Citizen Mom

Six Years On

Middletown, NJ lost 37 people on 9/11, more per capita than any other town but New York City. If you take New York borough by borough, and consider each its own small city,  Staten Island's loss is breathtaking.

Staten Island lost 207 residents on Sept. 11, 2001, including 77 firefighters at Ground Zero, and a New Dorp man aboard United Airlines Flight 93 that crashed in Shanksville, Pa.  [Advance]

Related: A Statistician's Lament

Anniversary

"In a Sentimental Mood," Duke Ellington and John Coltrane

mp3

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Here's the thing: Ultimately, we all have to choose.

No, America is not perfect. Certainly, our government and the men who run it are not perfect. There are instances in which a direct line can be drawn from failed American governmental policies to attacks on Americans worldwide.

After the 9/11 attacks, there was so much anger. Clearly we were at war, but with whom? We wanted to lash out, to bomb the ass out of someone, but who? Five years later, we at least have an answer. Al-Qaeda's mission is to formulate a worldwide army of radical Muslims who consider it a religious duty -- a privilege -- to kill Americans. Our enemies are all around us.

Being an American is akin to being part of a family: There are parts of it you wish you could hide away so no one will ever see them. It can by turns embarrass you, disgust you, and fill you with joy. Most of the time you're not even aware of its unseen presence in your day-to-day life -- it's just part of you, carried silently in your mind and heart.

But ultimately, in your mind and heart, you have to choose it. You have to make the choice to be an American, the way you have to choose to unconditionally love your family members. We are bonded by birth or by citizenship, but there is a conscious choice to be made, to never turn our backs on a loved one. Otherwise, your family members are just folks who kind of look like you. Otherwise, your fellow Americans are just people who live in the same country as you.

There's lots of room for you on the bandwagon

Between you and me, I wasn't even planning to watch that ABC schlock piece, "The Path to 9/11," but reports of the teleplay's truthiness seriously bugged me. Still, the DNC's hyperbole ("a despicable, irresponsible fraud") was probably overstating -- it is a TV show after all, made by Disney, America's favorite peddlers of fantasy.

Will anybody be more or less likely to vote Democratic in the next election because of the lies told in a two-night miniseries? Doubtful. Still, if ABC is willing to lie to people when it's unnecessary, to create a quasi-fictional version of events that need no additional dramatization, can we trust them to be truthful when it's expected?

I mean come on, Patricia Heaton. Are there cameos by Ted Nugent and Toby Keith, too?

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BTW, you should check out the segment from the Colbert Report here, with theoretical physicist Janna Levin. Deep, yet funny. And, like, I love Colbert Nation and all -- the Jedi videos are priceless -- but fan fic just makes me feel icky.

And if you're not watching the Report yet, what's your problem? It's the best show on TV.