Anniversary, Shmanniversary

Hey, I missed two anniversaries! I am on a roll.

Of course everyone (but me) remembered Thursday was the seventh anniversary of the 09/11/2001 Twin Tower bombings. I have mixed feelings about commemorating this anniversary. It was a horrible day in our country’s history, yes, but there are horrible things happening all over the world and we do not seem to mind them so much. Why? Because those horrible things happen “out there” to “them” and we don’t really care about “them.”

For the sake of argument, let us be U.S.-centric for a moment. Quick, what is the anniversary of the Oklahoma City bombings? Columbine school shootings? Virginia Tech shootings?

BEEEEEEEEP.

I am sorry. You did not answer in time. The answers are:

• April 19 (1995) – Oklahoma City, 168 dead
• April 20 (1999) – Columbine, 14 dead
• April 16 (2007) – Virginia Tech, 33 dead

(Uh, hello, is there something about the month of April we should know?)

Those are just a few recent tragedies on US soil. But then, they were performed by “us” not “them.” Hm, does that not make them worse? Our very own pretty pretty people killing us?

Perhaps it is the sheer number of deaths in the Twin Tower attacks that stick in our craw:

• September 11 (2001) - Twin Towers, app. 3,000 dead

A few more U.S. casualty statistics to put things in perspective:

• December 07 (1941) - Pearl Harbor, 2,402 dead
• 2003 to September 6, 2008 - Iraq war, 3,600+

More of “us” have died in Iraq than were killed in the Twin Towers tragedy. And for what? I am unclear on 1) our agenda over there, and 2) what we have actually accomplished so far.

Can’t we just call it a day and bring our boys and girls home?

**************

The second anniversary I missed was my 2nd blogoversary on June 18th. It just does not seem all that important in comparison, does it?

Then again, all politics are local politics. Translation: people only care about things that directly affect them. We are all just selfish bastards at the end of the day.

Unless you wear Birkenstocks, eat crunchy granola in the morning, and save the planet by lunchtime. In which case, I want to be you when I grow up.

 

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