9/11 Angst!!!

I make no apologies for my opinions. I’m sure I’ll step on a lot of toes tonight, but I just can’t force myself to care…

I am sick to death of 9/11. I cannot believe that 5 years later, we have a movie in the theaters about it. Last year, Crash. This year, World Trade Center. And it’s all hype to support a jaded cause that never had any real purpose in the first place.

Yes, that’s right, I said hype, because that is ultimately what is going on, here. Now, to those who’ve lost someone, don’t come bitching to me. Tell the ones that are responsible for it. They are the ones turning your dead into propaganda for their misdirected war.

Tonight, there was a special on the History channel about a group of survivors trapped in a stairwell and my mother, her boyfriend and my grandmother were watching it. Of course, like everyone else in this damn country, they were transfixed by it, while I could barely stand to stay in the room. I can’t escape it. No one will let me. I knew when it happened that no one would ever let me. When the first posters (yes, posters- patriotic revenge is a fashion statement, now) came out, stating in bold letters, "We Will Not Forget," I knew I would never escape it. Well, I WANT to forget. We’ve forgotten about the Unibomber haven’t we? Oh, no, I’m sorry he doesn’t count. It’s okay when we do it to ourselves, but the minute another country does it, buddy, we’ll never let it die!

And so, every year, I am forced to relive it, on TV, on the radio with patriotic songs (even in school, one year, we were forced to watch a documentary, which was several hours long, depicting the events, including video footage of people jumping out of the buildings and hitting the ground), and if I don’t pretend that I’m loving every sickening minute of it, I’m very nearly outcast by all but a few of my closest friends. Half of my family turns on me. "Oh, she’s just the hippie. She’s just a punk. She’s just doing it for attention, or she’s just going against the grain for the hell of it." Yes, that’s always been the reason I do everything: for attention, to be contrary. They all know me so well.

The thing that bothers me the most about my Shrub-supporting, red, white, and blue relatives is that they won’t hear anything. I’m willing to discuss things, but the minute I say something they don’t want to hear, I’m dismissed. For instance, in response to the attacks, the president said, "We will not resort to terrorism," and yet, I remember them targeting highly populated areas and dropping bombs on them because some half-assed intelligence told them that certain people were there that we were looking for. Most often they weren’t, meaning thousands of innocent people died every day. I brought this up to my aunt. Her response was, "well, they killed a lot of our people," and refused to listen to another word. Even my own mother, who has referred to herself as an old hippie, said, "yes, but these were Americans." My response was, "Oh, okay, I forgot that our lives are worth more than theirs. Sometimes that just slips my mind."

These people are not sub-human. They have lives, feelings, beliefs, families who love them and whom they love in return. Just because they live in a third-world-country does not make them animals. They are not heathens because they have different religious ideals. They are people, and they are dying, every day.

Why am I going off on a spiel after complaining about not wanting to hear about any more death? Because who else will? Who else will say, "Hey, maybe we should stop kicking the shit out of these savages for a minute and realize that they are human beings just like us."

How can people continue going about their lives, teaching their children wholesome family values, when we go against them ever fucking day?? We are a bunch of hypocritical, soul-sucking, goddamned barbarians, and I wouldn’t be the least bit surprised if the Earth just opened up and swallowed us up into a great canyon tomorrow. I wouldn’t blame her in the least.




George Carlin said it best: "What we are is semi-civilized beasts with baseball caps and automatic weapons."



If this sounds fragmented or disjointed in anyway, then it’s probably because I just want to scream and cry right now. I want to grab these people by the face and shake them and say WAKE THE FUCK UP AND LOOK AROUND!





Personally, as a Christian, I am forced to wonder why God put us here in the first place. We don’t deserve it. I wish he would just round us up and drop us in the middle of a big landfill. Oh wait, we did that to ourselves. Sweet.

 

I agree with your family. You do come off as a brat who just wants attention.

 

well put firefly ........

 

Thanks, Firefly, for standing up for what you believe.

When I first moved into this neighborhood earlier this year, I met a guy that wrote some stupid, twangy-ass country song about 9/11 and our 'freedoms'. I proceeded to tell him how the government took my legitimate freedoms away from me and totally fucked up my family, and how they've done it to zillions of other people, and I don't feel so free. I think it really didn't register with him, although he listened respectfully.
In fact, it all started one month after 9/11, and after it was all over with I was convinced that my own government was the real terrorist, and I wasn't slightly worried about being the victim of foreign terrorists at that point.

