My Facebook friend has a valid point.

[pepperbear]

"Amid all the official memorializing, I am reminded of the immediate responses we received from our leaders and their propaganda machines: 'America is open for business,' 'The Constitution is quaint and outdated,' and 'Let's go kick the sh*& out of people who had nothing to do with this.' I will commemorate and remember in my own way, and have no need of any multi-national corporations telling me what I should think and feel about this ongoing 10 year old tragedy."

I remember all the "We're one country now" hype, which lasted exactly 2 minutes. In addition to the expected anxiety, I was terrified because it happened on Skippy-De-Doo-Dah's watch. The next few years justified my fear.

[Dennis Donovan]

1. rec rec rec

I remember the calls for "unity". Then GWB started blaming "muslims"...

AFAIK, ASSHOLES knocked the towers.:shrug:

[Mist]

2. Yeah, but we got the official imprimatur to go shopping, which made everything ok...nt

[pepperbear]

5. "go ahead and take the kids to Disneyworld." I knew people who

actually thought they were being patriots by buying things.

[Bluerthanblue]

3. and "you can help by going shopping"-

flag flying automobile commercials ad nauseam.

There were people who died on 9/11/01 whose lives aren't memorialized or recognized by the media, yet they are no less precious to those they left behind.

The media and the hype that has become our society is a big part of what is destroying us all imo.

May those who mourn and grieve be comforted. May we come to recognize the preciousness of all people- and work to make this tired old world a better place for all beings, everywhere.


rec'd.

[classof56]

11. Amen.

n/t

[sabrina 1]

4. I don't remember much unity. I remember Ann Coulter, eg,

saying that at least it happened in NYC where there were mostly Liberals eg. And the 'war on Liberals' began almost immediately, not that it wasn't already in full swing for over a decade on talk radio.

I remember all the chicken-hawks slamming anyone who did not support invading Iraq or Afghanistan as 'traitors'. In fact the vitriol from the far right became vicious, always using 9/11 to justify their 'patriotism'.

It was a horrible way to react to such a tragedy. So unity, no, I don't remember it much at all.

[Bake]

9. "Post 9/11 unity" is a myth.

We were as divided then as now. What unity there was, was simply unity in grief and shock. That didn't last long -- just about until Bush decided to invade Iraq --if that long.

Bake

[bullwinkle428]

10. The "post-9/11 unity" that I'm thinking of involves all of that

footage of people throughout the world expressing their sympathy and positive emotional support toward America and its people, but it's certainly also true that the wing-nuts never slowed down their blood-lust for revenge on someone...anyone, for one minute.

[NRaleighLiberal]

6. I remember "go out and buy a car". n/t

[renate]

7. about the people who had nothing to do with this

I was watching a 9/11 documentary last night and there was an interview with a guy on the street who basically said of people in the Middle East, "we should just go kill them all. They didn't care whether they killed innocent civilians, so why should we?"

:wow:

I just hope that it was the immediacy and terror of his being in New York City at a time when we'd just seen thousands of people die horribly and nobody knew what would happen next, but still... :scared:

[gratuitous]

8. Heck, I had people tell me . . .

While the Towers were still standing and burning in Manhattan, I had online acquaintances tell me these attacks were all the fault of peaceful people who were working toward international understanding (i.e., me personally). Needless to say, I do not correspond or interact with these persons and haven't for 10 years.

It's a curious thing: If you hold certain principles, you tend to act one way. If you hold certain other principles, you act another. And while the results can be depressingly predictable, they are visited on us all, regardless of what principles any particular person holds.

So, as horrific as the pile of dead bodies from that one day 10 years ago, we have as a nation piled up 10, 100, even as many as 1,000 bodies for every body from that day in a systematic program that goes on and on without any hope of ending, to our financial and moral bankruptcy.

Oh well, never mind that! Keep waving those flags, everybody.