Look, if you are particularly sesitive to all of the September 11th stuff, then maybe this ISN'T the post for you, OK???

look, I really don't want to piss anyone off here. just a comment or two on the 'Sept 11th' thread really hit home with me.

I'm really getting sick of all of the tacky, in your face, 'look at us, we are so patrioctic" crap.
I mean really, I don't want to watch the made for TV movie here in Sydney, really.
I've been seeing shit like this >http://www.paintedarrowgifts.com/mouspadjeswe.html>http://amos.catalogcity.com/cc.class/cc?pcd=2798948&ccsyn=22&AID=7104493&PID=926889>http://www.germaris.com/english/TypoE.html
out there in cyper space and I'm just really over it.
And one more thing, I'm realy tired of people telling me how I should feel about this whole thing.
And that I can't question the American government's forgien policy and how that policy may or may not have contributed to the events leading up to Sept 11th. IF I do I should be tarred and feathered.

Thanks for letting me rant here.
Please tell me that Im not the only one feeling this way......or am I?

I can say I totally know how your feeling on the whole 'look at us, we're patriotic' thing...It's one thing to put up an American flag and let it fly because you love your country...It's quite another to do it because you feel obligated and you let the flag fly and let it tatter to pieces and turn all nasty...And I'm sick of seeing all the American memorbilla (sp?) everywhere also...It seems like everyones trying to make a buck off of it...Feel how you want to feel...theres nothing whatsoever wrong with it.

i totally agree and i know how your feeling. im so stressed at the moment.. bedtime i think :)


..::PrincesS::..

i think people (like the one who created that font and try to profit out of this whole deal) forget that REAL LIVES were lost...this isn't a Lifetime Original movie. this isn't Halloween. Shoe some respect for the people who DID die and don't make 'commemerative' bears and geese for your lawn. thats not gonna bring anyone back.
wearing a flag across your chest and saying how much you want terrorist dead dosen't make you patriotic.
let's all sit back and remeber a year of corporations getting fat off of 'remebering' a tragic event. or all the arabic racism. or our sort-of elected president suddenly beccoming Jesus while men at work work for months through the rubble and die.

Amen Sister! (yeah, i'm one who ranted before on the sept. 11 thread.)

Not only am i fed up with the consumer patriotism, i am tired of people putting flags up to be patriotic, but then they let them rot, because they don't care enough to figure out how the flag should technically be treated. jeez. some patriots.

Plus, i heard on NPR yesterday that the media is getting kudos for the coverage of 9-11 last year, and one reporter explained that sure, after half of what they said was censored out or not aired people were happy. Any hint of non-full support for "w" was not aired. This guy made some comment about Bush's demenor on the day after, and he was told he should die, never write again, get deported, executed, etc...

I have come to the conclusion that this country is the town of Springfield in the Simpsons, and that the few people who dare question are Lisa. We my friends are the derided Lisa Simpsons.

Wow, and all i was going to write was the first line. Thanks for letting me rant, its been building up.

--Nat

What people don't get is that I think one of the most patriotic things to do is question our government. We have the right to do this here and, I think, the duty to do it.

However, somehow people have forgotten that.

My turn.

If you truly feel proud to be an American, show it. Not just by the flag & the songs & the red, white & blue--

Vote. Support or enlist in the military. DO SOMETHING.

This "Oh, look at me, my tie has the flag on it, aren't i a good American" mentality bugs me. If you want to be a "good American", actually do something for your country. Don't sit around on your rear all day election day and then complain that the polititians are idiots.

The best way to show your patriotism is to be involved in your bloody country. You live here, you can vote, you should do something!
Action cures the problem of blind patriotism.



And---
If you wanna wear "patriotic" clothes or have trinkets or stickers or whatever, the flag, an eagle, or something nice and simple work. Cutesy stuff gets on my last nerve.

I am very anti-bush, and moderately anti-war-- especially war on Iraq. I mean, as soon as we start talking war on Iraq, profits for all of Mr. Cheney's friends in oil sky-rocket.

