I sometimes think that the 9/11 tragedy has turned into a retail brand. It makes me nauseous.
Of course it was a dark day in our country's history. I was Mayor of Albuquerque on that day and found out about the attack as I prepared to go to my office. I got a call from our airport manager at the time, Jay Czar, and he said the planes had almost filled all of the available space on the tarmac at the airport. I had no clue what he was talking about since I never watch morning TV. He filled me in (the FAA was forcing all planes to land at the nearest airport) and I opted to open the city's new emergency operations center. Mostly to give the local media a place to go for information on local issues surrounding the attack.
Here we are ten years later and we are submerged in it all over again. Yes, a memorial is perfectly appropriate, but what we are seeing is the merchandizing of the deaths of over 3000 citizens by religious fanatics. One just has to turn on the TV to see it. So, we need to move on after this anniversary and tackle the aftermath of the attacks in a serious way. We need to end these unnecessary wars, pull back our troops from all these countries we are in, end our warrior nation status and get America working again.
4 comments:
I couldn't agree more!
Spot on, Jim. I couldn't have said it better.
I notice the current Mayor didn't invite you to the memorial in Civic Plaza. As the Mayor on 9/11/2001 you should have been asked to be present. But with the GOP Mayor and Governor there they might not want to look non partisan.
Oh, man, I'm so glad I found your post. I'd begun to think that I was the only one in America who thought this whole celebrate-the-10-years thing stunk. Badly.
Thanks.
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