Amen!

By continuing to look backward, we seem to be able to ignore the ongoing killing and destruction. The US occupation of Iraq is the MAIN cause of the killing, and, if we would IMMEDIATELY leave, the majority of the killing and destruction would stop!

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Nobody likes the way we've been forced to live. But don't hang it all on poeple who have their memories and are entitled to them. Efforts to trivialize this day have failed. Deal with it. I do believe it's time to inform the politicians that it is not acceptable to USE 9/11 everytime they think it will get them a vote. Maybe a move to prohibiit its use when it is irrelevant. Start with Guiliani and Bush. I think we're all tired of that. Thanks, ANNA

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I am tired of Rudy trying to build a political future on 9/11. If GWB had been an effective leader, had not been totally unavailable to the American people and our lazy, useless American media on that day, Rudy would have been a blip on a day of disaster. This was the biggest hint up to that time that GWB was in over his head, a totally ineffective leader, and incapable of inspiring or leading anyone. I knew we were in trouble that day, and have continued to only increase that notion. I was never afraid, but I was always and still am mad as hell. Heaven help this country. We have the country that a lazy, stupid citizenry deserve. See you in Washington this weekend, which our national media will largely ignore in favor of the latest substance abusing celebrity.

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It's been six goddamn years. Can't we move some of our energies onto addressing the devastation of Katrina?

It's not that easy. You have to confront the lies and the cover-ups and the profiteering somewhere or they will keep coming.

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I was going to point out some things I disagreed with in this post then I re-read the opening line... "You all know I'm a crank. So let me get cranky: I'm really fucking sick of 9/11." Then I figured what the hell. This is America. We're allowed to bitch about things we don't like. At least for the time being that is.

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Over a short, intense period of several months in 1692, witch hysteria was rampant in Salem, Massachusetts. At the end of that relatively brief time, nineteen people had been hanged, one was pressed to death, and at least five died in prison. The trials are a cautionary tale that provides excellent examples of discrimination and mob hysteria.

In the years since, however, the incident has been twisted into a grotesque parody of the actual events. Salem now is rife with tacky shops and flamboyant show-biz witches--no, that isn’t a slam at Wiccans in general--and it seems that half the logos in the city showcase a witch on a broomstick. There were people who capitalized on the witch trials then--funny how some extremely valuable land owned by some of the accused ended up in the hands of the accusors--and now Salem's tourism, its economic engine, hinges on an October-long Halloween festival.

Now 11 September, another tragic historical event, has been warped into a caricature, a cartoon.
It’s been morphed into a political weapon whose very mention has taken on mystical powers. No, it didn’t change everything, and "I accuse you of being a witch" shouldn’t become "You're a traitor because you don't agree with the administration".

I knew people who died on the planes and in the WTC, and the sorrow of their loss remains sharp for me, their families, and their friends. Their loss has been totally overshadowed, even subsumed, by the mythology that already has made the incident a political symbol instead of historical event. It's incredibly U.S.-centric, being treated like the only horrific attack in history, with the nonAmerican victims having disappeared from the story.

What should be a solemn rememberance of a single tragic day and its dead has turned into a year-round industry of boogeymen.

Yes, we should remember. But let's remember the individuals who died, and keep the event in context. Just as tormented innocent young women should not have been turned into cartoon witches, neither should those who died on 11 September be caricatures used as cynical political props.

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I share your disgust with the misappropriation of 9/11 and the jingoistic pieties that have been associated with it, but the fact remains that 9/11 is the defining moment of our era. As such, we dare not ignore it and we will be judged by how we respond to it.

As a wise Supreme Court justice (obviously not a current one) once said, the best answer to bad speech is more speech - not less. We have to expose the lies, the pieties, the false connections, or else they will carry the day. If you don't believe me, ask John Kerry about the wisdom of ignoring bad speech.

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What? Noone's interested in that one? Old news? Cold case? Story closed? FBI says "we're clueless!!"?

Well, could we talk about US foreign wars for control of global oil resources? Too high-falutin', I guess. International issues are soooo boring.

Never mind. Let's talk about oh, the headline at CNN: "Griffin's 'offensive' Emmy speech to be censored" - lots of juicy topices there. Woman strikes out against repressive male-dominated culture! There's something for you to sink your teeth into.

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Cost for 9/11 Terror attack $35 billion Deaths 2,996
Cost for Hurrican Katrina (so far) $125 billion Deaths 1,836
Cost for Iraq war $2 trillion (if we end it soon)
Deaths 3774 American troops 785,957 Documented Iraqs

What the media and politicians are still harping about - 9/11

As far as I can tell 9/11 is NOT the most important thing going on. If there is anyone still left that thinks the Iraq war is about 9/11, there is no helping them.

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but I'm sick and fucking tired of the American people acting like 9/11 is THE WORST THING THAT EVER HAPPENED TO ANYONE. How many 9/11 equivalents has the US military perpetrated in Iraq? How many thousands or even millions of people have we murdered in unauthorized "wars"? How much square footage of housing and office space have we destroyed? How much has the pollution from our weapons doomed surviving residents to horrible negative health effects? How much land have we made inhabitable? How many millions of people have we terrorized in the South and Central American, in Southeast Asia, in the Arab world? How can we be so incapable of empathy and understanding that we can't understand or recognize that the anger and terror we feel because of 9/11 is something people in lots of other places around the world have felt for years BECAUSE OF US?

Its not like 9/11 was like Hiroshima or Nagasaki!

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It took four years to build the towers.
A couple of billion dollars.
We spend that every week or so to destroy a country that had NOTHING TO DO WITH 9/11.
And we've been doing it for SIX years.

We should have simply rebuilt the towers.
Our leadership has all the imagination of a cow pie.

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