I come from a very pro-bush town.. . and a very anti-clinton town. I swear, if I hear Clinton blamed for September 11 one more time, I will scream. One month into Clinton's first term, he started pushing for a "homeland security" (to use the bush term) post. And yet for at least a month, I had to sit there and listen to people telling me how wonderful bush was and how gore couldn't have handled it... all the time wanting to say "What exactly had Bush done that was so wonderful?"

oooh...ranting is good.

I just realized that I posted this in the 'Craft' secion instead of the 'La Vida' section, sorry about that....

hey, GG, have people been kind of picking on you because you are an american in Australia?

My love is French, and he really copped it when they were doing nuclear testing at Muroa Atoll - ummm... yeah, because he can influence the goverment and make them stop!


Candi - who can't stand her Prime Minister, but is very glad to live in a country where she can say that without fear of retribution.

hey Candi, are you watching the Sunday program on channel 9 at the moment, they are doing a really great program about 9/11 (its 10:13 am Sunday morning in Sydney)

ed to add, the program was about how the military and government initally reacted to the situation. very insightful.

ahhh, John Howard, the man who has do more backflips than a Olympic gymnast...

I sometimes get strange looks when I open my mouth and people hear my accent.
But yeah, a few times people have given me a piece of their mind about US politics. LIke I have Bush's home number and can call him and say, 'hey Dubbya, knock it off'.
But for the most part, most people have been really supportive and sensitive. Ya gotta love that about Aussies.

Been in that boat too, gadget.

Every now and then when I lived in the UK (i'm a yank) I'd take shit for this or that American policy. Only thing is - I agreed with them! Why else would I leave my country? (OK to spread the consumerist American way-of-life like a dark sheet across the world, sure, obviously as a college junior I had that ability...) It'd end up going like this:

Them: Americans are kill crazy! I don't want to go there because you have too many guns!
Me: You're right. I think we should ban all handguns. The second amendment has been terribly misinterpretted.
Them: And the death penalty...it's just revenge!
Me: I know. I oppose the death penalty.
Them: And medical costs are...
Me: I know. I want nationalized health care. I don't mind taxes for it. The Canadians have it good.
Them: And the embargo...
Me: I think we should drop the embargos on Cuba and Iraq. They do nothing but prop up the dictators they fight.
Them: [Stunned silence] Brits are always the bad guys in your movies!
Me: That's because you suck.
(just kidding!)

Anyway, the 9/11 bullshit has me very far over the edge. I'm really, really hoping it comes to a head Wednesday and finally starts to dissapate. If people want to whack off to their red white and blueness, fine, just keep it the hell away from me. Fascists.

(And thanks for that Jesus Wept thing. That's priceless! Someone needs to start a Web site cataloging the worst of this crap!)

nah, if they started a catalog of all of it, they'd get too much publicty;).

Re: wearing patriotic clothes
I think it's fine to wear something a little patriotic. I myself will be wearing my little flag ribbon lapel pin . But wearing huge splashy "REMEMBER!" shirts and whatnot just bugs the crap out of me. Of course we'll remember! It especially bugs me when people get all precious about it and get in my face when I don't wear them on 4th of July and all the other patriotic holidays.


*cat

GG - I have one question... where exactly do you surf that you run into all that cheese?

Rant (begin)
Interesting, the other night I was reading an article on the Wife of the Man on board flight 93 who reportedly said 'Let's Roll!' right before he and other passengers reportedly attacked the terrorists and eventually crashed the plane in a rural area instead of the White House.
This woman, who has become a symbol of sorts representing the families of those perished in 911, has been acknowledge by Dubya as a true survivor, she's been on Oprah, etc. You probably know who I'm talking about. Anyways, her husband was a top salesman for Oracle, they were very rich and devout Christians. So she wanted to do something 'American and Heroic' so she started a fund for under-privilaged kids. She has the license to the phrase 'Let's Roll' and started a company of memorablia with that phrase, if you go to Walmart (obviously you can't - you're in Oz.) you can see one item her company has marketed: a pleather Bible Case with a small screenprinted flag on the cover with the words 'Let's Roll' floating above it. Totally cheesy I think. I guess she did her job though, she truly did something American, made money off a 'tragedy'. I don't know though, I kind of just laugh at stuff like this.
(end) Rant

