standing in the barn, waving goodbye to the horse

Last year I was in New York on the 11th of September. This year-- as on the first 9/11, and most since-- I was in front of a classroom. On my way from Amarillo to that classroom, I listened as the disembodied voices on a talk radio show discussed whether this day should be a national holiday. The consensus was that it shouldn't, since eventually, inevitably it would become commercialized and all partied up. Maybe not in a year, maybe not in three years, but sometime within a decade Wal-Mart would run the first "Patriot Day" (or whatever) sale, and then hypercapitalism would run amok.

For the record, I agree. But the record also shows that September 11th was commercialized a long, long time ago...on September 27, 2001, at the Chicago O'Hare International Airport, when the newly-crowned Emperor W called on Americans to go back to the malls...and, even closer to home, when, on the very same day, then-Mayor Trent Sisemore and his merry band of war profiteers introduced the "Buy at Home, Support America Now" campaign.


spacedark