Latest leftist lunacy: “Get over 9/11″

posted at 1:26 pm on September 12, 2011 by Howard Portnoy
[ Media ]   

It was inevitable that 9/11 commemorations—with their flag-waving, singing of “God Bless America,” and similar patriotic claptrap—would eventually become burdensome for Americans who prefer to show their patriotism in other ways (such as setting Old Glory on fire). Apparently, in anticipation of yesterday’s laying on thick of sentimentality, one such stalwart American was moved to cry “uncle”—and I don’t mean Uncle Sam.

Tom Engelhardt, a fellow at the liberal The Nation Institute and professor at the University of California, Berkeley, wrote an op-ed for Al Jazeera English (appropriately enough) in which he called for an end to “the solemn reading of the names of the dead, the tolling of bells, the honoring of first responders, the gathering of presidents, … the moments of silence. The works.” (h/t The Blaze)

Engelhardt ask questions that to him must seem as though they are on everyone’s lips but that he alone has the courage to raise:

Ten years into the post-9/11 era, haven’t we had enough of ourselves? If we have any respect for history or humanity or decency left, isn’t it time to rip the Band-Aid off the wound, to remove 9/11 from our collective consciousness?

In the next sentence, Engelhardt tips his hand about what’s really bugging him. He refers to our invidious need to invoke the 9/11 attacks as way of explaining our “otherwise inexplicable wars in Iraq and Afghanistan and our oh-so-global war on terror.”

He laments in particular our attack on Afghanistan, which he describes as “one of the most backward, poverty-stricken lands on the planet.” The description is accurate but carefully cleansed of any reference to Afghanistan’s having provided a safe haven for al Qaeda, the group behind the 9/11 attacks.

Far and away the silliest part of Engelhardt’s article is his observation that sooner or later, the names of “everyone who … was murdered in those buildings in New York, in that field in Pennsylvania, and in the Pentagon, as well as those who sacrificed their lives in rescue attempts” will be forgotten. Again, he is correct—but what of it? Probably few are left to mourn the first heroes to be buried in Arlington National Cemetery, which was consecrated in 1864. Surely by now, many of the 6 million who died in the ovens at Auschwitz and Bergen-Belsen have been lost to memory. Is Engelhardt suggesting we remove Memorial Day—originally created to honor the Civil War dead—from the calendar, or that we shutter the Holocaust Memorial?

If Tom Engelhardt has had enough of memorializing 9/11, I suggest he draw the blinds and watch reruns of Gilligan’s Island next September 11. As for me, I will honor those who died, as I did this year and have every year.

Related Articles

• Passengers on NY-bound flight on anniversary of 9/11 cause security scare
• State of the TSA at the tenth anniversary of 9/11
• Chilling new 9/11 recordings made available for first time
• Bloomberg: First responders not invited to 9/11 remembrance

Follow me on Twitter or join me at Facebook. You can reach me at howard.portnoy@gmail.com or by posting a comment below.

Blowback