Im with ya HGM, I am always agreeing with people here when it comes to American politics

VV, I have very strange friends...

did you see the special editions of the sunday papers?, poster sized images of the impact, and ground zero, and today in the daily telegraph, they are having more poster sized pics,

this is great because I want up on my walls next to my james dean poster a picture of the twin towers collapsing, what a great way to go to sleep.

and whats really pissing me off is that this week around half of australia's news reporters are going to new york to report on the 9/11 commemorations, you think they might of left a few behind to report on whats happening in their own homeland.

bloody media

yeah, I avoid the Telegraph anyway, they over sensationalize everything

(double post, sorry!)

Gadgetgirl, I wish I lived in Australia too? Is there any way for an American to do it... if she is already married to another American?

*****

On to the subject: My job is REQUIRING us to attend a September 11 breakfast. Yes, that's right. I am not very happy about it. It is supposed to last from 8:30 to 10:30 and we are all supposed to talk about our feelings about the tragedy.

Now don't get me wrong, I am as upset as anyone over what happened a year ago. It was more awful than I have words to express. On that day, I would prefer to reflect in my own way instead of having a forced chat with the narrow-minded people I work with.

After it happened, there was a day when everyone was "supposed to wear red, white, and blue". I didn't even think about what colors I was wearing that day because my cousin's 3-week-old baby died the night before.

Anyway, one of my stupid co-workers harrassed me about not wearing the "colors", and then said, "What are those, Afganistan's colors?" FYI- they weren't.

And this is who I am supposed to talk about the tragedy with?

SF

I was in Spain last year (which is how I feel like I start most of my posts) and the entire time I was there, I kept hearing, oh things are so different here, you won't be able to regonize America, oh loss of civil liberties, oh patriotism, oh flags on everyones car! And I got home, and it was weird for its own reasons. I've noticed the flags on everyones car, home, etc, but not much else that has changed. Which make me chalk it up as a trend, like all those other american trends that have come and gone. Nixon pins. Yellow ribbons for the persian gulf disaster. Wearing flowers or growing out your hair in protest. Etc. The only thing that has changed in America, I think, is that we've realized that it is us and them, and has been all along. The entire world doesn't like the US. Few other countries do, as a collective whole. And we can either do as children and play king of the mountain, or we can try and assess "why they hate us."

i'm really sad about the whole thing, and always will be.

but those products you found are fucking ridiculous. true entrepreneurs, i guess.

TURN OFF YOUR TV.

better yet, watch cartoon network! Daffy Duck saves me every time. It was a bunch of tapes of The Simpsons that got me through the 2 weeks with a TV signal last year.

I have some SEEEERIOUS probs with the way the whole Sept 11 thing gets reported in the media regarding the anti-middle east stuff and the attitude on most western news services that it just came without any reason whatsoever-- like US foreign policy hasn;t had something to do with these people's hatred. Don't get excited, I'm not saying it was the right thing to do at all. I feel really horrible for those people in the Trade centre and their families and so it makes me sick to think that these people, having lost someone they love, have to see pictures of those burning buildings every fucking time they turn around. How awful must that be? While the rest of the world looks at it and seems to have this weirdo titillation, horror-porn thing going on, and making money. It's so horrible.
On the weekend I read about a woman whose husband had died in the towers, and she'd sheilded her son from ever seeing any pictures of the burning towers to date, so that her son would only have nice memories of his father and won't have nightmares about how he died. She must have had a real job trying to keep the images out of his sight.

RIght on MlleEmily!
it's as if the media saying, 'what? some factions in the middle east hate the US, now why would anyone do that???" come on, maybe it's the BOMBS that the US drops on them (among other things).
Sometimes I feel like I have to apologize when I question any part of American forgein policy.

-GG