Shut up and pay your respects
September 13th, 2006 by Mr. TMOLAs reported by the St. Louis Post-Dispatch, the security screeners at Lambert Field paused at 8:46 am on September 11, 2006 to hold a ceremony for those who died on September 11, 2001
The moment was observed at airports nationwide at 8:46 a.m. Screeners wore dark blue wristbands that said “We will never forget” and stopped checking luggage. At the C and D concourses checkpoint, there also was a brief flag ceremony.
Some travelers said they appreciated the ceremony, but others did not.
[A] number of travelers at the concourses C and D checkpoint complained that spending a few more minutes at the metal detectors could cost them their flights.
After the moment of silence was announced, a St. Louis lawyer complained loudly about it on his cell phone. Comments from two others prompted a screener to approach them.
“Five years ago people lost their families and their lives,” she said. “So be patient. Good thing you weren’t on that flight, huh?
Federal Security Director Bill Switzer, who oversees airport security in St. Louis, urged travelers to never forget, never assume and to be vigilant. When asked later about some of the behavior, he shrugged.
“Some people say, let’s move on, let’s get on with life,” he said. “Others say (pausing for a moment) is the right thing to do. That’s democracy.”
To which I ask the following questions:
- I must have missed something in 7th grade civics — what does “pausing for a moment” have to do with democracy?
- Is pausing mentioned in the Bill of Rights?
- Does pausing fail to “work” without the attendance of involuntarily detained travelers?
- Is it true that travelers who don’t want to pause at airport security (at risk of missing their flights) are less patriotic or less sensitive than security screeners who are not in a hurry?
- Is pausing twice a day more effective than pausing once per day?
[Note: The above Post-Dispatch link still takes one to this story, but the story has been shortened since its original publication]
September 13th, 2006 at 6:24 pm
I know some people that go to Kent State University, a school that goes to great lengths to commemorate the Kent State Shootings of 1970 every year. The campus has literally dozens of memorial statues, trees, benches, and the like, because the school puts up a new one on May 4 every couple of years. The school has even lost a signifigant amount of parking space to the constant, well-meaning remembrances. If any one person behaved this way, for years and decades on end, most psychologists would quickly conclude that the person has never fully coped with their loss and returned to functional living.
Can “honoring the dead” go too far? I think it definitely can, as unpopular as it sounds. But of course we shouldn’t strive to forget, lest we lose the perspective(personal or national) that an event such as 9/11 inspires.
November 11th, 2006 at 8:48 am
Wow, I’m way behind in my website reading. But what struck me the most about this little “ceremony” was the bullying attitude of the TSA workers. We’re all adults here, we pay their salaries, and their job is to ensure safety, although I have my doubts how much good the whole screening process is doing. I’m sure, however, that it’s not the job of a TSA employee to tell other people how they should think and feel, and requiring people to take part in a public “remembrance” cheapens the whole concept.
To be fair, it was probably some order from Washington who required them to take part in this silly moment of silence, and the atmosphere of their workplace may be such that they have to express the party line if they want to keep their jobs. Isn’t freedom grand?