Saturday, September 11, 2010

Pericles versus Remarque

The 9th anniversary of the 9/11 terrorists attacks have come & gone. I was going to tell about a young buck's appreciation (bordering on fealty) for my military service & my discomfort w/ being called a "hero" but I've decided to go a different route.

I'm sure there will be writers/speechwriters/yappists proclaiming the honorable & noble sacrifices provided by the people of that day. It'll take a familiar tact: remembering our forefathers, the uniqueness of our way of life, the speaker/writer/yappist's humbleness on such a solemn occasion, remembering the honored dead & urging the living to emulate those who perished. Pericles & Lincoln would be familiar w/ these themes.

Remarque, author of All Quiet on the Western Front, disagreed w/ Pericles (a significant plot point in a debate w/ the main character's school teacher). Remarque's experience through the fictionalized main character Baumer, was one of monotonous life at the front, the constant threat from artillery fire, the complete disconnect between him & the civilians on the outside, & most importantly the complete randomness of life & death.

& what of this 9th anniversary thing?

I can see both sides of this. You'd WANT to think those 2500+ that perished in the towers (plus the god knows how many casualties elsewhere) were killed to give their deaths meaning. But at the same time I'm sure the untold millions who fell on small pieces of real estate like the Somme, Dogger Bank, Caporetto, Jutland, Verdun, the Marne the Falklands, Salonika, Meuse-Argonne, & Gallipoli (to name a brief few) might disagree about if their deaths were worth it.

I also hear people chant the jingoistic, "Never forget! Never forget!" in relation to the 9/11 attacks but will we? We've certainly forgotten or perverted such "never forget" days like June 6th or November 11th or December 7th or July 1-3 or April 14th or November 22nd. I don't see why we'd all of a sudden things would change now.

Its easier for people to justify their sacrifices if they actually know WHY they're fighting. Unfortunately, we the American public were initially told we're fighting to "keep the world safe for democracy"...err, I mean "keeping the world safe from terrorism". Then we were told its because so & so "presents a clear & present danger" to America. Then the public was told we're fighting to liberate other people.

Does anyone but me think this is a load of horse manure? We haven't honored the memory of the dead, we've perverted it.

In order to have their sacrifices mean something, there has to be some sort of benefit no matter how horrible the notion they may have arisen.

We're involved in 2 separate wars, one forced into it, the other by choice. We've wasted untold billions trying to win said wars when no one can remotely come to a consensus of what "winning" actually means. Because we're at war & need an enemy, we've started fighting amongst ourselves. It started w/ anyone who disagreed w/ the viewpoints of those in power, then shifted to minority groups simply wishing for equal rights UNDER THE LAW, then it shifted to immigrant groups (legal status was an inconvenient detail to many), then it shifted to ones belief structure.

I'd almost think we all lost our heads but then I open my proverbial US History text book. Muslims are today's scapegoat, I get that. Before that it was gays, before that it was woman *gasp* wanting equal pay for equal work, before that it was the blacks, before that it was the Commies, before that it was the yellow-belly Japs, before that it was scourge of organized labor, before that it was the Italian plague, before that it was the uncivilized Indians getting in our way, before that it was Johnny Reb (or Billy Yank depending on where you lived), before that it was the damn Irish, & so on & so forth.

Again I ask, were the sacrifice of 9/11 worth it?

Make no mistake, I'm not a lovey-dovey peace at all costs kinda person. There are some fights worth fighting.

But w/ this one, I think we blew it on HOW we've chosen to fight the good fight. I think its beyond salvage. Its like being down 42-0 at the end of a (American) football game's first quarter but the odds of that are borderline nil. There's nothing wrong w/ cutting ones losses & approaching it from a fresh angle. But oh wait, we'd be a "cut & runner" which is another overally simplistic, jingoistic, perverted idea.

I honestly believe we are worse off now than the year or so after 9/11. At least then we didn't attack go after our own like rabid dogs. At least then our disagreements didn't hinder us from getting stuff done.

Maybe I'm delusional idealist. Maybe the deep seated, hysterical racism was always there & me w/ my rose-colored glasses never saw it this way before.

If so & we are unable to control our emotions, shucking reason & logic aside, & giving into our hate & fear, we as American have already lost & we're to stupid to even know it.


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This here is Lorraine, shot back when I was in Boston. She had this acting background that completely made my job as a photographer easy.

Photobucket

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