A Quick Message About This Past Weekend And Why I Didn't Blog

There were several points Saturday evening when I sat down in front of my computer and started to write about Sept. 11th, 2001 and how it affected me, my community, and my life. And that's when it hit me - it didn't.

I don't say that to imply that the actions of that day had no relevance to my world view, that they didn't provoke any type of reaction within me that caused me to ask dozens of questions. It's that it didn't affect me like it did those that were there that day.

This is where liberal/progressives like myself and my conservative opponents differ greatly.

More often than not, you will read pieces by the likes of Michelle Malkin, the over-hyped Pam Gellar, Ann Coulter, Dick "Hell Yeah I Dig Toe Suckin" Morris, George Will, as well as commentary from people like Limbaugh and Hannity that is filled with nothing more than fear-mongering rather than rational perspective.


I scanned through the cable news channels just to get a sense of the tone and tenor of the days broadcast choices. Predictably, Fox"News" replayed their coverage of that day and quite literally framed every other news piece around the attacks. CNN and MSNBC, however, chose to take a less partisan stance and do straight news reporting without using the deaths of nearly 3000 as packaging material.

It's not the politicization of Sept. 11th, 2001 that has gotten to me, it's the commercialization. It's become too much for me.

At one point, not but a year after that horrible day, I told myself that the "paranoid patriotism" running rampant across our nation was going to gestate into a canted and poorly understood vision of American history. We can see that this has come to fruition with Glenn Beck, Sarah Palin, the Tea Baggers, and blogs run by some of the more prominent conservative talking heads in this country.

From the actions of those opposing Park51 to people insisting that we are less safe now that Obama is in office, we are seeing precisely what the terrorists were wanting - to throw our nation into unparalleled distress.

There are many aspects of that day that cause me to question the standard and accepted narrative that has been established. But let's be clear - I'm not even aligning myself with the "birthers' in any fashion, as it's simply my nature to question what has been put before me - especially since we have a treasure-trove of video and audio footage to pour through.

To put it into a more concise and clean package - Sept. 11th, 2001 is something that I simply can't write about or view through the same lens as conservatives do. It's not a talking-point generator for me, it's a day that I want to know what really happened and how we can prevent it from happening again.

And with that in mind, with the reactionary nature of the modern conservative in mind, I can but wonder how they are going to use the 10th anniversary to draw attention to themselves, make money, and scare the living shit out of people.

Is this day bound to become a music festival like Bonnaroo where people like Toby Keith, Ted Nugent, and Lee Greenwood will play for thousands of "fans" in order to spread patriotism and love of America? I mean, Hannity has already tried that scam and been exposed by one of his own. So we already know they are willing to stoop to that low.

How else can conservatives co-opt that day that changed a nation?

I fear that we will start to see the posters and ticket prices come January.