Pass The Ammo

How about a less dismal way to remember it.

This is how I see it—on the eve of a friend’s death who was killed by a drunk driver, if I want to pay tribute to his memory, I’m not gonna post a picture of the accident scene.

I’m not suggesting that we remember it any other way than the way it was, I’m saying that there are other aspects to 9/11 other than just the most horrific and depressing ones—there are sad ones, there are heroic ones, etc. Even a picture of the destruction can be uplifting at the same time. It’s better than just a hole in the ground.

I don’t know, maybe I feel differently about it because I was in Manhattan that morning—I saw people jumping firsthand, I know people who died, I remember the walls and walls of “LOST” posters and flyers. I still get weirded out every time a plane flies over the city.

This isn’t even about Chad’s post specifically. It just seems like there’s a whole lot of “disaster porn” going around today—one of the gun blogs I read posted a dozen pictures of people jumping from the windows. WTF

There is truly benefit in remembering the people AND remembering the event. I say we should spend 364 days a year celebrating those who died… but lets spend one day, September 11th, remembering how we got our asses kicked. Let us use this day to remember that the maggot behind the deed is still alive. Let the pain rekindle our resolve. Lets us remember that we are Americans and we will fight these idiots to the death. Let us remember that we will never surrender, never retreat, and never grow soft.

Yeah, I understand the impulse around the right-wing blogosphere yesterday was to be like “We have to show pictures of the death and destruction today so that those stupid liberals will realize that the Islamofascistnazis are gonna kill us all so they should just start supporting President Bush in his war against Terraq,” but nobody has forgotten what happened.

See, I feel the opposite of you. I think we should spend 364 days a year being pissed at terrorists, and then on the anniversary of 9/11, we should be a little more subdued—the anniversary of 9/11 itself should be a memorial, not a war rally.

I was down at the WTC last night and there was actually some douchebag from out of town was holding up a placard of someone jumping, and some of the other attendees who had lost family in the attack were visibly upset—for all they knew it was their husband in the picture. I guess it’s just a touchier subject for New Yorkers, for obvious reasons.

Like I said, it’s not so much about the picture Chad posted, but I saw some really tasteless displays yesterday, more than I’ve seen in past years it seems like.

I think Foehammer (www.foehammer.net) said it best,

Listening to the words of interviewers and those who lost loved ones and speakers standing behind podiums at Ground Zero this morning, six years after the Day that Changed America Forever, I am left feeling that it is time to move on. We do not move on by repeating the names of those who died and referring to them as “victims” every year. Grief is real and doesn’t ever go away completely, but we are not looking at 9-11 in the correct light. That day was not just a terrorist act, it was an act of war. The men and women that died that day were casualties in the war that continues today. We have to come to grips with what it all truly signifies.

We must not do so much crying as we should be looking to avenge those we lost. The best way to make things right is to prevent such assaults as best we may. This means we have to look the problem straight in the eye.

We aren’t.”

JJ:

but nobody has forgotten what happened
Ok, First of all you are dead wrong.

I guess I was dead wrong—Foehammer thinks “it is time to move on.” I’m not sure how that fits in with “never forget.” Then he says “We do not move on by repeating the names of those who died,” which is easy for him to say, of course, because it doesn’t appear that he actually lost anyone on 9/11.

“We must not do so much crying as we should be looking to avenge those we lost.” Once again, easy to say when “we” actually means other people. And hell, judging by the number of people we’ve killed in Afghanistan and Iraq—both combatants and noncombatants—I think we have avenged the f**k out of them a dozen times over.

Don’t try and defend these liberal douche bags Guav. You can’t.

Wait, I’m totally lost here—what liberal douchebags? Who are you talking about?

but to say that the all right-wingers spell Iraq with a “Terr” is just silly.

Uhm, dude, take a Valium or something—I was hardly seriously saying that anyone spells Iraq with “Terr”, I just made that up on the spot haha

To be upset with all right winger because they feel in their heart of hearts that we must never forget the evil that wants us dead…

I’m not upset with that—they remind us of that year round and that’s fine. I just thought on the actual anniversary of the attacks, they might chill on the rhetoric a bit and be a little more sensitive to the people who are actually mourning friends and family and not flaunt pictures of people flying out of windows. On any other day I wouldn’t say a thing.

Chris:

The difference between an auto accident and a terrorist attack is of course that one is a horrible accident and the other a malign and deliberate attack.

A valid point, my analogy was flawed. Let me try again: On the eve of a friend’s death who was murdered by a drug dealer, if I want to pay tribute to his memory, I’m not gonna post a picture of the crime scene or a picture of his skull that was cracked by a steel pipe.

Remember the good ‘ole days where I would call you an “ass-munch” and you would call me a “pinhead”?

Now we just tell each other to go sedate ourselves. What civil creatures we have become.