soapboxdiner

The Commercialization of Tragedy

You know something? I have a little confession. For 361 days, I have been sick to death, grinding my teeth and getting my back up at the very mention of 9/11. People, it has simply worn me down.

In the first three days after the crashes, I wept like every other American and much of the world. I hugged my child and told everyone I knew how much they meant to me. I watched the news with rapt attention.

I tried and wanted to give blood but three of the local blood banks were all overbooked and then the fiasco with Red Cross.

I know there are many many people who were touched by the events personally. I cannot begin to express my empathy over the pain it has caused those people. But for me, sitting here on the other end of the country and having not been touched in a personal way, the commercialization of that grief is simply a heinous disgusting exploitation for profit.

And then it was just E-N-O-U-G-H. Overload. Something inside cracked just a little and decided that heretofore, it - that thing that cracked inside - would not listen to another word of the tragedy. Or the hoopla. Or the false patriotic propaganda extolled by every news anchor and his mother so long as it meant good ratings. Every clothing and electronic store waving a flag and saying we all need to come together... preferrably for their Semi-Annual Sale. Terribly unamerican of me, isn't it?

So unlike the memo I received at work saying, "In honor of the American Tragedy of 9-1-1, all employees are encouraged to observe 15 seconds of silence. At 7:28 a.m. this Wednesday, we ask that you stop your work and reflect.

Now get this, no one at work clocks in until 7:30 or 8:00, earliest. Big of the Company to give us this time to reflect, eh? So Very American.

6:03 am - 09.10.02
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