Patriot Day Celebrations Imperiled By Widespread Ignorance of Patriot Day
On Oct. 25, 2001, September 11 became a holiday, thanks to a resolution sponsored by this charmer. Not a real holiday, mind you, rather the kind where President Bush encouraged "employers to permit their workers time off during the lunch hour to attend the noontime services to pray for our land."
It was a perfect American solution: a holiday you don't get off work for, a remembrance of sacrifice that requires no sacrifice whatsoever.
The next year, Bush changed the name of the holiday to Patriot Day. Calendars say Patriot Day. Crayola offers a page of warmed-over July Fourth activities to complement it.
And that's about it. Tomorrow, heads will bow in remembrance, somebody will play "Taps," and everyone will call it "September 11th." No one, except maybe the president and a few maudlin gym teachers, will use the dipshit term "Patriot Day."
Nice to see the marketplace of ideas actually working once in a while.
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3:23 pm
Does anyone know of a memorial service tomorrow to commemorate this non-holiday? I am still terribly disturbed and moved the week upto the 9/11 anniversary. I didn't schedule anything on my calendar just in case I felt I couldn't keep up a cheery facade at work. I just want somewhere to go to stand shoulder to shoulder with other Washingtonians who will "never forget". It's been only 7 years and I am appalled that the only event on the 9/11 website in MD is sponsored by the Red Knights motorcycle club and it's being held in Ocean City. Come on??!!!
5:42 pm
The Pentagon Memorial opens to the public tomorrow.
5:55 pm
Funny, in Massachusetts "Patriots' Day," celebrated on the third Monday of April, is to remember the beginning of the Revolutionary War. It's also the day the Boston Marathon is run and a local holiday, where all schools and most businesses have the day off. Guess Bush, going to high school in Massachusetts (Phillips Andover) clearly had never heard of it.
http://www.bostonmarathon.org/BostonMarathon/
PatriotsDay.asp
11:56 pm
"Patriot Day" on 9/11 is just another Gobbels-like sham, a la "Operation Iraqi Freedom" & other canards. 9/11 was just another day, we've lost many battles, but should be trying to win the war. Instead, we follow morons on misguided "crusades" mostly designed to earn money for the military-industrial complex. Americans are sheep, & follow whichever leader pops out of the manure. Right now GW Bush is the fearless leader, but let's hope a better leader is chosen in November.
10:16 am
Lay off of Crayola, dude.