A Belated Happy Birthday to y'all by the way. Sorry that your day has joined the list of exploited American days. The good news is that no one, not even Bible Spice and the Beckster, has really come up with a way to sell us anything 9/11 related. Flag pins are generic. Exploding skyscrapers are little too large for the front yard, not to mention pricey and against even the most relaxed standards of good taste. Sure, the hucksters are trying. But, arena rock tickets for real rockers are slow movers (We all blame peer-to-peer Obama.) these days. Paying a C-Note to hear Palin garble another intro is beginning to wear thin even on those of the Religious Right who dream their dreams of Barbie wearing sturdy foundation garments and red spiked high heels.
And, people are beginning to wonder when Glenn Beck will begin to introduce Mitt Romney. He's THE ONE for whom Beck has been warming the audience, RIGHT? At any rate, Beck's chains of innuendo and illogic are a lot less palatable at $200 a pop on a pensioner's income.
No one has yet come up with a salable 9/11 product. This year's big dud was Korans by the gross suitable for burning. Back in the 1950s and 1960s, record companies and book publishers used to love it when the local witchhunters would put on a save-our-children burning as long as the burners paid for the goods up front. But, things have changed. An announcement of pending local foolishness in Florida today ends up becoming the cause for a life ending riot on the other side of the world tomorrow. Some of the lives ended are those of Muslim American soldiers sent to that part of the world to search for the man who may have been behind the terrorism in the USA nine years ago. Just to be fair and balanced, many of those lives ended are local Muslims and some others ended were ardent Christian American soldiers as well as GI's who were natural born American Hellraisers, never giving a damn about about religion but whose families will pretend they did.
Anyway, back to those 9/11 birthday boys and girls. Again, very many happy returns to you all. Trust me. You will get used to all the phony sanctimony. Make no mistake. For many, many people, it is real. And, we should all respect their grief. Just as we should all spend a moment on the day thinking about the events of nine years ago. In particular, we should meditate on the heroism shown at the WTC and elsewhere by so many. The heroism was best captured by the simple phrase uttered by Todd Beaner on Flight 93 as he and some other passengers tried to take back plane from the hijackers, "Let's roll."
If it's any comfort, 9/11 won't rank up there with Christmas and such as a birthday thunder stealer for very much longer. Just ask the folks born on December 7th.