Who Will Bring Closure To A Grieving Nation ?

The Onion ^ | September 4th, 2002 | staff

[Hildy]

I own a Contemporary Ceramics and Craft Studio. Today, someone made the unfortunate mistake of asking me how I planned to commemorate 9/11. She suggested that I do some craft like things and invite children in to partake in it. I can't print what my response was.

[dts32041]

I knew that, but sometimes they hit the truth.

[fight_truth_decay]

what I meant to relay is that I posted it as satirical..at the bottom of the article..however if you peel back all the layers of what we are fed in the media..its so close to the truth it hurts.

[DuncanWaring]

.its so close to the truth it hurts

Good satire always is.

[DuncanWaring]

Blending the old song of "what so proudly we hailed"

Don't be too quick to overlook verses 3 and 4:

O! say, can you see, by the dawn's early light,
What so proudly we hailed at the twilight's last gleaming:
Whose broad stripes and bright stars through the perilous fight,
O'er the ramparts we watched were so gallantly streaming,
And the rocket's red glare, the bombs bursting in air,
Gave proof through the night that our flag was still there;

Oh! say, does that Star-spangled Banner yet wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave?

On the shore, dimly seen through the mists of the deep
Where the foe's haughty host in dread silence reposes,
What is that which the breeze, o'er the towering steep,
As it fitfully blows, half conceals, half discloses?
Now it catches the gleam of the morning's first beam --
In full glory reflected, now shines on the stream;

'Tis the Star-spangled Banner, O! long may it wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

And where is that band who so vauntingly swore
That the havoc of war and the battle's confusion
A home and a country should leave us no more?
Their blood has washed out their foul footsteps' pollution.
No refuge could save the hireling and slave.
From the terror of flight or the gloom of the grave!

And the Star-spangled Banner in triumph doth wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

Oh! thus be it ever when free men shall stand
Between their loved homes and the war's desolation;
Bless'd with victory and peace, may our Heaven-rescued land
Praise the Power that hath made and preserved us a nation
Then conquer we must, for our cause it is just --
And this be our motto -- "In God is our trust!"

And the Star-spangled Banner in triumph shall wave
O'er the land of the free and the home of the brave.

[ChasingFletch]

I sincerely hope I don't offend anyone with this, but I am way past tired of all the concentration on fretting and suffering, and the "I just can't get the awful event out of my mind" stuff. It's time for action.

I'll bet back on Dec 7, 1942, there wasn't a display like yesterday's handwringing. Sorry, but too me, it was pathetic.

When I was a 13 year old boy in 1961, my father went off to work (on a Saturday), and on his way back home, stopped his car on a bridge and jumped off to his death. My brother, sister, and me were in school the following Monday....no flourishing, self-agrandizing counselling industry then......just a good, caring family getting things done, getting through the sadness.

I feel for the families and friends of the victims of WTC, but, enough is enough. This concentration on grief and suffering and the 'CLOSURE' trap is just too much to take. Back in WWII they were not sitting around feeling sorry for themselves in December of '42. They were getting down to business. This 'me generation' is too much to take. We should be getting down to business too ! Enough crying, frustration, and self-pity. This is a somewhat shameful display!

p.s. If we're going to make suc a gaudy display over WTC, what's with the families and friends of the helpless victims of OKC? Where's the justice?

[Dan De Quille]

Sorry, but too me, it was pathetic.

I'm with you. The theraptutic culture of psychobabble is deeply entrenched in contemporary American popular culture. It's not pretty.