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I have kept rather silent on the issue of “life after Sept. 11″ and that’s for a good reason. We’re past the two-year anniversary and things have just slipped right back into the way it all used to be. Sure, you’ve got some heavier restriction in airports and maybe some suspicious profiling when people board their planes. But for the most part, I don’t think our lives or desire to consume have altered one bit.
After the initial attacks, anybody with a decent set of eyes saw a surge of bumper stickers promoting freedom and democracy: “All gave some and some gave all” or one of my favorites, “We’ll never forget.” The bumper stickers that really get me, though, are the “Still proud to be an American” bumper stickers. As if the tragedy of Sept. 11, 2001, had anything to do with your pride in being an American. Chances are high that the aggressors of these attacks couldn’t care less whether or not John and Jane Taxpayer still pride themselves on being American citizens.
Why do people still find it necessary to validate the heroic loss of life and memory of everyone who died on Sept. 11 through something as cheesy as a bumper sticker. When I have the odd pleasure of seeing one of these adhesive travesties, I can’t help but think why the people even put them on their cars. No one in America is going to think you’re anti-American or even pro-Sept. 11 if you don’t have some outward sign of displaying your disgust with the terrorist’s actions.
Let me say, I truly believe the number of lives that were lost is a heartbreaking tragedy. With that said, I think people who are sporting these bumperstickers are almost displaying their ignorant American attitude toward what was truly attacked on Sept. 11. You paid $1.50 for some way to “remember” everyone who was lost when the two towers fell. That’s disgusting. As if your memories and their lives are only worth $1.50. Then again, I never bothered to buy one of these bumper stickers so plenty of people could say I don’t think their lives are worth any of my money – that is a gross misinterpretation of my information.
In America we seem to think that if we fall into line with how everyone else is grieving then we’ve done our part. I’ve been silent on the issue for two freakin’ years. I’ve been silently hoping that these “American flag-themed trucks” or the American flag decals that are on 70 percent of the cars you find at your average mall would go away. Would someone please send out a public service announcement: Just because you don’t publicly display every emotion or thought you have doesn’t mean it’s not valid.
American pride T-shirts and the full embrace of democracy through useless paraphernalia is capitalistic. Then again, America is based on this system. But if people truly understood that the terrorists were attacking these values and not our mythic “Right to bear arms” or “The Declaration of Independence,” then we wouldn’t see all this empty pro-American advertisements.
I’m sure I’ve gotten a large majority of the people reading this article upset but you need to understand: there will be another Sept. 11. How can I be sure? Because nothing’s changed. American citizens have casually slipped back into their NASCAR-watching, Starbucks-drinking, homogenized-everything lives. I’m sure none of us will forget what happened on Sept. 11, but as Americans, we have somehow turned the death of thousands of people into a tasteless commodity that a corporate office in New York or California is enjoying.
Don’t swallow the traditional forms of creativity or remembrance that the media and Hallmark have dreamed up for us. Sitting idle while the corporate hands that have become our institutions of politics and education will only let the terrorists know that we aren’t looking – yet again.
Marshall Dury is a senior English major.
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