Forget the Alamo

There are two entirely different 9/11s: the event itself, and the event as symbol--as casus belli, as slogan, as debate-stopper, as cynical political ploy. As the former recedes into the past, the latter advances; the accretion of self-serving rhetoric threatens to obliterate genuine memory.

Today is an occasion for endless pontificating by bloodthirsty wingnuts. Rightly repelled by this disservice to the victims, we on the left side are tempted to minimize the event--which is itself a disservice. It was an extraordinary horror, an atrocity unprecedented in this country; 3,000 people were slaughtered--not Americans, not Patriots, not Republicans, but people. They deserve to be remembered.

Which means cutting through the bullshit that surrounds 9/11. It means setting aside the cynical exploitation, the lies, the brain-dead slogans. That's not what's important--not today, anyway. To remember the event, we need to forget the Alamo.

[That's all, folks]