I'm already sick to death of the phoniness in most the maudlin "9/11 rememberances".

9/11 didn't change my life one iota. It didn't even make me think differently. I knew my government would react the way it did, because my government has been acting this way all along, it just never inconvenienced middle class white people before.

Until this year, I hadn't even met an actual survivor of 9/11. But at a 4th of July party in PA, I met a NY firefighter who had taken early retirement and moved away from NY. He seemed decent enough for a hard man. Not particularly likable, really. All he talked about was 9/11. He seemed stubbornly obsessed and it was clear he wasn't moving on. His obviously long suffering wife was clearly exasperated. They were my in-laws new neighbors, and I'm sure she hoped to make friends. But people kept politely trying to get away from him. She did say at one point he just out and out refuses to get any help, ie counseling, antidepressant/anxiety medication. He seemed manic depressive.

Trauma can do that to people, but not just 9/11 trauma. And I'm guessing by now, both survivors and families are starting to move on. It takes people about 5 years usually to get through the grief of a profound loss, although everyone is different. I can tell you, if I were a family member of one of the people lost, I'd stay as far from this "remembrance" thing as possible. But again, everyone is different.

I watched a show on PBS this week about survivors of the WTC, and most seemed well adjusted enough. But I'm guessing they wouldn't have wanted the guy we met this summer on the program. He'd have come off like a ranting, racist lunatic (he used every racial slur for Muslims and Arabs I'd ever heard and then some). It struck me that the Bush/Cheney administration's foreign policy mirrors the behavior of that retired NY firefighter. Out of control, and proud of the fact they are out of control.