I know exactly how you feel, Firefly. Just keep sticking to your principles, and telling people the truth-maybe they'll listen, and even if they don't, maybe you've planted a seed somewhere. I'm a Christian, too, and one of the main reasons God keeps us here is to love each other. You seem to be doing a pretty good job of trying to spread love around. Just keep it up. You never know what the results might be.

 

George Carlin said it best: "What we are is semi-civilized beasts with baseball caps and automatic weapons."
I agree,thank the CREATOR for automatic weapons.

 

Well said FireFly. Just hold to your beliefs and try not to come off as strident as the Republicans do. Reason will win out in the end.

 

Move out. Get your own place. Don't own a TV. Don't look outside....we're all such idiots to you, anyway. Lose all your friends....they're out to get you. Become a hermit.
Complain where it matters. This thread has done absolutely nothing but make you look like a whiney baby.

 

But you are still here right? I will not tell anyone to leave but you do have that option and are unwilling to take it, telling.

 

Where is my cry-baby picture when I need it?

 

I love it when people address my issues so straightforwardly.
You've brought such clarity to my life. Thank you so much.

I'm a "whiney baby" because I'm sick of people capitalizing (cha-ching!) on the deaths
of thousands of people, and not only that, but acting like the lives of Americans are worth more than others just because they are citizens of this wonderful land? I'm a "whiney baby" because I'm emotionally exhausted by endless tributes and documentaries, analyzing this catastrophe from every possible angle?

Well, I'm sorry if I come off as too soft or bratty to the lot of you, but death makes me cry. If you've all become accustomed to it, then that's your own problem, but I still have some feeling left in my soul, though the constant reminders are deading it slowly...

Thanks to the people that heard what I had to say and actually confirmed that the whole world hasn't gone mad. I appreciate you bearing with my moment of frustration.

 

You're not bratty at all: you just care about what happens to other people when most people just care about what happens to them.

There's nothing wrong with you: it's the people that just care about themselves that I worry about. And that's what Christianity's supposed to be about: caring about what happens to other people, and not just yourself-even loving your enemies. There's nothing wrong with you, you're just different. That's ok, so am I. Join the club. I'm gonna start worrying about you when you stop feeling that way.

 

Oh, don't worry, I'm not going to stop. Heaven help me if I say anything about it, though. Apparently, I'm supposed to keep all that stuff locked up and never utter a word so as not to disturb the ones who are living their happy lie.

Don't count on that, either, as I've always had a big mouth.

 

Good-so have I! :sunglasse

 

I'd say all human lives are equal too.

You come off as a brat for not being able to seperate people who lost their
loved ones in the most devestating foreign attack on the US ever, and a misguided war carried out under a facade.

That inability to seperate was why so many people got convinced into the Iraq war in the first place.

You also call any memory of them 'hype', and rather then explain your poor choice of words you say don't blame me, because other were responsible for a misdirected war which you admit doesn't have anything to do with Iraq.

If you think all lives are equal, then you come off as a child, becasue by your tone, you don't seem to imply any lives are worth much.

 

Yeah. Let's all make some more money off 911. It's the 5th anniversary right? Lots of books, videos, personal appearances. Capitalism at its best.

Let's use all those deaths to promote our crazy conspiracy theories too, like controlled demolition. Who care's if it's not true, as long as we get our fame and fortune.

Here's David Griffin, a leader conspiracy enthusiast, getting his 15 minutes of fame (and a little extra money on the side) at the Grand Lake.

 

If you piss, moan and complain, you need to get rid of the things that are making you that way. Everything....

You're a whiney baby because you're doing nothing to stop what's bothering you but complaining on an internet forum. If you're so damned sick of it, DO SOMETHING. Put up or shut up, honey.
It was a big event for a lot of Americans, they're going to make documentaries and movies. I don't hear you complaining about movie makers cashing in on Titanic with movies and documentaries. Where are your 'This is giving me a coronary' threads about that one?

Why cry? What makes it ok that you cry but someone can't make a movie? Because it's you doing the mourning?
Death happens. If you're not accustomed to it, you've had it pretty easy. It's not about losing 'feeling of the soul'.

What makes the rest of us mad? Because we don't agree with your opinion. Sure....

