9/11 + 2 = Politics As Usual

[dArKeR]

The chosen word for this second anniversary of Sept. 11, 2001 is “muted.” The ceremonies are fewer and quieter. The commemoration, it seems, is of a long gone day in history.

This may well be predictable. It may be normal and “healthy.” But I feel like we are not adequately paying our respects to 9/11. And I feel somewhat manipulated.

The tone has been set deliberately by the White House, which has scheduled a muted, almost mute day for the President – a closed church service, a moment of silence, a closed visit to wounded soldiers. Vice President Cheney, the human embodiment of low-key, was to be dispatched to Ground Zero, but New York’s mayor said ‘no thanks.’ The unknown Secretary of the Interior, Gale Norton, will preside in Shanksville. It is close to a “dis.”

What a stunning contrast it is to last year, when the President was everywhere – Ground Zero, the Pentagon, Shanksville.

And, I predict, what a contrast it will be to next year. The Republicans, rather ruthlessly, will hold their national convention in New York City, right before 9/11, not in August as is traditional. That 9/11 anniversary will be two months before an election; don’t expect another such muted commemoration.

http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2003/09/10/opinion/meyer/main572574.shtml