[iDC] Polemic: In Protest of 9/11 Observances

[patrick lichty]

I was sitting here watching the 9/11 service and when they rung the bell
at 9:03, I had to turn it off.

I remember seeing the second one hit, dumbfounded, blankly thinking that
this was a hoax or that this needed a soundtrack and Bruce Willis (so
did Andrei Codrescu).

I also remember being up late nights, keeping a lot of folks company on
IM who were still staying below 15th St.

And in my own context, I lost a cousin in Oklahoma City, and was part of
the Katrina disaster, as my home in Baton Rouge was in the extended path
of the whole thing, and suffered little damage, unlike so many of my
friends, whom we housed through the Fall.

But, when I watched the observance, I was in a double bind.  While on
one hand, the event was horrendous and deserves remembrance, the problem
is that it will undoubtedly be used by the Bush Administration and
American Media Culture once again as a justification for its own
irresponsibility, and for that, I feel that perhaps some other form of
commemoration would be in order.  One that would maintain the gravitas
of the event without the maudlin faux patriotism that actually reduces
it to an ad for little silver coins with pop-up WTC effigies.


Today, I'm not thrilled, and am set with even more resolve to vote these
idiots out of office...  The DHS and TSA are paper tigers that let
people think that they are somehow safer, but are band-aids for the
severed limb of social injustice in/by the US.  The war has more to do
with the Project for the American Century and the Bush/Hussein feud than
Al Qaeda or even oil.  In the power vacuum created by the fall of the
USSR, it is the US who have taken on the role of imperial power.

I guess I'd like to make my simple and possibly naïve plea- Less bombs
and guns, more education, outreach, health care, food and housing here
and abroad.  Either way, some people will lose their lives at this
point, but would it be better to have it happen while giving someone a
meal, or by detaining someone at a checkpoint?  I'll support 115,000
Peace Corps in Iraq...

Sorry if I'm naïve, but I'm speaking from my gut today.


Patrick Lichty
- Interactive Arts & Media
  Columbia College, Chicago
- Editor-In-Chief
  Intelligent Agent Magazine
http://www.intelligentagent.com
225 288 5813
voyd at voyd.com
 
"It is better to die on your feet 
than to live on your knees."