My Filipina wife asked a good question about 9/11

[Bluzmann57]

She asked, "Why are people treating this like a holiday? Aren't holidays supposed for celebration?" My (somewhat inadequate) answer, "Some people misunderstand the term holiday and have decided to call this tragic day 'Patriot's Day'. Most of us don't consider it a holiday but as a day of mourning."
She doesn't follow politics real closely, even though she figured on her own that fox lies, but she is very perceptive and is trying to get citizenship in the future. And when one thinks about it, holidays are celebrating something. July 4, Independence Day, Dec. 25, the birth of Jesus, January 1, the coming of a new year, etc. etc. 9/11 should in no way be considered as a holiday.

[Fla Dem]

1. A day of remembrance, not a holiday. n/t

[izquierdista]

2. Memorial Day is a holiday

People used to go down to the cemetery and put flowers on the graves. Now they go to the mall for the furniture sales.

[iamjoy]

3. Holy Day

The word holiday comes from Holy Day. So, the first holidays had religious significance and were not necessarily about celebration and fun, but instead commemoration and observance.

[madokie]

4. Tell your wife Welcome for me Bluzmann57

Welcome to America, where in all our faults we still somewhat rock.

[blueamy66]

9. yep...we do rock

I still go to the cemetery and place flowers on the graves of my parents and brother on holidays or whenever I feel the need.

Today IS a day of rememberance.

If you don't want to hear/read about it.....go to the park.

[ChazII]

12. Agree 100%.

My mother passed in July of 2001 and Dad is still with me. My family sees this as a day of rememberance.


(off topic - I like your avatar - Go Sparky)

[blueamy66]

19. Fear the Fork :-)

Wish my Dad, well hell, my entire family, was still with me.

This day means alot to me....nothing like seeing your Dad cry cause he lost friends in those planes.

Have a nice Sunday!!!! :-)

[Bluzmann57]

13. I'll sure tell her madokie

She loves this country and sometimes has trouble figuring why people, including me, gripe about things here in the USA. I guess it's all a matter of perspective.

[michaz]

5. I do not see this being treated as a holiday. Watching the family members

reading the names it appears to be anything but a holiday.

[blueamy66]

10. I need another box of kleenex.

It just makes you think, ya know?

:-(

[hlthe2b]

6. Treating it like a holiday? Who on earth is treating it like a holiday?

Huh? I don't even know how to respond. It is a commemoration--a memorial-- a somber remembrance. Even our ridiculous corporate media is treating it somberly, as would be expected.

I just don't know what on earth you are talking about? Holiday?
Good heavens, no.

[Bluzmann57]

11. Some calendars list this as "Patriot's Day"

Which sounds sort of like a holiday, especially to a person from outside the USA. And she's been watching fox noise until she figured out what liars they are (with some help of course :evilgrin:)

[Bluenorthwest]

17. So 'Bataan Day'?

What is her take on that? April 9 or the Monday nearest.
"On April 9, 1942, 75,000 Filipino and American soldiers surrendered to the Japanese at the tip of the Bataan Peninsula, which juts into Manila Bay in the Philippines. For nearly five months, the troops had fought ferociously against overwhelming odds until they ran out of food and water, medical supplies and ammunition. As prisoners of war (POWs), they and thousands of Filipinos were taken to a camp run by the Japanese army. This grueling series of marches are now known as the Bataan Death March."

[hlthe2b]

23. Sorry but I can not help but take offense

After spending the past several days feeling so emotionally raw
and with tears very close to the surface--then seeing the tears of
those family members and those of former President Clinton as he
spoke in Shanksville yesterday.

Look, I'm not averse to criticizing our society and certainly our
Government's actions the past decade--and I certainly have
with those I've encountered myself overseas. But, I just can not
believe that you would be expressing a nd sharing an accusation
that we are treating this like a holiday. Do you see sale fliers for
the mall? Are there fireworks scheduled in your area? Celebratory
picnics and parades? Maybe a Lady Gaga concert?

Your Filipino friend/ SO deserves a clarification from someone
who isn't just looking to criticize our own Nation so gratuitously and
who will take the time to try to educate her. Plenty enough aspects
of our "collective" national behavior deserving apology, given our
reckless military actions. This is not.

Well, at least your post diverted my sadness. Now, I just feel
dismayed....

[Bluzmann57]

30. Sorry

Sorry I dismayed you. I was just repeating a conversation we had.
I also didn't criticize the Govt's actions in my post. But you just go on believing what you want. People will do that anyway I guess.

[hlthe2b]

34. ummm...

We seem to talk past each other, for some reason...:shrug:

I certainly would be the first to criticize our government's actions. I HOPE you do so as well. That is not the point. :shrug:

[Bluzmann57]

31. Oh yeah, one more thing

She is not my s/o, my friend, or whatever you think. We are married and damn happy. I hope everyone is as happy as we are.
Actually, she is my friend. The best friend I ever had. She is also my soulmate and the love of my life. I feel very fortunate that we found each other.

[hlthe2b]

33. Sooo... she IS your friend...

I'm happy for you that you have found a true friend AND wife... (sorry, i missed that part).

