It is hard to believe it has been four years since 9/11, and the anger is still there but the hurt has seemed to fade a little. That may not be atypical:
The first year was marked with a moment of silence, the tolling of bells and a reading of the names of the nearly 3,000 people who died. Those sad rituals continued for the second and third anniversaries of the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks and will be repeated once again today.
But this time, somewhere between the solemn ceremonies and memorial golf classics, there is also a search for another way to remember that is more official, unified and concrete — something to help ensure that Sept. 11 is recognized by the public and kept in boldface on every calendar for centuries.
“This one is difficult. Something like 9/11 could, at first, transcend politics and unify us as an American nation, drive us all together,” said Katherine Pratt Ewing, a cultural anthropology professor at Duke University. “But the significance seems to change every year…
Today, 9/11 means the start of the NFL season.
John Boucher
Four years later and not only is Osama bin Laden still at large, but he continues to kill Americans as well.
But there still is one constant through all of this. Our ineffectual and clueless president still takes the month of August off. And then some.
ppGaz
I’m not sure that there is agreement around the question of what 9/11/2001 actually meant.
Just to give two examples (out of many possible ones):
1) One could say that it “meant” we should go out and get the chief perpetrator(s). This is the meme made popular by Bush immediately after the attack — “Bring them to justice.” I’ll stop short of talking about how, and why, we failed to do that.
2) One could say that it “meant” that it was time for the US (and the West in general) to wake up and realize that we live in a different world from the one we fancifully invented in our heads after the fall of the Soviet Union. Namely, that the world was our oyster now. Finding that there was still great danger out there, we could have, after 9/11, reinvented our idea of security and preparedness, reinvented the way we handle our borders, and the safety of our critical infrastructure.
If we need something to do today, it would be useful to reflect on the possibility that four years after 9/11, we aren’t a lot safer, and that we squandered some of the opportunity we had to make ourselves safer, and that it might be useful to look ahead and plan and strategize differently from the way we did in these four years.
Or, we could strut around and pat ourselves on the back, and listen to country music, and mouth useless slogans like “support our president.”
demomondian
I think it’s bitterly ironic that 9/11/2003 will be the day that Delta chooses to file for bankruptcy in order to screw its employees of their pensions.
jobiuspublius
I’m not surprised. Look at what people do at wakes. They stand around a corpse chit-chatting. That’s been my experience.
As the authors noted, forgetting about memorials, turning them into tourist attractions or museums, or shopping spree’s and barbecues is what usually happens. So, it seems to be our nature to want to move on. Maybe, it’s a sign of our hedonism or optimism. I think this is aided and abetted by our business dominated government. What can be done to stop it? Pass a Memorial Profiteering law? What about free speech? Wouldn’t it Stalinist to make celebrations into state run affairs?
It could also be too early to have memorials. As has been noted, OBL and Al-Qaeda remain at large. Were there Pearl Harbor memorials during WWII? Were people going on with there lives during WWII the way they are now during the war on terror? Declaring the war on terror to be an endless war is like telling people to eat drink and be merry for tommorow you may … I don’t know.
Let’s not forget the politicization of 9/11, getting suckered into Iraq, and Worst-POTUS-Ever.
And then there was Katrina …
Bob
I think that Kafka wrote something about the tigers coming into the temple. At first it alarmed everyone, eventually it became part of the ceremony.
Geek, Esq.
911 has gone from the day we were all Americans united to a political football.
Boronx
“This one is difficult. Something like 9/11 could, at first, transcend politics and unify us as an American nation, drive us all together,” said Katherine Pratt Ewing, a cultural anthropology professor at Duke University. “But the significance seems to change every year…
This is natural to some extent, but it’s exacerbated by utterly failed leadership, and worse, a concerted effort by that leadership to obscure the truth about what happened.
Seal Pool
It was also the time that eradicated celebrity cleavage on most magazine covers.
daveb
Come on. Turn on CSPAN. 9/11 is now the day for America’s May Day Parade.
