I don't think that I need to sit here and tell you all what day it is. You'd have to be Helen Keller to not know, what with the news, radio, and TV all reminding us that on this day, ten years ago, some religious zealots completely crippled our sense of security as a nation by flying two passenger jets into the World Trade Center.
Ever since that day, our country has been gripped by fear, hatred, misunderstanding, and complete civil unrest. We have stood idly by and allowed the Federal government to step in and give itself powers that it shouldn't have, and take away right that we've had for years and took entirely for granted. And the worst part? We've been encouraging it this entire time.
I'm not going to sit here and talk about the TSA's at the airport, or the phone bugging that was going on in the first year after the event, or even the Patriot Act, which I feel has been turning citizens into suspects ever since that fateful day. The reason I'm not going to talk about these things is that if you're reading this, chances are, you already know. Further, chances are, you don't really care.
And that's what I want to talk about.
Ten years ago, I was sitting in school, taking a test. I was in the tenth grade. The day was going good, and even better, it was almost over for me. About halfway through my class, a girl opened the door to the classroom, told us all to turn on the news, then rushed off on her way to tell all of the other classes on the floor. Like any other human being, we let our curiosity get the best of us, and we turn it on to watch a video loop of the first plane as it slams into the tower. Of course, we all watched on in complete horror as the second plane did the same thing to the remaining one. There was a collective gasp as the towers collapsed.
"What's going on, here?" I remember thinking. Waiting patiently, the news reveals that the perpetrators are none other than zealots of the religious sect Al Qaeda, and that this is an honest-to-goodness act of terrorism. As the story develops, I go from being shocked and afraid to downright mortified.
As the story progresses and two more planes go down (one into the Pentagon, and the other shot down by our Air Force), we begin to find out details. The biggest question we had was "How did they manage to pull this off? What weapons were used?" In the end, we find out that they were using what basically amounted to prison shanks to keep people at bay. Seriously?
You're telling me that 3,000 people had to die that day because absolutely nobody on any of those planes was willing to stand up and bum-rush some asshole with a shiv that he crafted out of a pair of nail clippers and/or disposable razor? Yeah, you may have gotten hurt, but you'd have saved literally thousands of lives in the process. But at the end of it all, every single person on those planes was too pressed about their own self and their own safety to even give their fellow man a second thought.
This attitude has persisted in our society way before, and even after, this fateful day. Many will tell you that ever since that day, ten years ago, there has been no shortage of patriots. Sure, I'll give them that, but these are people who I would call Bandwagon Patriots. They're only being patriotic because it's the trendy thing to do. Where was your sense of patriotism before 3,000 people lost their lives?
Many will claim that it was there, but many and more would be lying. They couldn't have had a sense of patriotism because they never thought about it. And to this day, they still couldn't tell you what it really means to be a patriot, beyond waving the flag and saying "Woohoo!" to those warriors that come back from overseas.
This is not patriotism.
Many people these days cannot even tell you what the flag really means. That flag - the Star-Spangled Banner that we are taught from a very early age to respect - means more than just "freedom." That narrow-minded answer angers me far more than what words can describe. That flag represents blood, sweat, and tears of men who fought and died for our rights; rights that we've been giving away for the past ten years.
Benjamin Franklin once said that "those who would give up essential liberty for a bit of temporary safety deserve neither liberty or safety." I'm sure you've all heard it before, but I want you to stew on that.
Folks, do you know what's going on around you, right now? Go take a walk outside, and I can almost guarantee you will see people everywhere wearing "patriotic" clothing - things that undoubtedly evoke the image of an eagle, or perhaps silhouetted towers against an American flag background. Sure, these images make a heart flutter with pride in our resilience as a nation, but read between the lines.
They have turned 9/11 into a marketing ploy. It's become nothing more than a way to make money, and it's disrespectful to our dead.
A country singer - I forget which one - released an album on this day a few years ago that was supposed to be all about his feelings on the day. The songs were very generic, and sounded all the same. The emotion in his voice was barely registered on the radar, and people still bought it up like it was water after the nuclear apocalypse. He was broke before the album, and now is rich again.
