:: NEWS COCKTAIL aka BlahBlahBlog ::
"Everything is being compressed into tiny tablets. You take a little pill of news every day - 23 minutes - and that's supposed to be enough." -Walter Cronkite, RE TV news. The Web has changed that for many, however, and here is an extra dose for your daily news cocktail. This prescription tends to include surveillance and now war-related links, along with the occasional pop culture junk and whatever else seizes my attention as I scan online news sites.:: 9.11.2009 ::
:: How 9/11 Should Be Remembered: The Extraordinary Achievements of Ordinary People ::
By Rebecca Solnit
Tomdispatch.com
via Alternet
After 9/11, saw amazing acts of courage by ordinary people, including assembled flotilla of boats evacuated 300,000 to 500,000 people from lower Manhattan.
Eight years ago, 2,600 people lost their lives in Manhattan, and then several million people lost their story. The al-Qaeda attack on the Twin Towers did not defeat New Yorkers. It destroyed the buildings, contaminated the region, killed thousands, and disrupted the global economy, but it most assuredly did not conquer the citizenry. They were only defeated when their resilience was stolen from them by clichés, by the invisibility of what they accomplished that extraordinary morning, and by the very word "terrorism," which suggests that they, or we, were all terrified. The distortion, even obliteration, of what actually happened was a necessary precursor to launching the obscene response that culminated in a war on Iraq, a war we lost (even if some of us don't know that yet), and the loss of civil liberties and democratic principles that went with it.
Only We Can Terrorize Ourselves
For this eighth anniversary of that terrible day, the first post-Bush-era anniversary, let's remember what actually happened ...
Read more here.
A L S O
Obama marks 9/11 with memorial, call to service
AP
WASHINGTON — On his first 9/11 anniversary as president, Barack Obama urged Americans to come together in service just as they united after the terrorist attacks eight years ago.
"We can summon once more that ordinary goodness of America, to serve our communities, to strengthen our country and to better our world," Obama said at a memorial at the Pentagon.
Obama on Thursday declared the anniversary of the attacks a national day of remembrance and service. And he and first lady Michelle Obama led the way Friday, visiting a Habitat for Humanity construction site in Washington, where they pitched in by painting a living room wall.
Earlier, the Obamas participated in the anniversary rituals that have become familiar in the eight years since the attacks on New York and Washington. They began the day by observing a moment of silence on the South Lawn of the White House at precisely 8:46 a.m., the moment the first jetliner struck the World Trade Center on Sept. 11, 2001.
Nearly 200 White House staffers — from chief of staff Rahm Emanuel to kitchen workers — gathered under a heavy downpour. Moments before the president and first lady stepped outside, the rain subsided and it held off as they placed their hands over their hearts and bowed their heads.
After the Obamas walked back into the White House, the rain resumed.
As a presidential candidate, Obama marked last year's anniversary in New York at the site of the World Trade Center. This year, the commander in chief spoke at a Pentagon memorial service, and laid a wreath in honor of the 184 people who died there.
Read more here.
9/11 Remembered: Photos From The Day
Huffington Post
posted by me
:: 4:01:00 PM [+] ::
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