Saturday, September 20, 2008

Past Perils Forgot


When the day came that I had to turn the calendar to September, what came to my mind? School, of course! However, something didn't feel right. The school days passed, and it came apparent. 9/11 had slipped my mind. Unfortunately, for the rest of the school (at very least) it was the same. Granted, seven years is a while, and one's memory can only last for so long. I begin to wonder, is this what happened after Pearl Harbor? After D-Day? Why can't Americans hold on to these tragedies and remember them?
I have two points to make during this blog post. The first, I just stated (forgetting tragedies). The second is appalling. The ignorance and mocking of such. I was in advisory, on September 11th (2008). The moment of silence had been issued all over the school. Then I heard it. "Well, this is BOR-ING!" This may have been an attempt to make a student's social status rise to 'class clown', it may have been a slip of the tongue, it may have even been the lyrics of the last song he heard while getting out of his car that morning, what he said was inexcusable. How far have we fallen? As I said before, seven years is a while, but this is a national tragedy. As I said in my previous post, freedom of speech IS part of what is means to be an American, but when is the line crossed? 9/11/08.

2 comments:

sammyp said...

Chip i know what you mean about the disrespect of tragedies such as 9/11. Seeing as i am in your advisory, i also heard that comment and was upset by it. However i don't think that America has "forgotten" about the attacks on 9/11. I think that a reason for the disrespect that we see is a lack of exposure. While I'm not saying that it doesn't happen, in our society there are less people going into the army and being directly affected by the war in Iraq primarily because we live in a wealthy area. My point is that in such a sheltered environment many people don't feel the effects of the struggles and suffering, and therefore don't understand the consequences of actions such as speaking out in a moment of silence. I feel that in a different areas of the country a comment like that would never have been made.

chadbrochill17 said...

I agree Chip. The 9/11 tragedy is very important to remember and is not something to be mocked. I am pretty sure that Pearl Harbor Day and D-Day are marked in most calendars, but they do next get the same respect as more recent tragedies such as 9/11. All of these are very important to our country and what our country represents and should not be forgotten.