People today will be buying things at discounted prices as various retail outlets have sales in remembrance of the terror attacks that have put us where we are today. I want someone who lost family in the attacks to answer me if they feel their kin would really want them to buy a mattress at 50% off as a way of remembering who they are and what happened to them.
Further, there will invariably be attacks on local Muslims and their mosques. I can't imagine that there won't be today, and if there isn't, I will be shocked. This will happen because we've been taught that it was Muslims who did this to us. Never you mind that it was a zealous sect of them that did this, and not the ones that are repeatedly telling you that theirs is a religion of peace.
"But they were the ones that blew us up!" you might say. Yeah, but again, those were extremists. A large portion of the Muslim faith wants nothing to do with these assholes. Let me ask you this: If you claim yourself a Christian, do you want to be associated with Westboro Baptist Church? It's the same principle here, only far, far worse for them.
Doing these things - wearing clothing to honor blood spilled that you bought with money, holding "commemorative" sales to make a profit, hating on people that have done nothing to you, waving the flag whose meaning you can't even describe beyond "freedom!" and what not.... it's not being patriotic. It's being stupid, narrow-minded, and overall, un-American.
To be patriotic, you have to be willing to stand up and fight and die for the freedoms of your fellow man in this country, with absolutely no exceptions. You have to be willing to hear a guy on a soap box on the street corner, talking about things that make your blood boil, but stopping anybody that would try and stop him from talking. Patriotism is going out and being willing to die for what you believe in, but also for the rights of others to believe what they will, as well, even if you don't necessarily agree with it.
"I may not agree with what you say, but I will gladly fight and die for your right to say it." - Voltaire
Patriotism is something that is shown through more than just wearing red, white, and blue. It's more than fireworks during Independence Day. It's more than knowing that we have a piece of paper called the Constitution. It really boils down to understanding these things, why we do them, and why they're important.
9/11 is no longer important. When something gets turned into a nation-wide marketing scheme and is abused for people to make money, it ceases to hold its relevance in my eyes. I will remember the attacks ten years ago, and I will remember them with a tear in my eye and a frown upon my face, not because I am sad for the people who lost their lives that day, but because I am sad that their memory is now being shamed by us turning this day into what we have.
I am an American. I am a patriot. I no longer give a crap about this day, because it has now become meaningless in our pursuit for the love of money, and public image. We want so badly for everyone else to see us in our colors, showing our American pride, while we continue to let those who want our money more than anything else continue to disrespect our dead civilians and soldiers both.
Of course, this is just my opinion on the matter. I could be wrong.
3 comments:
You are wrong. You shouldn't paint everyone with such a broad brush. I flew my flag every day long before 9-11. At my age I'm way too old to serve, but members of my family have served in every generation since before the revolutionary war. People find comfort in different ways. Like you, I hate the commercialism, but I love our troops, and I revere and honor the lives lost on 9-11 and since. ~jane
Like I said, Mainstream. 9/11 is about whatever you want to make it. Its sad for me that this is what you've made it.
I was hoping to come back to this and see a wall full of arguments. Oh well, part of that freedom is not only to make such statements, but also agree or disagree with them. Truly, I cannot argue your points, but I can say this is why I despise X-mas.
There are people out there that are genuinely patriotic and even rarer, those with courage to stand up for what is right (let alone what is necessary). I believe that the extraordinary are the few that step up to duty and that, unfortunately, the mundane among humanity is just cowardly.
From a different perspective, a friend of mine - who is deep into believing in conspiracy theories - believes that 9/11 was intentionally let to pass simply to further some secret goal. Whether is it B.S. or truth, I couldn't say. The logic behind some of these theories can sound pretty solid, especially when you look at it on a scale of progressive time. Yet just because it sounds good, doesn't mean it is good.
In a study I have read, the definition of happy isn't defined as anything specific. It changes greatly from time to time, person to person, place to place, and so forth. Centuries ago, happiness was simply having a good crop for the season. The more liberties you are given, the harder happiness is to define. So I dare argue that perhaps capitalism isn't so great after all. Freedom is what lead to this corporate take over of our country and greed is clearly the festering plague that lets it spread.
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