Replies

There is much truth in this article. 9/11 was a tragedy (an appropriate word to describe it). But all too many Americans are making a maudlin fetish out of 9/11. 9/11 is becoming an American cult.

This is not the high point of history, the most momentous event of all time and space, the greatest suffering ever to inflict a nation. Some 50,000 Americans die every year on the road. And yes, she's right, 20,000+ Indians apparently died in a quake.

But some Americans seem to want to wrap themselves in the bloody flag of 9/11, and devote all their lives to "remembering" and "comemorating" forever and ever...

She's right. I do not BARF at this article, I applaud it. Like she said, let's not be like other nations, let's not nurse our wounds for centuries. The cliche holds true: Time to move on.

There is much truth in this article. 9/11 was a tragedy (an appropriate word to describe it). But all too many Americans are making a maudlin fetish out of 9/11. 9/11 is becoming an American cult.

I humbly suggest that people need to do so in order to completely work through their trauma. You and I may not have lost anyone; it's different for us. While I agree that there are people who are milking the situation (media, lawyers) , I'm not cynical enough to believe that Lisa Beemer is one of them.

This is not the high point of history, the most momentous event of all time and space, the greatest suffering ever to inflict a nation. Some 50,000 Americans die every year on the road. And yes, she's right, 20,000+ Indians apparently died in a quake.

While factually correct, this does not in any way diminish the suffering of folks who were directly affected by 9/11.
They need to grieve in the way they need to grieve...who are we to criticize them?

But some Americans seem to want to wrap themselves in the bloody flag of 9/11, and devote all their lives to "remembering" and "comemorating" forever and ever...

Rhetoric,yes, but also part of the grief process. Survivors of other tragedies say exactly the same thing. "A day that shall live in infamy." "Never forget."

She's right. I do not BARF at this article, I applaud it.

I don't applaud it. I find it reactive. I find no new ideas in it at all.

Like she said, let's not be like other nations, let's not nurse our wounds for centuries. The cliche holds true: Time to move on.

Perhaps for you. People directly affected should be afforded the option to move on when they are READY - and that is not something others can decide for them.

While I agree that some are exploiting 9/11 and I dare say there are even some who would be terribly disappointed if their "lost" relative were to turn up alive and safe at this point, I don't think it is our place to judge them. We can only follow our own consciences as to how we deal with it and with the upcoming anniversary. I regretably have to be on the road that week working as I was when the original attacks occurred. It was an agonizingly slow week as I wanted to be online with my friends and fellow patriots and Christian brothers and sisters. I feel very much the same way now, although not so intensely.

The point was made that if we don't want to see all the fuss made, then don't turn on the TV. I agree with that. But at the same time, the families of the victims aside, Americans have an incredible capacity for remembering what we should forget and forgeting what we should remember. Personally, I think that we need to be bombarded with the graphic images of 9/11. I think we need to see and hear whatever it takes to keep us outraged enough to take steps to make sure that it never happens again. Far too many people have already forgotten and tossed their lots in with those who want to blame America, not protect her.

There are going to be opportunists and scumbag lawyers ready at hand to exploit any situation they can. That is just a fact of life in America. I don't like it either. The families simply represent what could as easily be any one of us given a different twist of fate, and I propose that that is why we have become so caught up in their experience. But this really isn't about the families of of the victims. It is about the wider truth that we were ALL victims of 9/11 and unless we confront that soberly and head-on, we will be again.

Conservobabe, I apologize for my earlier remark. It was uncalled for. I was reacting based on others' influence and that was wrong. I have no personal issue with you.

The author makes some good points about the greed of relatives and the tackiness of a lot of the memorializing, but then we come to this:

Partly, what makes us not Bosnia, or Israel, or Angola, or Kashmir, or Palestine is that we do not obsessively nurse our most profound grievances against other peoples from generation to generation, nor turn our worst bloodlettings into our most revered holidays. Can you imagine how we'd hate the Brits if we were still deeply pissed off about the Revolution? Or how awful it would be if grade-schoolers sang morbid songs about the rotting Civil War dead at Richmond?

There's a big difference between wars that was over and done with 100 and 200 years ago and the war we are in rihgt now. She is arguing the liberal position that we should love our enemies and "move on". Lady, when we've crushed the radical culture and erased the memory that it exists, as in 1945, we will be able to afford to be magnanimous. Until then, we're at war. Slacking off will only cause new terrorist action to happen again.