Selectivity

[Algernon Moncrieff]

Last edited Sat Sep 11, 2021, 05:17 PM - Edit history (1)

I don't post much any more. Maybe I will again sometime, but the Trump years exhausted me in a way nothing else has in the events of my lifetime. I find it increasingly hard to care or think about bigger issues, and instead focus on my immediate family and our near-term future. 9-11 is a day we of my generation choose as a day of mourning and remembrance. Frankly, the last 20 years have been endless mourning, remembrance, ribbons, and half-masting of the flag.

What was done to citizens of this country by religious terrorists was horrible. Do not mistake anything I'm writing to mean anything different.

But we have selective memory in America. If you go out on Facebook, you'll see post after post about how much people miss the way we came together as a nation after the attacks, and how they miss the memory of 9-12. I will say I do remember those days, and when your nation is attacked, patriotic fervor is to be expected. At the time, a lot more folks that lived through WW II were around, and they spoke of how the time after 9-11 reminded them of the time after Pearl Harbor. And that checks out. And if you have a clear, unclouded memory of those days after 9-11, you'll remember how Muslim Americans were harassed; how a Sikh was murdered; and how many Americans wanted Mosques closed and Muslims rounded up and put into camps -- just like America after Pearl Harbor.

Last month, 13 American servicepersons were tragically killed. Republicans called out the President as unfit to lead and threw the word impeachment around. On 9-11, when 3,000 Americans died, we were all told that we shouldn't play the blame game, and it was time to rally around our flag and our President. In fact, I don't remember Ford shouldering too much blame when Saigon fell, and his Secretary of State negotiated the peace deal to end that debacle. Maybe my memory is failing, but I don't remember anyone calling Ronald Reagan unfit after the Marine barracks were bombed in Beirut, nor do I remember lot of opposition to pulling our troops out of there instead of staying the course. If anyone has read this far, feel free to point out if my memory is failing me here.

Our good will and our desire for common cause after 9-11 was crassly exploited. Evidence of Iraqi involvement in 9-11 was stretched beyond the limits of any credibility and the nation was dragged into what was ostensibly a quick war in which we would be greeted as liberators and turned into a quagmire. And we engaged the services of Blackwater - a shadowy para-military organization. And we decided we were fine with torturing people. Last night, I watched Jose Rodriguez being interviewed. His "we-did-what-had-to-be-done" and "it-was-them-or-us" statements sounded very much like the justifications SS and Gestapo officials gave for their actions after WW II. Iraq is why many of us are here at DU. Our opposition to the war - instead of adapting the just-wave-the-flag-and-be-grateful-to-God mentality caused many of us to be shamed in our communities and workplaces. It also caused us to elect Barack Obama -- a perceived sin that many in America will never forgive.

But America comes together in times of crisis and tragedy!

Do we?

In 2012, in Sandy Hook, CT, 20 children aged 6 - 7 - let me repeat that - twenty.children.aged.six.to.seven. - and six teachers were killed because a woman made a horrible error in judgment (for which she paid with her life) and thought firearms would be just the thing for her son with mental health issues. Now, after 9-11, no-fly lists were developed; we all had to go through a CT scan to board an aircraft; and we passed the "Patriot" act to give the feds some pretty sweeping powers. After twenty children were killed with a weapon readily available to any would-be terrorist, we heard accusations of people being "crisis actors" and were lectured about the importance of our second amendment rights (always important unless Black Panthers are the ones carrying said firearms - refer to Reagan, Ronald - during his time Governor of CA). And Sandy Hook was a rinse-and-repeat of Columbine. And Parkland was a rinse and repeat of Sandy Hook. And there was the sniper at Mandalay Bay.

But those, I guess, were small events. You would think that surely we could come together over something big. A huge national threat. But again - you'd be mistaken. As of today, approximately 659,000 Americans have died from the disease that doctors and most Americans call COVID-19, but whom a select group of stubborn Trump supporters insist on calling China-19 because I guess blaming a foreign country makes them feel better somehow. Donald Trump followers are still touting Hydroxychloroquine, or insisting this is a hoax, or insisting that our immune systems are all we need -- and steadfastly fighting sensible public health measures like mask mandates and vaccine requirements. Oddly, Donald Trump engineered Operation Warp Speed and brought major players in Pharma together to get a vaccine to market quickly -- and his followers ironically won't take it. So we should use any means necessary to save the lives of Americans from foreign terrorists, but using any means necessary to stop a disease that has killed the equivalent of roughly 220 9-11s -- and that you tell us is ostensibly China's fault -- is an invasion of your freedom; a government overreach; a reason to recall Gavin Newsom.

