I remember the day of the WTC attacks, with the teevee playing the footage over and over and over again. My son said to me, “Turn it off, it’s war pornography.”
“You’re right,” I said. I turned it off. And the inevitable drumbeat began.
9/11 is the bloody shirt of the right wing, and boy, do they love to wave it. The fact is, terror attacks are not unusual in most parts of the world. It’s just that America Is Special, and our deaths are always more important than everyone else’s. (When I worked at a newspaper, we used to joke about tragedy headlines: Plane Explodes Mid-Air, Tragically Killing 2 Americans, 239 Others.)
The appropriate way to honor the people who died on 9/11 is… to go on with your own life. And don’t turn on your teevee! Just don’t. Please. Don’t encourage them in pushing the myth of American exceptionalism, or the need to live your life as if we’re in the cross hairs, even if we are. (In fact, especially if we are.
And I will feel exactly the same if – when – terrorists attack us again. I think they will. Working yourself into a paranoid frenzy in the meantime won’t change anything.
Amen.