9/12
The teabaggers, birthers, deathers, and bloodthirsty neotheocons are gathering today to recapture how they supposedly felt on 9/12/01. I suppose they felt good, for why would you want to recapture a moment in your life, in all of our lives, really, that was mindblowingly devastating and horrible. But since Glenn Beck and his deluded minions want to recapture that feeling, I can only assume it was because he and they felt good that day, after America suffered the worst attack on its soil since Pearl Harbor. I suppose he felt good that thousands of Americans just died in balls of red hot fire at the hands of terrorists. He felt good that Americans were all fearful and scared, angry and sad. You see, those are the emotions upon which fascism thrives. Anger and Fear. And during the Bush Administration, we were told to remember those emotions of anger and fear. All policy decisions were made with reference to 9/11, so that we would remember our anger and fear. A war was fought in a country that had nothing to do with 9/11 because we had to prevent 9/11 from every happening again, and our anger and fear allowed that to happen.
I felt like shit on 9/12, as I assume people in New York and Washington did. I suppose it is possible for people thousands of miles away from the attacks and with no real connection to it to feel great if their political and ideological goals are best achieved in atmosphere of anger and fear. But for people who actually mourn the loss of 9/11, we did not feel great on 9/12. Why would I want to purposefully feel that way again?
Are there lessons to learn from 9/11? Absolutely. Should we ever forget the sacrifice of those who died on 9/11? Absolutely not. Should Al Queda and Osama bin Laden be captured at long last and brought to justice? Damn straight. But to say that we have to recapture the feeling we had on 9/12 is to say we can never let go of the anger and fear we felt that day. That we must always live in anger and fear.
Glenn Beck can go fuck himself, because I won’t live that way, sad and scared, fearful and depressed, angry and frightened, for the rest of my life. Indeed, there are only two kinds of people who want to live that way: those with mental health disorders, and terrorists.
To those thinking Glenn Beck’s 9/12 project means anything, ask yourself this: which one are you?
I hate how conservatives pretend that they own 9/11 or that they were the only ones affected by the events of that day. I love that Obama made 9/11 a day of service – I can think of no better way of remembering it. The biggest thing I remember from the aftermath of that day in 2001 is the sense of helplessness. I wanted so badly to help in some way, but there was nothing I could do. It became clear pretty quickly that there weren’t going to be many dramatic rescues from the rubble so even giving blood didn’t help.
You know what made me most sad? It’s when Bush told us to “go shopping.” Seriously, at that moment he could have asked for anything, any sacrifice and people would have made it.
I would also like to congratulate President Obama for keeping us safe at least one day longer than Bush did.
There is considerably less than 20,000 people in the march, a relatively small group by normal DC march standards. Hell, gay rights marches draw a bigger crowd in DC.
Where did you get you number anonie? I saw that number on Twitter but I saw that they were expecting between 100,000 and 2 M.
One of my friends felt the same way: he wanted to help. So, to his credit, he organized a Supply Drive in the Acme parking lot up in Brookhaven, PA. Food for the rescue workers, for the dogs, flashlights, batteries, masks, little booties for the rescue dogs so that they did not cut their paws on the steel, bottled water. He held it on that Saturday, 9/15. By then I wanted to get to work and help too, and it was the perfect release for me. I will never forget my friend for doing that.
It was from Twitter, too. I have yet to see a news organization publish a number. Also, you can tell it isn’t anything close to 100,000 or 1 million. One of the tricks is to compact people together in pictures so it looks bigger than it is. They are already doing that. Like I said, gay pride days draw bigger crowds.
how many guns do yo think will be there?
DD, I think a lot of people feel the same way. Balloon Juice highlighted this comment by Alex Pareene of Gawker.
I wanted to help too — and probably donated to every damn thing out there. But the place where my help was really needed seemed to be closer to home. A local small mosque was getting telephone threats and the members were trying to be in the building 24/7. I got some neighbors and we helped sit some of these vigils and brought over food and drink. A few idiots drove by to shout epithets and threats, but nothing happened to the building.
Standing up against the hysteria after 9/11 was a small thing, but an important thing for alot of us.
I would rather strive for 9/10, when our country was normal, free, and more respected worldwide.
When we weren’t fighting wars of revenge and acting like greedy babies who had their binky taken from them.
“how many guns do yo think will be there?”
That’s like saying how many queers will be at a gay pride rally.
it’s not a march, it’s a paupers for princes parade. that’s what I say.
maybe rubes for the rich?
Of course there won’t be a high turnout at a right wing event …. they, unlike most at lefty rallies, have jobs and are working. Not looking for a handout or some new entitlement.
hthats why they cheduled the march for a saturday.
I love that the libtards can’t decide whether is it a “million Glen Beck zombies” or “camara tricks”
hand out like medicare? which most of these fear junkies are on while they decry government programs? or how they hide behind american military might… a government program…. h. get a damn clue
so are we surrounded yet?
The age of the crowd skews pretty old. I don’t see why they needed to do it on Saturday, probably a significant number are retired.
^ now that’s funny.
“The age of the crowd skews pretty old. I don’t see why they needed to do it on Saturday, probably a significant number are retired.”
Therefore… less relevant, or useful to society?
Nope. Just that they could have held it on any day of the week.
You know, you righties should know better than to gather in large groups like this, because, if you really believe your own fantasies, than it would be all the more easier for the Death Panels to scoop you all up and place you in the FEMA concentration camps.
Boy Miscreant, you certainly jump to conclusions. You’re just like conservative hero Glenn Beck in that way.
No, my parents belong to that age group. I certainly don’t think they’re useless. I’d like to keep them around a lot longer.
All’s I’m saying is that retired people don’t have to wait for the weekend to protest, since they’re not at work, you know. Wasn’t it h. that implied only Republicans have jobs?
If I remember, hotel rooms are much cheaper on Saturday in D.C.