September 11th, 2001, In Memoriam

Apologies to Gabe for squishing his post, but I suspect everyone here is or was planning some kind of 9/11 memorial post. I suppose everyone may have something unique to say on the topic, whether it’s their own personal memories, remembrance of friends or family members lost that day, geopolitics or whatever.

I think Gabe put things into perspective, and quite eloquently: It is about remembrance of that terrible day, and the many terrible days that followed. However, here’s where I’ll respectfully disagree with him (and I know his heart’s in the right place): I don’t see it as an indulgence or anything he should be embarrassed about. In fact, quite the opposite. By remembering these events we also remember those who lost their lives, and in a way they live on through us.

They shouldn’t be forgotten, whether they were innocent victims going about their daily lives or those who rushed forward into danger in order to save others (and I include the Flight 93 passengers who stormed the cockpit in that last desperate attempt plus numerous people within both towers and the Pentagon who sacrificed their lives).

Often times you hear speeches given at memorials for firefighters, soldiers, police officers etc. where it’s said that they did such and such without without regard for their lives. Well, no, that’s not quite how it works. They had regard for their lives. They had families and friends who they wanted to see again. Kids that they wanted to watch grow up. BBQs and weddings to attend. They didn’t want to die…they wanted to return home to these things at the end of the day. And they were frightened of what they were facing, with good reason.

But they fought their way through that and advanced anyway, even as those thoughts plagued them and basic human instinct told them to run the other way. That’s my definition of heroic. (I should also mention that there were numerous accounts of similar actions attributed to the people who were in the towers when they were attacked).

So that’s where I’m coming from on this account: Remembrance, and not just a single day of the year. In a way, I think we almost owe it to them. It's not just ghoulish or prurient interest, rubbernecking or whatever. It just seems that as a nation we have a short attention span,

And it doesn't help that the MFM/MSM tends to sanitize things like this, to gloss it over as if it's some abstract thing that happened in ancient history: "And we musn't get those rednecks all flustered about these things...we must provide the filter and nuance since they don't understand the subtleties of the matter. There are two sides to this story and both are equally valid. We must provide the narrative"

Fuck that nonsense. I want to be reminded every single day of what happened to us. And reminded of those who paid for that with their lives.

And again, no offense intended to Gabe. I understand and am sympathetic to his views on the matter.

I’d planned to just tack on some quick thoughts and extra links to his post but I ended up practically writing a novel. It didn’t seem right to do that but here’s another 9/11 post. More thoughts later though, maybe in the ONT (plus additional links).

Here’s the CNN live broadcasts from that day:

17 more of them below the fold. Assuming I don't crash the blog that is.

posted by Genghis at 09:45 AM

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