Would it be insensitive to find a way to make a 9/11 joke based on the Tenacious D song "Tribute"?

I think this is right.

Lesli Rice, 26, who works in insurance and lost her mother, Eileen Rice, on Sept. 11, thinks something respectful should occur on the anniversary -- a tolling of church bells or a moment of silence -- but that otherwise the event should be scaled back. "The grieving part has to be more personal," she said. "The whole city wasn't affected by my mother's death."

A lot of the difference of opinion the article presents seems to be between people doing personal grieving, and people who are tired of public commemoration.

Responding to w-lfs-n's comment in the wrong thread: "This is not the greatest terror attack in the world -- this is just a tribute."

There is something disturbing and wrong about the people not affected directly clutching the bloody garments of the dead to their chest. Particularly because it's difficult to call someone on it without seeming (and possibly being) indifferent or slighting towards the people who were directly affected.

I see it as reasonable and proper that 9/11 be similar to Pearl Harbor Day -- remembered by most, but only formally observed by a few.

4 reminds me of the first funny joke about September 11th that I heard. On Arrested Development, David Cross' character (a foreign doctor who lives in L.A.) explains what caused his divorce: "Well, it really all started on September 11th."

The second funny joke, incidentally, was also by David Cross and was along the same lines: "Do you think, on September 11th, the people at New York New York casino felt it a little deeper?"

4: Back in Kankakee, I worked with someone who took 9/11 very personally despite having no apparent connection with anyone who was killed. I think that this was mainly out of paranoia and a misplaced identification with the victims -- she somehow thought "it could've been her," never realizing that she was in fucking Kankakee. If 9/11 commemorations encourage her type of behavior, I say cancel them or downscale them.

I once joked that this woman would one day come into work after having watched a Holocaust documentary and say, "That was so disturbing -- I mean, that could've been me!"

Six years is nothing. Some of us have been taking a day to comemorate a somewhat smaller building collapse for 2000 years.

In fairness to our Kankakeean friend, it is a foundation-shaking thought that 9/11 could have happened in Kankakee.

I wondered why people were so annoyed at something they could just ignore. Could one reason be that many are cynical after so much bs done in the name of 9/11?

I wonder what the survivors of the Oklahoma bombing think about the continuing national public tributes to September 11.

The real problem is that the attacks have become so mythologised to fit in the whole war on terror ideology, that there is little attention left for the victims and survivors of the attacks, other than as all purpose heroes in political broadcasts.

Could one reason be that many are cynical after so much bs done in the name of 9/11?

Impossible! Don't you remember that 9/11 killed irony and cynicism?

http://www.goats.com/archive/010921.html

When I read that article I became resentful that I cannot mourn apolitically.

I wondered why people were so annoyed at something they could just ignore.

This is what I felt when I read it. I'd be very much against a big spectacle that furthered political goals but something for the families and neighborhood, etc.? None of our business.

I mentioned in another thread that I watched Helen Mirren in The Queen last night, and found it wholly horrific. Seems particularly relevant to this thread.

I have a limited repertoire of stories. Robert Stone in Dog Soldiers tells one about a 2nd unit filming of a boxing movie, where extras are hired to fill the seats of an arena, and cheer an empty ring on cue. In the black upper seats, two malcontents boo loudly when everyone else cheers.

Personal tragedy has become socially enforced public spectacle. I don't think withdrawal will dent the machine, so let's fucking party on Sept 11. Maybe Swan Dive jokes. "I give him a 7 1/2, he didn't complete the somersault or straighten out before landing."

We have the rest of our lives to grieve in private.

It's hard to separate memorializing 9/11 from all of the crap that 9/11 has been used to justify since then.

10: Pretty hilarious, but with that pseud LB's going to kick your ass.

19 - While I usually agree, the stuff done in Lower Manhattan is usually fairly apolitical and tasteful. I'm sure people could dig up a link to events that were otherwise, but the events I went to were always about the day itself, not what happened after.

