Note, I deliberately delayed posting this article so everyone might observe the fifth anniversary of the heretofore most aggressive attack on American soil since 1941 in their own way.People are still wondering how best to memorialize the events that unfolded the morning of September 11, 2001. As deserving an enterprise that may be, America has already spoiled that which should have been left virgin.
9/11 is the first American tragedy to become thrice victimized. Its first assault was delivered by Islamic fascists demonstrating their hatred for America, its citizens, and all she stands for. Second, it was victimized by its government patronizing survivors in a manner never considered before, even for victims of Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor or Germany's attack on the Lusitania.
9/11's third victimization was by Hollywood, courtesy of Michael Moore's propamentary Fahrenheit 9/11, which pretended to be a documentary but was instead Goebbel-esque propaganda attacking one president for the sins of another. Its June release date was intended to influence the 2004 election in has-anyone-heard-from-John Kerry's favor.
I don't remember reading, nor can I imagine anything similar happening subsequent to Japan's attack on Pearl Harbor December 7, 1941. Back then Americans, though victimized, weren't behaving as victims. Survivor's wouldn't have expected, and the public wouldn't have offered, Pearl Harbor lottery prizes and Hollywood studios wouldn't have dared tampering with the 1944 presidential elections nor would any director have considered making Fahrenheit 127.
Maybe that's another reason their's was the greatest generation.
Now, instead of fully engaging the enemy that attacked the World Trade Center, waking up to the tyranny the enemy holds over its innocents, and mobilizing our nation to convincingly eject Islamic Fascists and their allies from our midst and their state-sponsored positions, we retreat into a national pity party and read names for hours. We're doomed to an annual parade of politicians, poets, widows, children, clergy, significant others, and actors waxing eloquently and reverently how 9/11 changed them, while at the same time they and a growing number of American's are as committed to wiping out terrorism as OJ Simpson is to finding Nicole's murderer.
Truly, we are not our grandparent's generation. We are our own. But we can do better. We must do better. And we'd better do it bigger and better than Osama does, lest we become the generation that lost Rome.
Excellent essay Tom.
ReplyDeleteI agree with everything you say here. But there's one term you use, one that is used often to describe the attacks on 9-11-2001 which I am sick and tired of; That it was a "tragedy".
9-11-01 was not a tragedy.
A child drowning, or being diagnosed with a terminal illness is a tragedy. A family being killed in a car accident, or in a house fire is a tragedy.
The attacks on 9-11-01 were an act of war. Certainly there were subplots that day that were tragic, but to describe the entire event as a tragedy somehow makes it seem as though there was no rhyme or reason to it, that it just "happened". It didn't just happen. It wasn't just some random cosmic occurrence.
It's like the term "War on Terror". I'm so f-ing sick of that term. Terror is the method. You can't wage a war against a method. The war is against sick, twisted, Islamic fascists who seek to destroy everything that our free, liberal, open society stands for.
The only tragedy is that at least half of the people in this country, and the free world (more than half in their case) for that matter, don't get it.
I'm afraid we're doomed.
Thank you, Peter! I appreciate the compliment and the comment.
ReplyDeleteRegarding the latter, I'm not ready to agree 9/11 wasn't a tragedy, but I will agree the word "tragedy" has become overused to the point of becoming almost meaningless. "Crisis" is another word used by alarmists politicians to describe any number of issues that are anything but crisis.
The Civil War was a crisis. The depression was a crisis. The dust bowl was a crisis. WWI and WWII were crisis. I'll go so far to include nuclear war heads parked 90 miles off the coast of Florida as creating a crisis.
Since then we've had plenty of emergencies as well as situations deserving the nation's attention, but I'm unconvinced they rise to the level of crisis despite what politicians and the media would like us to believe.
Not being a crisis doesn't mean something isn't important. It simply reserves the designation for more deserving events that put others into perspective.
Thank you for the reminder not to overuse words or become to easily lured into hyperbole--except, of course, when it suits my purpose :-)
Tom - You've nailed it again. It is so apparent that too few ralize the scale and presence of the huge threat we face, and -consequently - focus not at all on eliminating the threat.
ReplyDeleteThanks for your awareness and clarity in this, and many, matters