agree that the atrocities of that day should be exhibited to ensure that none of us forgets how evil these bastards are and to teach the new generations to come.
I agree completely. I mourned with the rest of my nation in the months after 9-11. Then it was time to fight back. To honor the dead by not being defeated and broken. By living.
Must be a Jewish thing.
Are you sure you read my essay. I don’t advocate that we stop remembering, but how we observe these days.
Are you sure you read my essay? I don’t advocate that we stop remembering, but how we observe these days.
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