"7 Months"

 

       The other day on a news brief I heard them say it had been seven months since September 11th.  It's odd, because I also seem to remember hearing them tell us when it had been six months.  All this almost "celebrating" of the anniversary is making me wonder just why we are also being told by our government to just move on and go about our daily lives.  How can we really?

       I want to sort of examine two aspects of this September 11th tragedy, the hype surrounding it, and the fact that it still exists within the mainstream news today, but I also want everyone to know that I am doing this in a most sensitive manner.  If you're planning on responding to this with words of "You shouldn't take this so lightly" and what not, well, just save it.  I'm probably the closest you can be to living in NY (aside from NJ) and so it hit me a bit harder than people in, say, California.  So save me the speeches, save me the sympathy, it's time to get real.

       I'm anxious.  I'm at the point right now where I think a lot of people are.  I just want the military to move in, kill Osama bin Laden (or at least find and capture him) and put an end to all of this.  I wanted this to happen months ago.  I feel that had this happened months ago, maybe we wouldn't be where we are today.  Maybe we wouldn't have just increased the hatred between Yasir Arrafat and our country.  Maybe then he wouldn't have shut off our oil supply.  Maybe then gas prices wouldn't have to rise higher than ever before.  Maybe George W. isn't all he's cracked up to be.

       I think that there's this hype surrounding September 11th, and that is part of what makes it so memorable.  Yes, even if we didn't have them telling us every month that it had been another month since, people would still remember it and remember it well.  But the heightened media coverage, exposure and unwillingness to move on from it is also a big factor in what is causing this to not go away.  It's a part of what's going to make every September 11th from here on out a sadder day, and a day when older people reminesce to the young.   But maybe that's not such a bad thing.

       I guess my major gripe with this whole thing is that it's become very media based.  It just seems like too much of it revolves around the television, the commemerative book collections, the collector pins, the flags for your cars, all of that hype.  And the real problem is that within that hype, George W. has gotten cocky.  The media- who once portrayed him as a former coke addict and idiot-like frat boy- now shows George W. in a more positive light, more like a hero.  But the problem is, old W. let this get to his head.  He committed the immortal sin.   He began to believe his own hype.  He got carried away in press conferences and personal visits to places, he lost track of the real objective.

       So this is my open invitation to George W. Bush, President of the United States. 

       Listen, I don't care if I never see George W's face on the television again.  I don't want to hear anything any longer about how he's visited "ground zero".  "Ground zero" is not going any where.  You'll have plenty of time to visit it later and make right with the New Yorkers.  But now, right now Mr. W, you have a duty to your whole country- not just NY- to end what is shaping up to be World War 3.  Instead of putting an end to this by capturing Osama bin Laden, you have just made more tension between us and other countries.  Honestly, you're just making things worse.  Get off your platform.  I never want to see your face on the television again until you tell us this has all come to an end.  It is not a time for talk, it is a time for action.