I realize that I'm rambling incoherently. Again, I don't post much any more, so indulge me in this one last incoherent thought about the selectivity of the American patriotic psyche. A little passive-aggressive thing I see right now is the 13 beers meme. Restaurant owners set an empty table with 13 beers for the soldiers killed in Afghanistan. They post photos on Facebook. It's passive-aggressive because it's not just a nice symbolic we-love-the-troops meme. It's a dig at Biden. Again if anyone has read this far, feel free to point out if my memory is failing me here. Maybe it's because social media didn't exist, but I don't remember anyone setting out beers for the 220 Marines killed in Beirut. In fact, I'm hard -pressed to remember anyone commemorating October 23, 1983. In 2017 a KC-130 broke up over Mississippi and killed 16 marines - a tragedy caused by inadequate maintenance of the aircraft. In fact, photos of those Marines were erroneously circulated on social media after the Afghanistan bombing. Again - did countless restaurants post photos of 16 empty places for Marines that died in the line of duty? If so, they kept it well hidden. Were the Secretary of Defense or the President subjected to having their patriotism or fitness to lead questioned over the needless deaths of 16 brave Americans because of their dereliction of duty to oversee maintenance? No - no they were not. Because our outrage is selective.

If you made it this far, you have my sympathy. But I appreciate you reading this. God Bless America!

[Xoan]

1. Thank you.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

2. Thank you for reading.

I'm going to guess "Joan" but the X is being pronounced like J as they do in Albania.

[pwb]

3. Good one.

.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

4. My daughter told me this highly inappropriate joke

What is the difference between 9-11 and a dairy cow?

You can't milk a dairy cow for 20 years.

I fully support solemn remembrance of those in the planes, those in the towers, those in the Pentagon, FDNY/NYPD. I'm dead tired of the flag waving why-can't-we-all-be-united crap. As far as I'm concerned, the Republican party of Trump is just the recycling of Mussolini's fascists.

Sorry. Rambling again.

[Mr.Bill]

5. I will firmly go on record

as someone who did not support George W. Bush before 9/11, on 9/11 or at anytme after. And right up until this day.

Thanks for your post.

[stage left]

6. Thank you.

This so clearly expresses the way I'm feeling today that you must have read my mind

[Alliepoo]

7. Thank you.

I logged in just so I could rec and bookmark your post. Your memory does not fail you-you are right on and I certainly do agree with what you’ve written.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

13. When you get to a certain age you do worry

I remember the Beirut bombing being a big story. Honestly I don't remember anyone threatening to impeach Reagan. If I'm wrong I'm sure someone will let me know.

[Katinfl]

8. Great post.

You put my thoughts in writing so perfectly.

[chowder66]

9. Thank you. I feel very much the same. nt

[hibbing]

10. Recall most of this the same way, strong post

Especially the lies about Iraq being involved in the attacks, day after day. The only that one I sense any kind of regret is Colin, of course I have no idea if he does.

Peace

[niyad]

18. Whenever you think of colin powell, remember MyLai.

[hibbing]

22. I'll remember him with Tim Russert and the U.N.

Colin was a on remote and Russert started asking some somewhat challenging questions, then Colin's assistant or whoever cut off the interview, then they came back, it was all very very strange.

Of course then there was his performance before the U.N.



Peace

[bluestateboomer]

11. Yes thank you.

I am going to allow this post to be my one "I told you so." Back in 2001, I got a little grief from co-workers when I expressed a contrary opinion about rushing off to destroy Afghanistan. Back then I thought it'd just be bombing. But the last 20 years haved proved to be much worse. I still remember the sad TV spectacle of our fellow Americans lives being destroyed. I feel for those who lost friends and family in the 9/11 attacks. But where's the grief at losing thousands more to avoidable war and pestilence in the intervening years? Where's the shame from self-inflicted damage to our national image.

I'll shut up now. Standing on ones figurative lawn, shaking ones figurative fist at the collective idiocy seems counterproductive. ✌️✌️

[lunatica]

12. Your recall reads a bit like a run-on sentence.

A stream of consciousness read. It occurs to me that the way you delineated the never ending outrages and tragedies that it’s how I feel about them. They seem to just go on and on in the opening decades of the 21st Century. We are living in dizzying times so it’s no surprise we may feel nauseated by it.

Thanks. You listed my grievances too.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

14. One of my daughters graduated college in 2019

At her school, all the graduations are celebrated in one huge ceremony, and I remember how moved I was when the med school grads took the Hippocratic (sp?) Oath. There was no 2020 graduation at the med school. All of the med students were declared graduated at mid year, and offered immediate employment on the front lines of Covid. They need a memorial. They need our prayers. They will need PTSD treatment. They probably need an all the Margaritas you can drink trip to Cabo.

