HAPPY THANKSGIVING!!

At one point there is a comment on Sept 11. It was that people on the planes and in the buildings who knew they were going to die, phoned their friends and familly. Not to preach hate about the attackers but to tell people they loved them.

Nick

Tens of thousands of people died on September 11 and die every day, many of them needlessly and tragically and in ways that could be avoided if we were willing to spend a little money preventing it . That’s political. Unless you happen to have lost someone on September 11, most people focus on it because of its political significance–3000 people were murdered as some sort of (sick, demented) statement. People in the US took it as a direct personal assault, whether they knew any of the dead or not. Most people in the US (including me) don’t seem to feel that way about tragic deaths overseas, whether it is a massacre committed by a US ally or a terrorist attack on a US ally. The fact that it occurred inside our borders made a big difference.

Incidentally, some people did change their views as a result of September 11–one could argue about Christopher Hitchens and his motivations, but apart from him, I saw others break with the left on this, and I suspect that it was because the victims of September 11 seemed real to them, while other atrocities were merely bloodless statistics to be used as debating points.

On a personal note, I didn’t know anyone who died on September 11, but I spent several hours in a state of panic, since I had friends and loved ones in lower Manhattan, though as it turned out none were in any danger. But all through my hours of panic, I kept thinking very political thoughts–”Someone is taking revenge” and “So this is what it’s like to be bombed”. A rightwinger would interpret that as a leftwinger saying “we had it coming”, but I can honestly say my feeling was “No one should ever have to feel this sense of fear and helplessness because some evil person beyond their control is attacking their country.” In fact, that was also one of my thoughts at the time, and frankly, I wish everyone had exactly that (political) reaction to it. Whether I would have still felt that way if I had lost somebody is something I thankfully didn’t have to find out.

See PDP’s note: “This is probably because I’ve noticed that pundits and politicians only bring up Septemeber 11th as a point of proof utilizing a tragedy to prove a point or leverage in an argument.” A good deal of the commentary around the events of September 11th seemed to have been used to support platforms — and to me, that’s tough to stomach. I don’t know that it’s avoidable, though — political stances rely on emotional responses to a good degree — but it’s been painful for me. I’m not sure if it’s been more painful because of the personal nature of my experience with that day or whether I would have the same reaction if I had not lost folks I cared about.