CaseyL
9/11 was an atrocity.
The response to it was a calamity.
The calamitous response has already caused more damage, to America and to the world, than the terrorist attacks did.
9/11 was the trigger event that led to America losing its mind, losing its way, and losing its soul.
Someone once said, about JFK’s assassination, that we would have recovered from the murder of JKF, but we’ll never recover from the murder of Lee Harvey Oswald.
I feel the same way about 9/11.
CaseyL
Oh, jeebus.
“..from the murder of JFK“.
Zifnab
That is still the major problem. No matter how hard the administration fumbles, the 9/11 football still appears to stay hard in their hands. It’s a rather sick joke that you need one horror (Katrina) to offset the rampant abuse of power brought on by another. Like getting shot twice in the leg, with the second shot prying the first one loose.
And the question still remains, will the politics of fear forever be a potent weapon in the arsenal of the badguys? All the rationalizing and clear-headed thinking and reasoned logic has failed to prevent a needless war in Iraq, a massive curtailing of freedom at home, and a crippling strike to our foreign relations. It took a Catagory 4 hurricane wiping out a major US city to open the eyes of people enough to recognize the danger we are in from our own leaders. Fear of hurricane today trumps fear of terrorists from four years ago. It’s a sad sick joke.
not 'murican
happy jenga day!
Jim Caputo
To me it feels somewhat distant. I guess that’s because of all that’s happened since then…
The capture of Bin Laden
The expanding of freedoms in America
The secular democracy we brought to Iraq
The way the government saved thousands of lives by reacting swiftly to the Katrina catastrophe.
I look back on all those accomplishments and I’m filled with patriotic fervor and pride.
Thank you, George Bush!
jobiuspublius
Perfect, Jim. :)
JoeTX
9/11 signifies for me the long slide away from a grand democracy to a neo-conservative one party system, that tries to export our believes on others by force. Where there is no longer truth and right or wrong, just spin. We had national unity and world opinion on our side, a healthy economy, and a government that was beginning to operate in the black. We have lost so much since 9/11
jobiuspublius
Hey, we’re just competing with China. If you can’t stand the heat, …
Bob
The murder of JFK was a coup by, among others, oil interests. If you really want to be a real American, you need to understand what the hell it was all about.
narvy
No kidding. And all these years I thought it was a coup by the missile cartel after the Cuban missile crisis spoiled the missile market.
Since I haven’t been a real American I’d like to become one now, but I can’t because I still don’t understand what the hell it was all about.
If that was actually the satire of of the conspiracy theorists that it looks like, I apologize. If not, go back on your meds, Dude.
narvy
The First World War was much more horrific than any war that preceded it, and what we now celebrate as Memorial Day by jumping into our SUVs to burn more petroleum faster was created to respect and honor the soldiers who died in that bloody holocaust. I heard a report somewhere that some academic says that the same thing will happen with 9/11.
DougJ
Why do you hate America?
Freedom is on the march.
This is the fault of the media elite and their relativistic friends on the left.
The tax cuts have made the economy strong. We are respected around the world.
Clinton left us with a recession.
9/11 changed everything.
narvy
ppGaz – Good post. Thanks.
Jim Caputo – Good post. Thanks.
The Political Teen – That is the most magnificent post-modern post I have ever been privileged to see. ppGaz and Jim, go sit at the feet of The Master and learn.
Mr Furious
Wow, John.
I’ve been away since Wednesday, and only after stepping away and coming back to a thread like this one does one realize that your audience has evolved into one that is shockingly left/liberal. I know it’s not always like this, but I wonder how you feel about it.
I happen to think it makes for a more stimulating site—it’s my favorite stop. But I wonder how often it makes you throw your hands in the air and wonder what the hell you are doing this for…
As for 9/11, I’ll put my thoughts down and come back later.
