The People

[madame_zora]

It's a rant that we should take heed of, MMM. 9/11 has altered the way Americans live and think; it's an historical marker. We need to be vigilant and not allow complacency to lull us into a false sense of security. As I watched those horribile events unfold (too close for comfort), I told someone sitting next to me that we have lost our innocence. Our collective national naivete that we needn't worry about being in harm's way in our country needed to be challenged, though obviously not in this tragic manner. To observe this day is one way to remind ourselves of how fragile is our security, not to mention our very lives. I just hope we don't commercialize it (ref Pecker's K-Mart apt comment) or turn it into a political forum.

Too late, it's already a political forum, and it was very likely a political action to begin with.

You're right about having lost our innocence, but I think it's not really gone- it's just re-directed. This thing is many layers deep, and the average American is just not equipped to deal with something so devastatingly real. I have friends who didn't even know anybody who died in the towers who have some degree of "post traumatic stress"- I mean seriously, ADULT people!

They return to nurse on the breast of their religion to draw comfort from the ugliness of the world- so now left unchecked, the ugliest among us are free to do as they will, knowing the fragile Americans just can't take any more "reality". All ANY politician has to say anymore is "terrrrrrrrrrist" and America hides under her large bed and shivers.

We will not win against extremists who have far more courage than we do. While we're so busy trying to restructure their societies, perhaps we should take a good look at our own. We are too soft- soft willed, soft minded, and weak in our capabilities. We haven't watched our children starve, or struggled in much more than a mental way (oh yeah, how sad, we're black, gay, women, "other religious" and no one respects out rights! Haha@ us!).

 

[D_Sheffield Thongbynder]

Too late, it's already a political forum, and it was very likely a political action to begin with.

You're right about having lost our innocence, but I think it's not really gone- it's just re-directed. This thing is many layers deep, and the average American is just not equipped to deal with something so devastatingly real. I have friends who didn't even know anybody who died in the towers who have some degree of "post traumatic stress"- I mean seriously, ADULT people!

They return to nurse on the breast of their religion to draw comfort from the ugliness of the world- so now left unchecked, the ugliest among us are free to do as they will, knowing the fragile Americans just can't take any more "reality". All ANY politician has to say anymore is "terrrrrrrrrrist" and America hides under her large bed and shivers.

We will not win against extremists who have far more courage than we do. While we're so busy trying to restructure their societies, perhaps we should take a good look at our own. We are too soft- soft willed, soft minded, and weak in our capabilities. We haven't watched our children starve, or struggled in much more than a mental way (oh yeah, how sad, we're black, gay, women, "other religious" and no one respects out rights! Haha@ us!).

I'm a little more optimistic than you about our chances of reviving a stronger ethos, MZ. There are plenty of strong-willed Americans of principle who will (I hope) make sure that we don't fold our tents and give in to the threat -- people like yourself, for example. Granted, there are too many sheeple as DC calls them, but haven't there always been? Events have a tendency to bring out the best and the worst in us, and I have seen many examples of resolve that arose because of the events of 9/11. My hope is that it is enough to keep us in a state of awareness that is impervious to politicizing. I'm not hopelessly naive and unduly optimistic, am I, MZ?

 

[b.c.]

Well not wishing to turn this into a political forum, I too wish to remember September 11th (9/11 seems so impersonal to me) for the victims of that day, the men and women who went about their daily lives, who went to work not knowing they were never to return... and in doing so, I cannot help but think in terms of the current victims as well.

I'm speaking of those "first responders" who heroically went into what they must have know was probable death, to rush to the aid of others, and the many others who followed, feeling it their duty, indeed an honor, to respond in the service of their country in the aftermath of "ground zero", only to later discover that their health was placed at risk by being there and (worse still) that their government apparently knew the risks, and lied to them about it.

We sometimes seem to suffer from short term memory when it comes to our heroes (ask any veteran of any war). Hopefully, in their moment of need, we will not abandon the heroes of September 11, they who responded in our nation's time of need.

( http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2006/09/08/earlyshow/main1985804.shtml?source=RSSattr=U.S._1985804 )