Higgy wrote:Wow this is not about Styx and Boston anymore!
I had to jump in here. I am fairly liberal politically - but I think that its real hard to say that somehow the US brought 9/11 upon itself. Sure we turned a blind eye to the middle east and our policies have only our oil interest in mind, but for the guy working at the Starbucks at the World Trade Center had nothing to do with those policies. He's the one thats dead.
That's right, he is. And you're right too. FTR, I never said, nor do I believe that we "brought it on ourselves." I think Al Qaida and groups like it are sociopathic nutjobs that have no purpose but to spread hatred and despair. I do, however, believe they wanted to bring attention to themselves in the U.S., and they only way they could do that was to bring their "purpose" here. They knew we would never pay attention to them until they did. And they got exactly what they came for. We know it was senseless, but they believe it was a raving success.
And I felt compelled to answer you with a sense of rationality because your post actually demonstrated some. So thanks for that.
And why do we as Americans put more weight on 9/11 than other OBL terrorist acts? Probably because it happened in AMERICA and many of us knew a victim.
To some degree, I concur, but I also know that our media places a higher importance on American casualties more than any others. I can't tell you how many times anything is bombed in this world or tragedy occurs, how many time our news anchors make a point of telling us how many "Americans" were killed before all else (Yesterday, a ferry caught fire, killing 3 Americans & 57 other people" sorta thing). We as a people do tend to have an unhealthy obsession with ourselves. I sure as hell don't think we deserved 9/11, but I don't think anyone deserves that. The only difference here is, other places have been dealing with this sort of thing for years, but it never affected us in the slightest before that time.
We don't deserve to be hated, IMO. We are humans only conditioned to be more aware of our own. That's not a crime, if you ask me. Although, other people around the world don't always take my stance on the matter. We are definitely hated quite a bit across the globe for our patriotic narcissism.
In addition to the grief that I feel for the American families that suffered after 9/11, it has also made me more aware of the atrocities going on everywhere, which, I guess, it both good & bad in its own way. *shrug*
*That said, I've never been much of a Boston fan. I hope the tour works out well for the bands, if it does indeed transpire - just doesn't wet my britches, necessarily. I suppose it's more interesting than another REO co-bill.
