Today is September 11, 2011, the tenth anniversary of the terrorist attack against the World Trade Center, against the Pentagon, and against a field in Pennsylvania. A lot of the comics in the L.A. Times, television programs, radio shows, etc. are commemorating the event so I thought I’d mention it even though you’ll be reading this on Monday, September 12, 2011. Seriously, no one’s going to be reading this anyway.
I read once that the U.S.A. is different from a lot of other countries in that we celebrate our heroes’ birthdays where they celebrate the dates of their heroes’ deaths. That seems so nice of us. It also erases any ambiguity in that every hero represents the winning side and the losing side might just be celebrating the hero’s death, not his or her life. Celebrating the birthday is a celebration of a life, the day of the death is inconsequential.
We in America celebrate something else that most countries don’t celebrate. Celebrate might be the wrong word, we remember the dates of our worst defeats. Remember the Boston Massacre, remember the Alamo, remember the Maine, remember Pearl Harbor, remember the Challenger Disaster and remember Nine Eleven. Other countries remember their great victories not the times they got their asses kicked. We’re kind of funny that way.
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