Triggering A Commemoration

[Big Guy]

I have just been watching the commemoration of the Dawson College shootings.

Dawson College

I am beginning to lose track of these different commemoration services. What is the trigger for making something commemorative? For most of these it appears to me that it is a group with an agenda who use the anniversary to further their cause.

Earlier I watched some of the 9/11 ceremonies. Why is this being commemorated? Who wants to recall the tragic death of 3,000 innocent civilians? Why?

There are the common ones - the anniversary of the birth of a nation, the end of WWI (still not sure why that takes place), different battles (some we lost some we won), etc Here in the West we do not commemorate Hiroshima and Nagasaki, battles that caused the war to end - but no commemoration here. Why?

There are about 100 recognized "holidays" in Canada in 2016;

Holidays in 2016

I can understand celebration reminders of good things like wedding anniversaries (in most cases ) and birthdays, but why commemorate tragic events like 9/11 and various shooting massacres?

I would continue with more examples but I have to get to our local Legion to commemorate the 100 year anniversary of Salonika: British 65th Brigade (22nd Division) storms German 59th Regiment’s Machukovo village salient, taking c.70 PoWs and 9 MGs for 586 casualties but loses it again until September 14 and 100 years ago the execution of Murderous Mary, an elephant, was hung for murder.

What triggers the need for a commemoration?

[Queenmandy85]

I'm not sure but, statistically, more people died in car accidents on 11Sep01 than were killed in terrorist attacks.

[DogOnPorch]

I'm not sure but, statistically, more people died in car accidents on 11Sep01 than were killed in terrorist attacks.

Most people die of old age...and other larks.

[eyeball]

What triggers the need for a commemoration?

In the case of 9/11 I think it's to reinforce the notion that we're the victims...innocent and faultless to a tee.

[capricorn]

I'm not sure but, statistically, more people died in car accidents on 11Sep01 than were killed in terrorist attacks.

If one solitary traffic accident resulted in as many casualties as 9/11, I'm fairly certain the society impacted would find a way to commemorate such a horrific event.

[Bryan]

Making a big deal of remembering tragedy is a strange human trait. We just torture ourselves.

[DogOnPorch]

Making a big deal of remembering tragedy is a strange human trait. We just torture ourselves.

George Santayana told us why.

[GostHacked]

I blame the Quran.

[Moonlight Graham]

Most people die of old age...and other larks.

But old age isn't preventable.

[Bryan]

George Santayana told us why.

We can learn lessons from the past without commemorating the days that they happened, or dredging up painful memories.

[Bonam]

But old age isn't preventable.

Sure it is, we just haven't figured out how quite yet.

[DogOnPorch]

We can learn lessons from the past without commemorating the days that they happened, or dredging up painful memories.

Apparently not.

[Smoke]

In the case of 9/11 I think it's to reinforce the notion that we're the victims...innocent and faultless to a tee.

So in your twisted far left mindset, are you saying the victims of 911 deserved it? What a F.A.

[dialamah]

So in your twisted far left mindset, are you saying the victims of 911 deserved it? What a F.A.

What? Not politically correct enough for you?

I think 9/11 was a terrible act, but the way in which the Americans (and the rest of us) go on about it is ridiculous, imo. It was a tragedy for sure that 2,996 people died. On the other hand, Wikileaks counts over 66,000 civilians killed in the Iraqi war; where is the commemoration for them? Where are we commemorating the 100s of civilian deaths due to coalition bombing in Syria? Perhaps if we gave non-Americans the same importance we give Americans who die because of someone else's war, we'd be a little less supportive of our governments' actions in other countries.

[eyeball]

So in your twisted far left mindset, are you saying the victims of 911 deserved it? What a F.A.

The American government is the F.A. that deserved it. Everyone/thing else is what we call collateral damage when we do it to them.

In your twisted all too common middle of the road mindset, the government is an innocent victim too and I'm probably a messenger who should be shot.

Edited September 14, 2016 by eyeball