Yesterday, everyone posted "never forget," reposted pictures of the former twin towers with American flags draped over top, and shared their moments from our generation's "JFK" all over social media.
What are we all doing today?
As cynical as that question may sound, we can't deny that most who engaged in these activities will indeed "forget" whatever they were representing just hours earlier - love, hate (yes, hate), remembrance, patriotism, garnering "likes," and the list goes on...
...because today we're directing our attention to the next thing. Tuesday. Work. School. Lunch. These are just some examples, but I think you get my point. Today is 9/12, and it's just another day.
We have these "cornerstones" in American schedules - Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day (noticing a pattern here) - where we go through the time-honored tradition of saying "We Remember..." and just as quickly, forget. And sadly, this sums up America to me. We are as the Simpsons put it so elegantly so many years ago, a "quick fix, instant oatmeal, 1-hour photo society." What's important to us one minute is completely forgotten the next minute.
We have these "cornerstones" in American schedules - Memorial Day, Independence Day, Labor Day (noticing a pattern here) - where we go through the time-honored tradition of saying "We Remember..." and just as quickly, forget. And sadly, this sums up America to me. We are as the Simpsons put it so elegantly so many years ago, a "quick fix, instant oatmeal, 1-hour photo society." What's important to us one minute is completely forgotten the next minute.
I'm not the world's biggest patriot. Far from it. I'm simply saying that instead of saying "never forget," if it's really that important, we may want to "always remember."
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