You are right. It is all a crazed run-on sentence.

[SergeStorms]

15. "Our outrage is selective".

Very true. In the era of Trump, empathy and sympathy from the far right is almost nonexistent. Should it exist at all, it's for their own so-called martyrs, such as Ashli Babbit, who was killed in the act of a criminal offense targeting the government of the United States of America.

Those innocents murdered by deranged right-wing zealots received no sympathy whatsoever.

That's what this country has become, and it can all be laid directly at the feet of the republican party and their so-called "beliefs".

You really should post more often. Thoughtful voices are always welcomed.

[RVN VET71]

16. I'll go a step further: 9/11 broke this country and the break has only gotten worse

Everything fell apart after the towers fell and the Pentagon smoldered and the plane crashed in Pennsylvania. The country did NOT come together. Bush had it in his power to lead us. Instead I remember “if you ain’t with us, you’re against us,” (and “Freedom Fries” because the GOP resented the French refusing to join us in our adventure in Iraq). I remember being hard pressed to get reports on the 100’s of 1,000s of people protesting U.S. invasion of Iraq because our “liberal” media didn’t report it. I remember, in the lead up to the invasion, hearing war mongering Administration supporting mouthpieces, one after another, talking bullshit to empty headed media “journalists -- with a very scarce minority of anti-war people being given any air time at all. I remember a mosque in Texas where an angry group of hateful bigots (may they all go to hell) cursed -- and threatened with death! -- children going to a muslim worship service with their mothers.

I also remember Sandy Hook and the truly revolting reaction of -- and I’ll say it -- millions of Americans denying it happened, many of them harassing the parents of the murdered children -- and only recently, lawyers for some of these scumbags who are being sued by the parents of the murdered children, lawyers for christ’s sake, are trying to get attendance and comportment records of the kids! I mean, kindergartners might have criminal records? Is that the point?

So, no, I disagree that 9/11 brought us together. It almost did, but there was no leadership in the country able or willing to do it. Bush, remember, was the worst president in American history until the Fat Man took office in 2017. It’s all on him and his Administration. And because of him and them, America has been dying a slow death ever since. Yes, Obama gave us a decent, intelligent, compassionate presidency for 8 years -- but look at the vermin, millions strong, who attacked him viciously and maliciously, look at the extraordinary efforts made by McConnell and Boehner to insult and disrespect him and block his efforts to get things done for the American people. The fracture was already metastasizing in 2008, even while so many of us were celebrating what we really thought was a striking sign of our country’s maturing. We were so goddamned wrong.

[DemUnleashed]

17. Excellent!!

The writer of this post asks if we're still reading the post by the time we got to the end.....I couldn't stop reading it! In fact, I wish it had been longer

It's the hypocrisy/selective outrage that always gets to me. Why is there so little outrage when horrible things are done by a Republican President/or any Republican politician yet the sky is falling when a Democratic President/or any Democratic politician sneezes??

To me, it all comes down to how Fox News (and other RW media) and Republican politicians choose to cover a story. When it's a Democrat with the slightest of wrongdoing, it's a 24/7 vilifying of said Democrat (by RW media and RW politicians). When a Republican does something very egregious, it's not even a whimper by the same RW media and RW politicians. That, to me, makes all the difference!

When the Republican base hears repeated demonizing of Democrats by the RW, they then buy into how horrible that Democrat is. And when there's silence from the RW about something horrible that a Republican has done, the base doesn't see any wrongdoing in that Republican's behavior

The OP brought up the bombing in Beirut during Reagan's term. If RW media and RW politicians talked about that the same way they would have if a Democrat had been President at the time, then you would have seen some real outrage by the Republican base!

If the WTC bombing had taken place during a Democratic President's time in office, and rules were made to remove shoes at the airport, do you think things would have gone so smoothly back then about that?? No! The Republican base, egged on by RW media and RW politicians would have been screaming that their freedoms were being taken away...."How dare you ask me to remove me shoes ?! These are my shoes and I will wear them or not wear them when I want to!" The opposition to shoe removal would have been non stop!

And btw my example of the sky falling when a Democrat sneezes is actually quite literal...think of Hillary in '16 right before the election!

[niyad]

19. I read your whole post, and there is nothing wrong with your memory. You described

very much what I remember, and I thank you for it.

One correction. It was not 13 servicemen. It was 13 servicemembers, as two of the fallen were women.

[Algernon Moncrieff]

21. That is a very fair correction

No sleight was intended.

[KPN]

20. Hear, hear!

Not incoherent at all, but well put truth from the heart and rational thought. Thank you for helping to legitimize my own sense.