The never ending lead up to the 9/11 tenth anniversary

[chrisinhouston]

First off I hope my opinion does not offend anyone here. There surely are some Cellar dwellers who were directly effected by the horrible events of that date 10 years ago. I for one felt devastated on that day and openly wept. Every year at this time I think of those who perished.

However, as one who mostly listens to news and spends a good deal of time reading news and opinion each day, I am getting weary of the build up as it seems not an hour passes where I don't hear or read some touching or sad story or remembrance or repeated descriptions of the events that shaped our history on Sept. 11, 2001. Today I found myself just switching off the radio news and putting on some music. Some thoughts on why this is upsetting me:

1. We live in a base 10 world which is why this year will be more of a milestone than last year or next year. Yet for those who lost loved ones each year carries the memories and sadness. I guess if we lived in a base 12 world, the 12th and 24th, etc. year anniversaries would count more.

2. It's all about headlines and viewership ratings. Every TV network on cable, national or local will have a special in depth show on remembering the day 10 years ago. And every advertiser will hope their money spent on commercials will be well spent with extra viewers watching. "Honey, this show is making me so bad but Ford is having a truck sale, so let's go buy a truck and feel better! We will do it for America!"

3. Every politician will try to outdo the next to show their patriotism in remembering the day and participating in events. It will not be enough to wear the US flag pin on their lapels. They will start to wear many pins just like those folks at Home Depot who wear 10 lbs of pins on their orange vests ! Real patriots will be judged by how many flags the can wear.

4. Despite all of these news stories, shows and tributes on the 10th anniversary, life as normal or seemingly abnormal will go on for the thousands of our armed forces serving in Iraq and Afghanistan. They will eat in the mess hall or MREs out in the field. They will go out on missions and no doubt some will die on Sunday. But where is the special tribute to them?

5. Will we do this all over again at the 20 year mark or will it jump to 25 years as many milestones are marked. Or at 50 or 60 or 100 years? Will there be other dates to remember where perhaps other large numbers of civilians are killed, shades of things to come.

6. My dad (who is dead now) was British born and raised but a naturalized US citizen. I remember after the attack he said that while it was truly horrible he felt that other then the attack at Pearl Harbor, the USA had never really been invaded like England had and seen daily death and destruction. He told me how he worked in Churchill's underground bunker at Whitehall in 1940 and 41 and he would come off his shift and try to get back to the apartment he shared with his parents in Bayswater and how entire blocks of buildings were in flames and people dead everywhere. In the 80 or so days that the Blitz lasted over 1 million British lost their homes and around 40,000 died and close to 140,000 were injured. He said my grandfather used to sit at the window of their flat on an upper floor and watch the "doodlebug" drones fly towards their targets and he would alert the neighbors if one looked to be coming in close so they could go to the basement.

7. Finally, so little has changed in our relationship to the Middle East and the countries that spawned and trained the terrorists. Other then this years "Arab Spring" we seem to have the same autocratic folks in power. We still buy our oil there and help them drill for more and we look the other way in Bahrain and Saudi Arabia to name a few as the few protesters are rounded up.

So, tomorrow I plan to get up early as I do most days. Maybe go for a bike ride if it's nice. Take my wife to the airport as she has to fly to Philadelphia. I'm thinking of baking a new bread recipe, a Swiss country rye. Eat dinner and drink some wine and go to bed. And I will take a moment to remember those folks who innocently died. That's my plan. What's yours?