From the linked article:

"I would no sooner tell survivors of the Holocaust how to mourn or how to commemorate their atrocity, so why do others feel they have any right to dictate how family members should feel or memorialize our loved ones on Sept. 11 or any day, for that matter?" said Nancy Nee, whose brother George Cain died in the attack.

There must be a corollary of Godwin's Law concerning Holocaust comparisons.

Does anyone ever delve into the political issues behind September 11th in these commemoration ceremonies? One thing that I thought was ridiculous was that the reason behind the attack is never mentioned. People do not cause that kind of destruction without having some sort of grievance. Of course, it is completely horrific (I'm not saying that causing death and destruction is a legitimate way of airing one's grievances) but I think the situation would gain more clarity if we were to discover the terrorist's motivation. (I REALLY doubt it actually has anything to do with religion - let me tell you that much!) I think it would also help with the grieving process for people who have lost loved ones in the 9/11 attack.

They hate us for our freedom. Hadn't you heard?

8: I gathered signatures door-to-door in Kankakee once. People abbreviate the name of their city "KKK".

24:
LOL, Freedom, HA!- you literally made me snort coffee out of my nose! Now my keyboard is all wet...

23: To conservatives, talking about that would be crassly politicizing the event.

21: What's odd is that I imagine Lower Manhattan's memorials are far more tasteful than Random Smallville's, where no one died, no one knew anyone who died, but it was a great reason to start a crusade jihad smacking around random majority-Muslim countries.

People abbreviate the name of their city "KKK".

I have an idea for the residents of LOuisviLle.

Also, Oakley, MichiGan.

And WaTtrelos, France.

This game amuses the hell out of me.

I'll commemorate the event by showing more respect to the memory of those who died than the Republican Party did when they leeched off of their memory with their national convention in '04. In other words, I'll have a couple of beers, chat with my special friend online, and refrain from telling folks that they will be safer if they vote for me.

People interested in the social construction of group mourning might like to read Jay Winter's Sites of Memory, Sites of Mourning. There are some interesting parallels to this situation, I think.

I hear a good 9/11 activity is taking me out for my birthday. I promise we'll have a minute of silence, if you like. But also, birthday!

I REALLY doubt it actually has anything to do with religion

"Anything"? Then pay more attention please.

32: 9/11, really? Wow, that must have sucked.

For a sympathetic take on the reaction of people in the Midwest who didn't know anybody affected by 9/11, see here. I'd say "obligatory Onion link", but it's non-funny in a way that sneaks up on you.

34: For real, and it did, but now everyone remembers my birthday! W00t!

Damn right we should pay tribute. National Bedwetter Day has become the most important day in the US calendar, the day our entire society revolves around.

Screw this "Give me Liberty or Give me Death" shit, screw the fact that countless other societies, from the UK to Israel to Iraq right now have suffered vastly more, screw the fact that the cold war was much more serious, screw the fact that plenty of other people die in America every day, many of them for stupid pathetic reasons that could trivially be avoided.

To hell with the pioneer spirit --- let's all celebrate the fact that this is now a country where someone can say boo and hal the population collectively void their bowels. And in a positive sign of how likely it is this will end soon, only one politician in the entire country has had the guts to point out the emptiness of the entire enterprise, namely Mayor Bloomberg.

31: winna! It's good to see you.

9/11 memorials only bug me when they're used manipulatively. All too often Certain Parties have waved the bloody shirt as a substitute for making arguments that might justify policies they're unwilling to defend on the merits. It's all "Remember 9/11" whenever some warmongering or illegal policy needs emotional cover. It's selling, without a shred of actual reverence for the lives of the victims or the sensibilities of their families. No authentic evocation of pity and terror.

Nothing new, I know. Nearly a fictional century ago, a fictional traveling salesman, temporarily in my own fictional hometown, fictionally exclaimed

Remember the Maine! Plymouth Rock! And the Golden Rule!