The upcoming anniversary of the 9/ll tragedies will bring with it a number of elements. Surely some people will shed tears and remember that fateful morning with a heavy heart. Unfortunately, most people will inevitably capitalize on it.
Capitalism is, after all, what our country is best at, so what makes tragedy any different than say, suing a homeowner for failing to post "Don't rob my house for fear of fast flying lead" signs on their house exterior? It seems equally preposterous to try and gain from the loss of 3,000 lives, but that's just what we're going to do
First, let's place people on every corner selling new flags for cars, homes and yards. We can take slogans like "We Have Not Forgotten!" and "Ravaged but Reborn" and put them on key-chains, t-shirts, posters and bumper-stickers—something to make this day special and not merely like the blood-sucking we did just after burying 3,000 of our citizens.
Maybe we could even have some special event downtown where every vendor within a hundred miles can come and sell red, white and blue popcorn for $5 a bag.
Even our friendly neighborhood panhandlers capitalized on our calamitous state of affairs, opting out of "Come on, I'm just trying to eat for cryin' out loud!" to "Yeah, you'll spend forty bucks on a flag, but you won't give a veteran a dollar!" Assuredly these men probably never set foot inside a uniform, but they may speak some truth. That is not to say that further restitution for the families would save the day, but neither will reaping a profit.
Lately, the books hitting the bestseller list are relevant almost as long as it takes to read them. That didn't stop Thomas Friedman, the foreign affairs columnist for The New York Times from writing a book "Exploring the World after September 11th," which became an instant best seller.
Well, perhaps those more directly involved would feel differently…or perhaps not. Robert J. Fazio of Virginia Commonwealth University lost his father at Ground Zero. How is he recognizing the weight of this anniversary? By constructing a manual on how to deal with the grave occasion.
On a grander scale, are the actions of our somber and sympathetic president, Mr. Bush, who has not missed the opportunity to capitalize as well. He has a full day planned of going hither and thither, remembering what we've lost by giving speeches and visiting the site of each plain crash. Of course, more importantly, he's sealing the need for us to press on with the admirable patriotism that has made the necessity for tighter internal security seem viable.
Lest we forget, "Dubya" is proposing the consolidation of twenty federal agencies in order to form his Department for Homeland Security, which may grant him the ability to hire and fire no fewer than 170, 000 federal employees. He has conveniently pushed for the Senate to consider the issue within the next few weeks, right when the anniversary has made our patriotic fever push the silver to the top.
News stations, wetting their pants with the prospect of getting record-breaking television ratings, are sure to rehash the horror of the moment as much as possible, causing Americans to beg for a safer home. We may well turn our heads as the checks and balances of our federal agencies vanish and are, instead, replaced with cool slogans that cause us to turn a blind eye.
While we are waving our flags this anniversary we may be wise to remember that capitalizing on these events does little more than shame those who've lost their lives, for even if a bumper is free of stickers, one can still be a worthy American.
Darren Todd is an English literature and history junior. Reach him at Darren.todd@asu.edu.
