9/11

Feelings/Comments?

8 Responses to “9/11”

---

Umm.. it’s a Saturday?

Seriously, I think it’s kind of a sick sign that people can’t get over this date, when tragedies that result in greater loss of human life happen with a lot more frequency in other countries… and yet we don’t mourn those days.

Yes, 9/11 was a horrible, vile, and sad waste of human life and potential– but it seems like just as much of a waste to obsess over the date, rather than working to prevent losses of life across the world and, just as importantly, getting on with our normal lives. *Healing includes letting go.*

Sadly, I think that part of this is the result of several groups that want to keep us scared and afraid of “promoting further terrorist actions”… But when we allow our fear to make us trade essential freedoms for a sense of security, we really are losing everything that makes America worthwhile.

Paradoxdruid - September 11th, 2004 at 11:05 am

---

The main reason I posted that “question” was much more with the thought in mind of how the aftermath of the event has affected the country more than the event itself. The disgust it invokes is just so great when one sees how the government has manipulated people’s genuine emotions as means to reach its own ends, and if you don’t support it then you’re not being “patriotic.”

I talked to someone once about how they felt about us invading Iraq, and they said that it’s what they deserved for causing 9/11. Needless to say, I didn’t talk to her about politics anymore. However, it greatly worries me that there are a lot of people out there who have combined emotionals and ignorance about current events to come to justify our president’s actions.

Anyway… I’ll get off my soap-box now. I just wanted to hear other people’s frustrations on the subject, since I’m already too familiar with my own.

Teisha - September 11th, 2004 at 11:51 am

---

Oh gods- don’t get me started on people who has somehow come to believe that Iraq had anything to do with 9/11. It’s scary, in a “1984” kind of way.

I think in the last three years we’ve seen the repercussions of 9/11 in several ways, good or bad:
* Firefighter Adoration, while cops still get very little respect
* The godforsaken P.A.T.R.I.O.T. Act
* An increase in racism (In one of my final classes, one student repeatedly said “fucking towelheads” )
* New Wiretapping laws
* Many other public freedoms being eroded
* A weird “no-no” involving New York. We’ll probably never see the great Simpsons episode “The City of New York vs Homer Simpson” on TV again because it features the twin towers. My god. Does not thinking about it really make it go away??

Man, if the goal of the terrorists behind 9/11 was to degrade the American way of life, they could not have succeeded more. Soon, we’ll re-elect Emperor Bush and it’ll be happy neofascism time!

… sorry, I’m feeling bitter today.

Also, don’t get me wrong about the tragedy of 9/11. Those who had friends or family that died will be affected for the rest of their lives, and I sympathize with them. But their loss does not justify the horrors committed in their names on the citizens of Iraq or the citizens of America.

There’s one quotation that I think sums up the danger of our times succinctly:
“Of course the people don’t want war. But after all, it’s the leaders of the country who determine the policy, and it’s always a simple matter to drag the people along whether it’s a democracy, a fascist dictatorship, or a parliament, or a communist dictatorship. Voice or no voice, the people can always be brought to the bidding of the leaders. That is easy. All you have to do is tell them they are being attacked, and denounce the pacifists for lack of patriotism, and exposing the country to greater danger.”
— Herman Goering at the Nuremberg trials

Paradoxdruid - September 11th, 2004 at 12:46 pm

---

Personally, it makes me more thankful for all my friends, including you lot.

Every time it’s mentioned by a politician or anybody within a hundred yards of an American flag, though, makes me want to upchuck. Just a thing.

Owen - September 11th, 2004 at 8:35 pm

---

Anybody heard about “In the Shadow of No Towers”? It’s by the guy who did Maus. I glanced through it, and it looks interesting.

Owen - September 12th, 2004 at 11:50 am

---

I agree with Druid. It was a sad thing. I lived in New York for two years and that skyline was magnificent. And so it still is and will continue to be. I’m sure it’s strange without the Twin Towers, but New York- and this country- are supposed to be about change. And, besides, people die in this country all the time because we feel like helping them get an education, housing, jobs, medication, support is too “communist” or “socialist.” And, sadly, this misinterpretation of Marx leads to huge issues. (Not the least of which is associating Democrats and liberals who believe in social programs as commies.) At any rate, I don’t see people getting this worked over the constant death that occurs in this nation because we like to pretend everything’s perfect.

I’m also sick of our basic rights being taken away in the name of security. Screw it. I’ll take my chances on a plane . . . besides, since invading the soverign (spelling?) nation of Iraq terrorist recruitment is higher than it’s ever been. In the name of freedom. Lovely.

Anyway, the final thing I’ll say is this: The true tragedy is that people get so sensitive that we get the crazies who protest Peter Jackson’s “The Two Towers” movie as being cold and insensitive. Are these people even living in any reality at all? Seriously.

ShortSpeedFreak - September 11th, 2004 at 11:52 pm

---

It was kind of interesting that I didn’t even realize the significance of Saturday until I came on the computer and saw this post. Part of it is probably that I can’t understand a lot of news here in Denmark, so there was probably some articles in the newspaper that I didn’t understand. But I can still usually get a general idea of what the headlines say and there seemed to be hardly any response to the day at all. I imagine that most newspapers back in the states had some kind of major article on the front page, but here there seemed to be hardly anything at all.

I think that this really shows how caught up in the whole war on terror the US is. Even though it directly effected the US, there was still an some impact of the attacks here in Denmark. For a class project I was talking to a guy who is an advisor to the Parliment about his party today (the second most leftwing party here by the way). When I asked about foreign policy ideas he said one of the biggest issue he said other than EU and Iraq was how the war on terror is taking away resources that were available to give aid to developing countries. I think this shows how there certainly is an impact outside the US, they just don’t seemed to be obsessed with it as much as people are back home.

As far as personal reactions, I think most of what I think has more or less already been address by you guys. I thought you might appreciate the outside look though.

mcmillan - September 13th, 2004 at 6:48 am

---

Ah yes 9/11 the day that we remember the death of 3000+ people, but forget the meaniful part of the their existance. When they were alive.

Gilvoro - September 12th, 2004 at 8:54 pm

---

Leave a Response (or trackback on your own site)

You must be logged in to post a comment.