DougJ
Mr. Furious, opposing Bush doesn’t make you a liberal.
narvy
As an out-of-the-closet lefty (We’re here, we’re liberal, get used to it!),
I must protest we are not
nor are we
With thanks to the American Heritage Dictionary.
narvy
Mr Furious –
Oh, please don’t. I’m sure they can recover and live on for many years.
ppGaz
Suggesting that Bush has acted like, talked like and looked like a complete ass for the last two weeks …. is shockingly liberal?
I’ve said it before, but it’s worth repeating: Hang around the Internet, sooner or later you will see everything.
narvy
True. It makes you intelligent, fair-minded, honest, and realistic.
tBone
Well, depending on what time you left on Wednesday, you may have missed this. I think it probably answers your question.
narvy
From the New York Times, datelined September 12.
ppGaz
But post_katrina is not about “opposing” Bush. What is there to oppose here? The man simply looked, talked and acted like he was clueless, helpless, and completely insensitive. He went through the entire critical period as if he were sleepwalking one minute, and rudely awakened the next.
If one had been watching tv all that first week, with the sound off, it would look for all the world like Bush’s main concern was whether to wear the suitcoat and tie, or the rolled up shirtsleeves and open collar.
Did anyone see him land on the carrier today, in New Orleans? What a bizarro scene. He made a big show of posing for snapshots with some of the ship’s crew, mugging with them and looking for all the world as if he were on a campaign trip. Would it hurt the guy to look and act for five minutes like he took all this seriously, as if there might be something more important going on that how he fucking looks?
There is nothing liberal or conservative about this stuff.
It’s about whether you will slavishly defend this kind of fecklessness and sorry behavior, or whether you will call a spade a spade. Whether you will give in to reality, or just admit that all truth, to you, is politically-based and personality-based.
jobiuspublius
lol. Them. I wonder what it’s like to be an ambasador to the US.
Well, it’s about time. It’s about time that disasters were put to good use. No use in letting a perfectly good disaster go to waste. Hey, how about mobile wind farms with giant batteries so we can … Oh never mind.
People will see thru this. Money will get spent. Nothing will come of it.
America to Washington, Black/African Americans are Americans too.
DougJ
In fairness, major hostilities have ended in New Orleans.
jobiuspublius
Can’t wait umtil Worst-POTUS-Ever and Nagin have a big wet sloppy.
stickler
Narvy said:
Yes, the First World War was a new low in war-making and slaughter. But our Memorial Day actually predates it: it was part of the collective attempt to make sense of the slaughter from the Civil War. It began in New York and was for decades known as “Decoration Day.”
World War I (or, as Wilson called it, “the war to end war,” with no right to a refund for false advertising) was commemorated by Armistice Day, November 11th — the day when the guns fell silent on the Western Front.
From Wikipedia:
Sorry to seem picky. But when the mud and blood of the Civil War and the First World War get mixed up, I notice. And sometimes I think to grieve for all the lives cut short by those wars.
stickler
God, that last sentence sounded pompous. Sorry again.
jobiuspublius
Wait until they get electricity and find that Worst-POTUS-Ever was photo-oping, in NO no less.
jobiuspublius
Is this unprecedented?
jobiuspublius
You have to see this Roberts photo.
Steve S
I think it would be best as a nation if we forgot about 9/11. It is not useful to dwell upon tragedies. Wallowing, or Celebrating in your defeat is rather anti-American.
9/11 isn’t a holiday. I wish the Bush administration would stop treating it like one.
narvy
You’re right. I should not have slept through that history class. Mr. Know-it-all is embarrassed. But the point still stands, as the blood and the pain recede in time, the original significance fades and the day becomes a holiday.
narvy
Why? I never am.
narvy
Not so. Bishop Gates will have a new Rolls Royce.
Especially well-connected incompetents in the Old Boys’ network.
“Further evidence of his caring is his program for the betterment of the lives of the evacuees by housing them in the Astrodome.” – Barbara Bush
These people couldn’t get a clue if someone gave them a free clue coupon.
narvy
Make that “Bishop JAKES“. It’s too early in the day for accuracy.