It's offically been September 10th for an hour and forty-one minutes. For those of you who are about to ask, once you read a little further, why I'm a day early, I'll say this: ABC, NBC, CBC, CNN, Time-Warner, MSNBC and the BBC - oh how far you have fallen - have got tomorrow covered. I want to contribute before the American media takes your brain cells hostage (hostile?*)

We celebrate Independence Day. We celebrate Labor Day. We celebrate Presidents' Day and Thanksgiving. We commemorate these events that serve as the foundation of this country's character. So why, why, WHY are we giving this same kind of attention to the anniversary of a terrorist attack?

So many people (particularly bloggers) tout 9/11 as a "day that changed history." Well, everything changes history, so I'll buy that. But just as many also say that it "changed America completely." And I see no evidence of that. Nor do I believe that 9/11 will on any level change the way our country operates nearly as much as, say, Pearl harbor did.

Any of you who started screaming "apples and oranges!" right then really deserve a hearty prize. Pearl Harbor was a military base. The Japanese were declaring war as a nation, not as a tiny group of individuals. They were not challenging an ideology, but instead attacking economic and territorial holdings of the US. So why did I bring it up?

Pearl Harbor is exactly what Bush (in his many snore-inducing speeches of late) has been making allusions to. His administration, notably falls-on-his-sword-every-other-week Rumsfeld, has been saying with increasing frequency that the "War on Terrorism" is a lot like World War II. That terrorists (and those who aid them) are fascists. What can you recite from your 9th-grade history class about the fascists? They were allies with Hitler (technically, Nazis were also fascists). That's an image these guys would like you to keep. But keep reading.

In reality, Islamic extremests and other kinds of terrorists are about the furthest thing there can be from fascists. Terrorists often have a very loose organizational structure, with a large body of people who serve as authorities in certain areas. Their goal is not to dominate, but to dessimate. In fact, among governing bodies, the Republican-held Federal Government (believing it should have ultimate authority over national matters even though it is clearly unqualified to do so) is the closest subject in this essay to a Fascist body. Ooh, I just felt a little shiver in my spine.

But I, not to my total shame, digress. I just had to get that thing off my chest. We were talking about the anniversary of September 11th and the ensuing media pihrana fest.

In the interests of full disclosure, I have never, not five days after the event, liked all the press it got. In fact, I'm generally not too fond of the press. But I endured it for the first year. A lot of people died and they deserve to have a small memorium. But every year the TV specials and the articles seem to get bigger, as if they are increasing to the magnitude of its anniversary. I blame it on the self-obsessed nature of this country. When the towers fell and the pentagon was kinda dented up, we, the public, stopped and stared and a lot of us eventually got to our feet and helped. But 5 years after, we're still saying "Ohmigawd!" in a Valley Girl Accent.

And oh, how people have capitalized on it. The feeling I have adopted for Oliver Stone profiting off 9/11 is roughly the same one I reserved for my 12th grade writing class teacher who, in a special moment of Being Christian, put her ban of "movie book reports" on hiatus for any of us who wanted to go see The Passion of the Christ. But obviously there's money in it. I'd really like to see how much dough a prime time ad on CNN goes for when they're airing this year's special.

So many people acted like it was the worst thing that could ever happen to each of us. But not many of us were personally affected by 9/11. If it had not been for the live TV coverage and the banner headlines and Prez B. screaming "We're at War! Let's go get Sadd--Al Qaida!" it would be a distant thing on our minds. The terrorists were not blowing up pizza shops, as they do in Israel. They found big targets, and even so 4/5ths of the people present at the towers when they were attacked escaped. You and I have statistically zero chance of being blown up, so stop freaking out already. Is watching ANOTHER show with footage of people leaping from 100th story windows going to help you do your laundry? And, be honest, which option has a higher priority?

The more we "glorify" the images of 9/11, the more successful the intent of the original attack: to distract and horrify the public, military and government alike. Hanging a tattered dollar-store flag off your rear view won't "show the terrorists." Such blind faith is only countered with blind faith of their own variety. No peace is ever negotiated this way. As any half-witted psychologist will tell you, if you want someone to stop doing something, ignore them. Attention, good, bad or otherwise, is only encouragement.

So, America: stop being melodramatic. We were wronged by people who are undoubtedly evil. But the more we moan about it, the more we leave ourselves open to more of the same. Pick up, dust off. Move on. Don't forget, but move on.

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Disclaimer: this rant is not meant to be taken as professional; it is an opinion piece and yes, it goes all over the place. I'm not a journalist, nor have I taken any political science classes. It is not given as an opinion on US MILITARY or even LEGISLATIVE affairs, but as commentary on the public reaction and, you know, dictionary/encyclopedic definition.
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*Five points if you can correctly guess who I'm mocking.
**Twenty points; Two hundred points.
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Quote of the day: "You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality." - Malcolm X, adapted from "Cato" Act IV Scene IV by Joseph Addison, 1713.