Line-Dancing on the Graves of the Fallen
9-11 Gravedancing Party:
I still remember the first thing I heard after the announcement in my high school that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. One of my acquantences in the front row didn't miss a beat saying, "God, what a dumbass pilot!" We didn't know what terrorism was until we got home.
What's sad is that now, when I hear 9/11, I don't think of these things. I don't think of solemn memorials or a national tragedy. The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the words "nine eleven" are war-mongering, flag-waving neo-fascist Republicans blaming the gays and dancing on the graves of the dead. Which is exactly what this party was. It was a pathetic attempt to re-tie the shattered knot connecting the uncaught Osama and the very caught Saddam. It's digging up the bodies of the victims and cutting off parts to shove down the throats of anyone who, for any reason, disagrees with the neo-conservative pro-war policies. It's idolizing into religious worship the sacrifice of the victims: the World Trade Center died for your sins! It's country music bouncing to the beat of falling rubble. It's turning a national tragedy into a national celebration. It's sick and wrong.
What would I do as a rememberence of 9-11? I'd have a front-page story or two about remembering it. Maybe sidebar that one, and put Katrina victims center. I'd have a moment of silence in all the churches that met yesterday. I'd make a modest speech, in which I'd encourage people to think about how the world was then, and how it is now. Not in the empty rhetoric of how much you Support the Troops, but in what your life is like now vs. then. I'd tell people to remember fondly those who were lost, and to live on in America as a way of honoring them. I would not throw a multimillion dollar party with money that should be spent dealing with the latest disaster.
Technorati tags: 9-11, Sept. 11, Nine Eleven
I've seen a lot of marches on the mall in my 20 years in Washington, but I've never seen one where 15,000 people arrive between 11am and noon, and are all gone, and everything's cleaned up, two hours later.
I still remember the first thing I heard after the announcement in my high school that a plane had flown into the World Trade Center. One of my acquantences in the front row didn't miss a beat saying, "God, what a dumbass pilot!" We didn't know what terrorism was until we got home.
What's sad is that now, when I hear 9/11, I don't think of these things. I don't think of solemn memorials or a national tragedy. The first thing that comes to my mind when I hear the words "nine eleven" are war-mongering, flag-waving neo-fascist Republicans blaming the gays and dancing on the graves of the dead. Which is exactly what this party was. It was a pathetic attempt to re-tie the shattered knot connecting the uncaught Osama and the very caught Saddam. It's digging up the bodies of the victims and cutting off parts to shove down the throats of anyone who, for any reason, disagrees with the neo-conservative pro-war policies. It's idolizing into religious worship the sacrifice of the victims: the World Trade Center died for your sins! It's country music bouncing to the beat of falling rubble. It's turning a national tragedy into a national celebration. It's sick and wrong.
What would I do as a rememberence of 9-11? I'd have a front-page story or two about remembering it. Maybe sidebar that one, and put Katrina victims center. I'd have a moment of silence in all the churches that met yesterday. I'd make a modest speech, in which I'd encourage people to think about how the world was then, and how it is now. Not in the empty rhetoric of how much you Support the Troops, but in what your life is like now vs. then. I'd tell people to remember fondly those who were lost, and to live on in America as a way of honoring them. I would not throw a multimillion dollar party with money that should be spent dealing with the latest disaster.
Technorati tags: 9-11, Sept. 11, Nine Eleven
posted by Agius at 12:29 PM
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