 

I never said that the people who lost their loved ones were responsible for the war or anything like that. I'm saying that I'm pissed off that people use 9/11 as their excuse to support the war, when it's been confirmed that they are separate events. It's "Remember The Maine" all over again, and personally, it makes me sick that people would use that mass death as an excuse to pump up the war effort. It's just the way people act when all the 9/11 stuff airs and hits box offices, like they're programmed to say, "Wasn't that awful? Let's get those bastards!" when most of them don't even know that the war has nothing to do with "getting those bastards" at all.
And foreign attack... who's making documtaries and movies nowadays about the damage the Unibomber did and the lives he took? Suddenly because some crazy man from another country decides we go against his religion and hires some extremists to attack us, that's worse than an American doing it to us?
Please, explain it to me. I'm not trying to be a bitch about this one. I really, honestly don't understand why foreigners attacking us is so much worse than us attacking us. Maybe I'm missing some kind of behavior that I was supposed to be born with, but foreigners causing death and Americans causing death all equal death to me.

WHERE in god's name did you get the idea that I don't think lives are worth much?? All I said was, yes, I KNOW about the American lives lost. Everyone KNOWS about the American lives lost, and it's terrible, but does ANYONE stop and think about what we've done to the Iraqis? I understand that they are better off now (though some would argue otherwise...), and there's a price to pay for freedom and ALL that, but I think the way we went about looking for people on our little hit list was disgusting. When the president says that we will not resort to the methods that damaged us so and then proceeds to bomb every major landmark in the opposed country, wouldn't you say that's a little hypocritical?

 

Well, since I can't remove our incompetant government, and I can't change narrow people who root for violence like it's a sport, I guess I'll just move... I'll just swim right across that old Atlantic ocean and sit all alone on an island somewhere. That must be the answer.

If I didn't live in east bumfuck, I'd be doing a lot more. For now, until I can scrape together some cash to get out of the middle of nowhere, I'll stick to standing up for my beliefs in a town full of narrowminded people who only see things in red, white and blue. To them, the president is God, or at the very least, one blessed with a divine right to do with this country as he pleases, American lives are gold, and foreigners' lives are scum, and this war is a blessed crusade that can't fail because we can do nothing wrong. If I seem a little over the top, consider my surroundings. This is an oppressing place, and if I didn't make myself heard, I would go crazy. If you have any suggestions for what I can do around a place like this, I'd be glad to hear them and employ them.
Now, Titanic, Columbine, etc... I did have issues with those. It's just like any other disaster. Sooner or later, you just don't want to hear about it anymore. People are dead, it's very sad, but can we please stop seeing it everywhere? Because every time I see it, it hurts, and frankly, I'm sick of hurting. If it's something like Columbine, I can somewhat understand, because we do have to find a way to prevent these sorts of things, and it makes a little more sense to show Columbine to children and teachers to try and prevent children from shooting each other than to show 9/11 to Americans to prevent another terrorist attack. What do we gain from it? Shell-shock, that's what. Depression, that's what.

Okay, I really do see your point here. I knew I was going to say something wrong because I was tired and pissed and sad and all that good stuff, so here's my amendment: Perhaps it was not the intention of the person who made the movie to create hype, but it does, regardless. Perhaps my post should have been more directed at the people who perceive it and respond to it as hype, getting them all jazzed up to support the American cause in bringing down terrorists, either because of their burning desire to rally to the patriotic cause or their desire for revenge.
I do have a problem with death, and I will never be accustomed to it, no matter how many times I see it, but this too needs amending: I have the biggest porblem with senseless death, including, but not limited to killing. Though I've been taught that these people are going to a better place, it still hurts, because life is a gift, and shouldn't be taken by another human being.

It creeps me out a little when the only way people deal with death is vengeance. I know people that don't cry, so I'm not saying that's the only way to grieve, but revenge is not the answer, EVER. We are FUCKED as a planet if this is the only way we function.
"An eye for an eye makes the whole world blind."

 

ACK!

*throws up her hands*

 

I am so sick of people who think it is cool to be bitter about hearing about 9/11

how would you have liked to be in one of those towers?
how would you like to be related to someone who died in that tragedy? they deserve to be bitter not you
I am so sorry that you have the option to watch a movie or tv special about what happened (if you don't like it, don't watch it)
much more sorry than I am for the people who were working in those towers, doing business as usual, who did not have an option on whether their building was attacked or not
much more sorry than I am for all the families that did not have an option on whether their dad/brother/son/mom/sister/daughter came home that night

have some fucking sympathy, dickheads