DIDN’T KNOW IT NEEDED TO BE SAID…
DIDN’T KNOW IT NEEDED TO BE SAID…
But, oh well.
The lovely Jessica sent me a link to a story about Maggie Gyllenhaal refusing to apologize for her comments.
In a statement today she characterizes her comments that “America has done reprehensible things and is responsible in some way,” as courageous.
“Not to have the courage to ask these questions of ourselves is to betray the victims of 9/11,” she said in a new statement issued by her publicist.
Now, this surprised me since the whole gist of my post was that there was no way she could have meant that 9/11 was the fault of its victims in that ‘well, the bitch had it coming kinda way’ you hear from abusive spouses all the time.
But, lo and behold, just hours after reading that story, Signor Ferrariendorsed Gyllenhaal’s intransigence: There is no question that there is a causal relationship between America’s actions in the world and 9/11. There is a reason why America was attacked.
Hmmm…I wonder if Gyllenhaal (and Signor, since he’s more likely to read this site) also think Sadaam Hussein is to blame in “some way”?
I don’t know, I guess a lot of time has passed, so things aren’t as clear as they used to be.
Things like, “America” wasn’t attacked. Four planes of sleepy passengers, two buildings filled with middle managers, traders, cleaning women, waiters, etc. and Pentagon employees were “attacked,” or murdered, whichever you like.
Attacking America would involve a declaration of war of some kind, petitioning the U.N., targeting America’s armed forces.
Holding a little girl at knifepoint on her way to Disneyland and then slamming her plane into a building so that she disintegrates in a ball of fire?
“Collateral damage” implies that there was some other main target. It doesn’t describe deaths that predictably flow from taking civilian targets hostage and using them to destroy other civilian targets.
It’s good that everyone seems to agree that the deaths were horrific, but horror lessens when couched with “yeah, that was awful…but everyone hates that guy.”
Who cried when Jeffrey Dahmer was murdered in prison?
You can be pissed at America’s reprehensible acts all you like.
Seriously.
Impose an embargo on American goods, forbid your citizens from traveling to American shores, don’t invest in American businesses, file charges in the World Court, denounce the American way of life to anyone who will listen. See also Castro, Fidel.
Hell, declare war on the U.S. if you want.
However, don’t break into my neighbor’s house, slit their throats and expect me to ’say well, that’s what we get for selling weapons to Iran. Hmmm, I wonder if they had two bedrooms or three?’
9/11 was the fault of the sick freaks who carried it out. The blame - in its entirety- lies at their feet.
Now that I’ve cleared that up we’ll reset the ‘When will Maggie Apologize’ clock.
April 26th, 2005 at 1:34 pm
It is also important to remember that when they say “responsible” they mean something we did, which implies that doing something now just makes it worse. Many of would say that we are in some ways “responsible” in what we did not do …. and that doing something now is making up for past neglect.
It’s just a different interpretation of “responsibility”.
April 26th, 2005 at 1:53 pm
Great post Dawn, a lot of people i know don’t see the difference. I have to say back in my more ignorant days my gut reaction was “what did we do wrong to cause this,” that quickly changed and don’t get me started on the college atmosphere after 9/11. Not to involve Israel into the discussion (but i deal with this issue more frequently), i find myself so many times astonished how many people can say - “oh the terrorist attacks on civilians are horrible but what other choice do they have?” At that point i try to take deep breaths and restrain from shouting. Arrgh!
P.S. You called Jessica “lovely” haha.
April 26th, 2005 at 2:45 pm
Oh you smart unlucky lady. I’m totally kissin’ ya now.
Well said!
April 26th, 2005 at 3:32 pm
I find it amazing that so many people have the gifted ability to assign the good and the evil to all things.
April 26th, 2005 at 3:50 pm
thanks for the love dawn. and really good post. i read it thrice.
i just think it’s quite amazing that this actress was promoting a movie about 9/11 at a film festival which started up because of 9/11 and she says perhaps the most insensitive thing possible –’well, we had it comin’ folks’.
maybe she’s just really desperate for press coverage?
April 26th, 2005 at 7:23 pm
Who cares why a crazy psycho evil freak does something. They might have their own twisted dimented reasons. A causal relationship might exist inside thier grotesque mind. But in the world of normal people it’s insanity.
“There is no question that there is a causal relationship between America’s actions in the world and 9/11. There is a reason why America was attacked.”
I REPEAT WHO CARES!!
April 26th, 2005 at 7:24 pm
Did anyone ACTUALLY read what I said?
Did I say that America was to “blame”? No, I did not.
Did I say that it made the attacks ok, that this was some sort of acceptable response? No, I did not.
Did I, however, say that there was a reason America was attacked and not Poland? Yes.
Did I suggest that it might be worth spending a few moments considering why America was attacked? Did I suggest that KNOWING your enemy might help in ultimately defeating him (or preventing future attacks). Yes.
Did I suggest that the process of knowing your enemy means that you condemn America, or say that we are to blame, or suggest any particular course of action or conclusion. No, I did not (so don’t put words in my mouth).
Does the phrase “causal relationship” suggest any sort of normative judgments? I don’t think so (espeically in context), but in case it wasn’t clear, my post was meant to address the simple fact that there are causes and effects. There are reasons why people do things. To simply neatly categorize everything into “pure evil” and “virginaly good” over simplifies everything.
Yes, the actual terrorists who flew those planes and knew what they were doing are sick freaks. If they were the only sick freaks in the world and we could safely, after hunting down the puppet masters, simply say “whew, that won’t happen again” that would be a nice, great, wonderful and simple world. But that is not this world.
Ultimately, my point is that when someone suggests that enough time has passed so that perhaps we can get past saying JUST “the horrors” and say “the horrors, but let’s also consider the who, what, when, how, and WHY in a less emotional way” that the thought police shouldn’t come out and call such people un-American and suggest that they are taking the blame off of the terrorists and placing it on the U.S. No part of my post was normative and I resent the accusation that a dispassionate consideration of cause and effect results in making an anti-U.S. normative judgment.
April 26th, 2005 at 7:29 pm
Dawn, I am not going to debate the semantics of whether they attacked America or not. They clearly thought that they were. Our administration and media labeled it an attack. You can call it whatever you want — terroist attack, terrorist strike, unholy evil, naughty, unspeakable horror. I don’t care what you call it, it is still worth examining why it happened, in addition to condemning it. Examining why does not justify.
April 26th, 2005 at 7:53 pm
I actually just looked now at the link with Maggie’s retort. There she does say that America is partially “responsible” and since that was an issued statement, we have to assume she really means that.
I do not believe America is responsible in any sort of “we should be blamed sense.” And her second statement came after my original post where Dawn labels me as a Maggie supporter (her first comment, as Dawn herself noted, was much more subject to interpretation).
Nevertheless, it is important to understand how and why some people hate us so much. It is time we had real conversations about this, rather than throwing hissy fits whenever someone says anything that could possibly be construed as anything but a 100% condemnation of the terrorists.
April 26th, 2005 at 9:02 pm
Goddamn, Ferrari, can you say ANYthing in under four pages?
April 27th, 2005 at 10:07 pm
I’m with you Signor. I see nothing wrong with opening up a little discussion on what makes mean people do mean things to us.
As Michael Jackson brilliantly stated:
I’m starting with the man in the mirror
I’m asking him to change his ways
And no message could have been any clearer
If you wanna make the world a better place
Take a look at yourself, and then make a change
If we could all just be like Mike.