We will never forget, because Rudy Giuliani will never stop reminding us.
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…that Saddam Hussein personally flew both planes into the towers. Because Obama.
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Some day, it will no longer be “too soon.” I mean, how many centuries needed to pass before one particular fella’s torture and murder eventually became celebrated with colored eggs, jellybeans, pastel bonnets, and chocolate varmints?
…
…you mean you don’t eat that stuff on Friday…?
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And
NONE OF THE CARBON UNITS WHICH INFEST ENTERPRISE.
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The 4th of July, or Thanksgiving?
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I submit that this day has not yet come to pass.
Neither of those commemorate a crime against civilians. Also neither commemorates any event in living memory.
ETA: by “living memory” I mean “experienced by people who are still alive.” A tacky Thanksgiving Day Sale display is unlikely to bring up horrific memories for thousands of families who lost loved ones to starvation during the early colonial era.
Maybe not for you.
How old ARE you?
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To be fair, I’ll bet a handful of them did. White sales go way, way back.
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In solemn remembrance of those who lost their lives on that fateful day…
You, too can buy a case of coke for the unbelievably low price of $3.33!!!
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I mean, that’s why I find it grotesque, but I’m not sure about the American public any more. They might have found it offensive because they think Walmart should only have used the boxes of expensive products or guns or something. (I’ve just realized, with the popularity of Trump in this country, that a much larger percentage of Americans are stupid assholes than I previously credited. I feel like I’ve been hugely overestimating the American public all my life.)
Those aren’t the same kind of disaster porn that this is, given that they’re simply to coincide with holidays (when people are more likely to be shopping), not specific, much less recent, events. I guess I should expect to start seeing “Pulse two-for-one shooters” drink specials, or “Sandy Hook Memorial Back to School” sales.
To be fair, July 4th celebrates something quite specific that isn’t related to a military action. And Thanksgiving celebrates a period in-between genocides. (Well, according to the narrative of the holiday, anyways.)
I’m not sure that anyone’s torture has anything to do with celebrating the goddess Easter. Unless we’re talking about her poor rabbit that had to pass those eggs…
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Probably not, for most people. I, myself, can’t hold onto solemnity and reverence for long. After my brother died on April 21st, 1992, that date held sadness for me. But now I remember April 21st as a joyful day as well; it’s my daughter’s birthday. December 4th was a fun day for most of my life: my other brother’s birthday. But now it’s also the day my mother died. And my father passed away just this past May 4th: “Star Wars Day.” It was a tad surreal sitting next to my father’s cooling body that morning, receiving lots of “May The Fourth Be With You” texts and jokes from old school friends who hadn’t heard the news… but it was comforting as well. It cheered me to know that such levity still went on, every moment of every day. Somewhere. If not in that room right then.
I recognize that most other people still need solemnity and reverence and grief, especially about such a horrific day. But for me, personally, I’m not a “never forget” kinda person. I don’t actually forget such things. At least not the ones that matter to me and those I love and respect. And yet, just as few indeed commemorate today as the 156th anniversary of the sinking of the PS Lady Elgin (300 lives lost), and not a whole lot of people outside the Gulf Coast remember to observe the 116th anniversary of the Galveston hurricane (8,000 lives lost), and I’ve missed any mention today of the 22nd anniversary of the crash of USAir Flight 427 (132 lives lost), and I myself am embarrassed to admit I forgot my black armband today, the 42nd anniversary of the day President Ford pardoned Richard Nixon (untold levels of national integrity lost), nor have I heard any mention of all the untold legions of people brutalized and murdered by police on every September 8th since the founding of this country, I’m apologetically the kind of asshole who will spend this coming Sunday as I spend every other Sunday, playing with my kids and tidying up the house and not giving much thought at all to the terrible events of fifteen years ago.
I am happy to share commemorations of shared holidays with family, friends, neighbors, and countrymen. But I don’t think I have it in me to share national grief. On that fateful day, when my roommates were transfixed to the TV all day, I left the house and went to work by 9:30 PDT that morning, and spent a couple of frustrated hours wondering when the hell anyone else was going to show up, before I finally got the call to go home. I felt frustrated, impotent for what was going on on the far coast, and needing to be doing something productive instead of wringing my hands, watching the TV, and wondering how something like that could have happened (when the initial shock wore off in about two minutes and I started wondering why we all were so surprised by it).
And since that day, I’ve been unwilling to let myself wallow in grief and remembrance, especially on that date. I do not blame the individual victims for what happened to them, but part of me really does blame the United States of America, the institutional victim of those attacks, for what happened that day. And that part of me feels that too many 9/11 remembrances indulge in the fantasy that we, as a nation and as a culture, were the blameless victims of an unprovoked attack like we were on Pearl Harbor Day. The victims who died, and those who have died and suffered since then due to the longer-term effects of the attack and the towers’ collapse, were blameless. But our nation, I believe, was not.
I think we’ve shirked much of the duty of soul-searching those attacks should have inspired in us. Until we get around to doing that and changing the way we interact with other cultures and nations, I prefer not to spend more thought on 9/11 than I absolutely have to. Otherwise I get mad, and I don’t have time for that anymore.
So I’ll shut up about it.
Love you guys. Thanks for giving me the space to vent all that.
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Agreed. This is at worst somewhat tacky. Offensive is adding a smoke machine and having all of the Coke Zero cans in a pile.
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… and having a rabble of Pepsi cans cheering and burning coke flags …
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First thing I thought when I saw the banner.
I can imagine it as a positive sentiment about remembering the bravery and courage of New York at that time, and the lives that were lost.
But with Trump running for president?
It just reads “Hate Muslims”.
That’s honoring survivors. What kind of war hero gets himself killed or captured? Make America Great Again!
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Given the number of 21 gun salutes I’ve heard a funerals in the past few years, I can miss that for a long ass time and not miss it.
The rest is good, campy fun…
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