+11

[kirkcudbright]

Listening to the news today (even/especially NPR) is making me crazy.

Why does it matter that "over 200" people "with ties to Massachusetts" died in the 9/11 attacks? Isn't it enough to say that 3000 humans died that day? Does claiming a local connection make these deaths any more real or significant for us?

Also, I'm really hating the word "patriot" today. Not least (actually, mostly) because Google Calendar is claiming this as "Patriot Day". There's nothing patriotic about having been an innocent passenger on the wrong cross-country flight, or an innocent office worker or restaurant worker or whatever in New York or Washington or Pennsylvania, or really anywhere else for that matter. That's not a patriot; that's an innocent bystander. But really, that word was poisoned for me forever by the "USA PATRIOT Act", which [conspiracy theory redacted]

Comments

[dpolicar]

> Does claiming a local connection make these deaths any more real or significant for us?

For many of us, yes.

[awfief.livejournal.com]

This. And frankly, I've had it up to here with people in, say, Arizona who'd never been to NYC, didn't know anyone remotely involved in the tragedy, and gets "so choked up with emotion, just remembering". Really?

Having grown up in the NYC area, I have a LOT of connections to the WTC tragedy. Conversely, I have absolutely no ties to the Oklahoma City bombing, other than the fact that I was trying to fly that day. Nor do I have ties to millions of other deaths caused by tragedies, natural or human-made, be they in the North America, Africa, Asia, Europe, etc.

[lyonesse.livejournal.com]

if it were enough to say 3000+ people died eleven years ago today, one might infer that it mattered that over a million people have died as a result of ensuing and escalating atrocities. they really are trying to make you care more about some of them than others.

(this approximates my general aversion to "news media".)

[ron_newman]

It makes sense to me that local news coverage emphasizes local connections to national or international events.

Patriots' Day is, and always will be, April 19 in Massachusetts. (Although observed on the third Monday of April.)

[awfief.livejournal.com]

Patriots' Day is a MA state holiday. Patriot Day is a federal day of acknowledgement.

[pywaket.livejournal.com]

I'm reminded of this joke, which I actually remember reading when it was printed in Not The Boston Globe: http://www.universalhub.com/glossary/hub.html

One of the other things that has always irked me about coverage of the attacks is how the Pentagon is referred to as a "civilian target". Really? The headquarters of the largest military-industrial complex history has ever known is "civilian"? The towers, the passengers in the planes, yes. The Pentagon, no.

[doctordidj.livejournal.com]

This.

I remember the day keenly: first, waiting to hear how extensive the attacks were, and who among my friends were still alive. Then, watching the Bush administration spin it into justification for siphoning enormous amounts of public money into private hands -- starting not one but two stupid wars as excuses. I used to be proud to be American, I used to love this country. Not any more.