Sitting here, on the eve of 9/11, I have a terrible admission to make - I don't get it. I don't get the self pity, the commercialization, the angst. I have the feeling that once again we're seeing the outward manifestation of the inner workings of the most self centered generation in the world, the baby boomers.
Look, I understand the historical importance of the attack. I understand the loss and tragedy on a personal level for the families of the victims. I realize that the attack changed America forever, mostly for the worst and mostly due to the actions of our own government.
I know the toll in lives since the attack, both for our soldiers and for all those we've killed on foreign soil. If there was some need for vengeance I'd think that we've just about satisfied it, though it's a hollow victory. I know that we've done some damage to Al-Qaeda, but that we haven't completely taken them out. And I know that the world is more dangerous today than it was in 2001, regardless of the number of lives lost and the treasure spent - or wasted.
But I don't understand why the country, at least if one is to believe the New York media, is coming to a stop.
That's the thing, though, isn't it. The country isn't coming to a stop. Most of us know what day it is and we'll say a silent prayer for the victims, the attackers, the country and the world and then we'll get on about our lives. 9/11 isn't a truly defining moment for most of us. It's a pivot point in history, just like Pearl Harbor or the Battle of Hastings.
It is a defining point, however, for the people of New York, including the media. And that's why the rest of us are being subjected to non-stop hyperbole and sensationalism. Did we see this sort of hoopla on the tenth anniversary of the bombing of the Murrah Building in Oklahoma City? A minor event in comparison, to be sure, but still a significant terrorist attack on American soil that resulted in a large loss of innocent life. We still hear more about the '93 attack on the Trade Center every year than about Oklahoma City. Again, because that's where the media lives.
Don't get me wrong. I think that it's important that we remember the attack in 2001. But I think that it's equally important that we remember Pearl Harbor and the firing on Fort Sumter. All three of these events caused fundamental changes to America.
That being said, I think that 9/11 has become less about remembering and more about promotion. To me it feels far more like a circus than a memorial. More about the people that are alive than the ones that are dead.
More focused on the self than on others.
But then, that's what my generation has always been about.
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