NFL and 9/11

We got a lot of corporate bullshit advertising-based crap pushed in our faces about 9/11 on Sunday.  It was a disgrace to the innocent people who died that day.  It seems that we take every opportunity to use these types of events to show just how piggish America has become in many respects.  I hate it immensely. 

However...

I watched a lot of football yesterday and I was impressed with the simple, but deeply respectful ceremonies held at stadiums across the nation.  I got chills at the crowd's reaction to the flags, the singing and simple pageantry that said so much about the American spirit.  Every crowd I watched chanted "USA" at some point before the game.  They didn't do it for too long, just enough to remember that everyone in that stadium was on the same team when that flag was unveiled.  It was a great feeling. 

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Another note on 9/11 or any other tragic event in this country....

There's only one caveat here - if you are in the military or have a family member in the military this is not aimed at you at all.  9/11 was for you the biggest thing in your lives even if you lived a million miles away from the tragedies due to its implications for you, or your family member's status of "being shot at" or "not being shot at."  This is for the rest of the people out there.

A lot of people in today's society have the ability to make anything and everything about them.  Nothing is more selfish than answering the quesiton; "where were you on 9/11?"  If you weren't in the towers, on the plane that crashed in Pennsylvania or in the Pentagon - IT DOESN'T MATTER WHERE YOU WERE OR WHAT YOU WERE DOING!  It's not about YOU!  And you look selfish when you make it about YOU.

I know a lot of you are going to be hurt by this, but we can't continue teaching our kids that everything is about them personally.  My parent's generation started the whole "where were your when Kennedy was shot/assassinated?" scenario.  Almost 100 percent of the time - nobody cares where those people were unless they were holding an ammo can for stranger on a grassy knoll.  They care that the president was murdered and that's it.  Since then, we've continued to make it all about YOU and not the people actually involved in whatever the situation was.  It's time to stop the selfishness. 

Have you ever met someone who had a family member dying in a hospital and the only thing they could talk about is how much of a strain it was for them to have a family member in the hospital?  Do you remember how you thought "what an asshole, your brother is dying and all you care about is the sleep you aren't getting?"    Well, that's what you look like when you make 9/11 about you.

Comments

[Carl Starr]

I don't know that its so much about me or you but us -community,one people, what I think they mean about where were you, is what were you feeling about your country, when it happened etc kinda of like the 911 country song, really its not the moment of where you where that they ask but the hours and days afterward and your relection on humanity and our nation, did you hug a stranger etc as the song goes.

[dot]

The better question should be "What did you do because of 9/11 that changed your life?" Many, many men and women enlisted or joined the fire academies, became regular blood donors or joined the Red Cross volunteers.

My children were small at the time. I was determined that they wouldn't learn to live in fear, but that they would go boldly into the world and do good things there. I took them to New York the next June and they witnessed the last beam be removed from Ground Zero. We made the effort to not only teach them the Constitution but to live and defend the freedoms that it guarantees.

Since then, they have all become avid shooting sports competitors, active in politics and government and have been leaders in anything they get involved with.