[Obamanaut]

37. So which is it? Wifey figured out FOX on her own, or with help? The OP stated

"...she figured on her own that fox lies..." and in this post you take partial credit.

[eShirl]

38. They need to name it something else. "Patriots Day" is already taken, and it's not in September.

[SoCalDem]

7. Independence Day should be the only "true" national holiday

If workers got the time off they deserved, we would not have to carve out "special" days that are political hot-potatoes.

Is there really a need to always "celebrate" events that are carnage-producing? Even the ending of those events, draws a clear line between the ones who survived it, and the ones who did not. No one needs to tell the families of the dead to miss them or to grieve for them Why is it a national requirement to make a big production out of it year after year, decade after decade?

I know that the spectacle producers need the work, and the bands like to play and the marchers like to march, but most of our "holidays" are not really "all-that".

New Year's Day is more of a football holiday
MLK Day is a post office/school/bank holiday for most people
President's Day squished some favorites together, so banks could close up
Memorial Day is less meaningful when we are always at war
Labor Day has lost its panache, since everyone seems to be having a hate-fest with labor-types.
Veteran's Day ..(see memorial Day)
Thanksgiving is the ultimate food-holiday in a time when many have nothing much to eat, or a place to eat it..and of course it's a football holiday too..and a reminder of how propaganda has spun settler v native american interactions.

and then we have Xmas..a religious holiday not even "celebrated" by most of the world's population, but glorified by so-called secular multi-cultural countries... a day off to unwrap all the plastic shit from China and eat

Of course all of these "holidays" no longer even come with a guaranteed day off with pay, since "service economies" must always be available to service anyone who desperately needs a taco on Christmas day..or a pair of plastic flipflops from a barrel at 7-11.

[underpants]

8. My mom told me yesterday about her church's picnic and "celebration"

I said "You mean memorial" "Oh yeah yeah it really isn't a celebration is it?"

[Obamanaut]

39. There are definitions of 'celebration' that include ceremonies, observance, or commemoration.

Getting worked up over calling an 'observance' or 'service' a celebration is wasting a good work-up. It should be saved for something bigger.

[sufrommich]

14. I have yet to see anybody treating this like a holiday. nt

[Bluenorthwest]

15. Is she aware that 'Bataan and Coregidor Day' is a holiday in

the Philippines? Commemorates 'the Batan death march' and all that. Is that a celebration? It is a National Holiday there.
Seems to me anyone who understands that would understand that the entire world holds such days of memorial which are not 'supposed to be for celebration'.

[cali]

16. can you give me eve ONE example of anyone treating this festively, like a holiday?

[Shagbark Hickory]

21. plead read my reply #20 if I'm not on your ignore list yet.

[liberal N proud]

18. That is part of what is making me sick

The way everyone is running around waving the flag on a day that is a dark day in our history.

[Shagbark Hickory]

20. Oh so that's why I'm seeing flags and bunting everywhere!?!

Good grief. My area is decorated like it's memorial day with those uniquely georgia crosses with vets names on them sticking in the medians along roadways and there flags everywhere. I see patriotic decorations at subdivision entrances and everything. I was sooo confuzzled.

[Quantess]

26. That doesn't mean people are happy about what happened.

Some people just go overboard with the flag decorations any chance they get.
People might not be moping around looking sad, but that doesn't mean they are "celebrating". After 10 years it's understandable to not feel too much grief, but, it's not a happy remembrance, either.

[Shagbark Hickory]

27. At what point does "Partiots Day Sale! All Mattresses 20% off" become acceptable then? n/t

[EFerrari]

40. A member in Cooking & Baking forum already reported some flyers.

I bet it wouldn't be too hard to find more examples.

[JI7]

35. but how is that a celebration ?

[RC]

22. With all the parades, bands and patriotic speeches about how great we are

It sure seems more like a celebration. We seem to be celebrating the deaths of the many multiple hundreds of thousands of innocent people in their own countries, we killed in retaliation for the blow back, the revenge that was 9/11.
The 9/11 that the bu$h administration knew about, not only because the out going Clinton Administration told the incoming bu$h administration about with a two and a half in thick report, to within a week that something was going down, and also because other countries were trying to warn us, U.S. of the coming attack. Cheney shelved the report and ignored the warnings. They knew and Let It Happen On Purpose.

[Exultant Democracy]

24. I don't think patriots day is for our people as it were.

[Scuba]

25. Talaga!

[Malikshah]

28. You're wife hit it on the head. Where are the parades? The Hallmark cards??

As for parades...sadly some of the events a equivalent.

I've yet to see Greeting cards, but am sure there are some forms of them out there...

The "terrorists" haven't one in this aspect, but collective maudlin has...

[aikoaiko]

29. Holiday has different meanings in the US (probly elsewhere too).

It can solemn, it can be important, or it can be a fun day.

[JI7]

36. it mostly means day off from work and school

shows how overworked we are. yet don't get much in return.

[Blue_In_AK]

32. I just saw a poll on MSN home page

about whether 9/11 should be a holiday, and remarkably a majority said yes. I find that personally disgusting.