Forgetting to Remember 9/11
Campus Progress documents the disturbingly co-opted “Freedom Walk.”
By Campus Progress Staff
Monday September 12, 2005
The “America Supports You Freedom Walk” felt as awkward as its linguistic construction. Organized by the Pentagon under the banner of “remembering 9/11 by supporting those who protect freedom,” the event revealed itself as another carefully-orchestrated attempt to connect 9/11 to the war in Iraq, at the expense of the dignity of a day of remembrance. While many of us marked the day with a moment of silence, the Pentagon felt a better moment would come in the form of a Clint Black concert sponsored by McDonald’s, Subway, weaponry giant Lockheed Martin, as well as talk radio station WMAL, which arrived at the Pentagon parking lot in a van bearing a life-size portrait of Rush Limbaugh.
Having missed the deadline to register for the walk (the only way you would be allowed to participate without being threatened with arrest), we soaked in the goings-on at both ends: the starting point at the Pentagon parking lot, and the finish line by the Reflecting Pool on the National Mall.
Essentially, it was a non-event. The day was pretty formless. After arriving at the reflecting pool, everywhere we looked, well, there was no one there. Lots of tents still shaded crates of undrunk bottles of water. By the Clint Black concert, there were several fenced in areas that fenced in no one. While one blog reported a Pentagon PR flak ambitiously claiming 18,000 in attendance, the Washington Post reported 4,000.
At least at the beginning of the march, the crowd was surprisingly diverse. Though, later, it seemed that the performance from Clint Black, known for his anthem “ Iraq and Roll,” transformed the crowd alabaster white.
One man drove all the way up from Sarasota, FL just to carry a 100 pound wooden cross on his shoulders around the periphery of the reflecting pool in the late summer heat. The cross, which he got from the prop room of a local church, has been on the move every September 11th. He started right on that morning of September 11th, when, he pointedly noted, Bush was in Sarasota, too. Security wouldn’t let him bring it inside the concert.
”I’m here to remember those who died and remind people that Jesus loved them,” he told us as he sweat through his white shirt and shorts. It was the only time all day we heard somebody talk about September 11th, 2001, at the Freedom Walk.
Let’s be clear- many attending the rally cared about those affected by 9/11. We noticed several rally attendees bearing shirts with the names of loved ones who died in the devastation four years ago. And the Pentagon Memorial Fund set up a model of the proposed memorial and distributed literature at the beginning of the march route.
But that was about it for 9/11 references. Uniformed Marines milled about. Somebody told us we just missed Donald Rumsfeld walking through the crowd. A cynical observer might just wonder why this kind of military patronage was necessary on a day of memorial observance? The clever framing of this event tried to paint those of us who dissent on Iraq as freedom haters who can’t stand our troops. We love freedom, but it wasn’t exactly on display at the parade. And we support our troops, but, frankly, this wasn’t the day for a government-sponsored parade for them.
We have Veterans Day, we have Memorial Day. And we should use them. The streets should be thronged on Veterans Day, too often local parades are sparsely attended. Memorial Day has become an excuse for a vacation – reinvent it and reinvigorate it to commemorate fallen soldiers as well as soldiers who continue to serve. But, of course, the phrase “Veterans Day” doesn’t conjure up the same political magic for Bush that the incantation of “September 11th , September 11th , September 11th ” does.
And the parade’s not-so-subtle political message was particularly hypocritical given that it was organized under the administration of a President who just loves to scold those who report fact as being “partisan” and playing the “blame game,” he seemed pretty willing to turn tragedy into his political capital as his presidency and his unpopular war continue to limp along. (You may remember Scott McClellan saying, just a few days earlier, in reference to Katrina, “This is not a time for finger-pointing or politics. And I think the last thing that the people who have been displaced or the people who have been affected need is people seeking partisan gain in Washington.” Right, thanks.)
After the Clint Black show, the last words heard on this solemn day of remembrance was a prerecording of a Jeff Foxworthy joke that played over the PA to the dwindling crowd: "You might be a redneck if you have a complete set of salad bowls and they all say Cool Whip on the side." We had to laugh to keep from crying.
The most glaring irony of the “Freedom Walk” was the level to how exclusive it was. To participate, you had to register over the internet on a special website no later than Friday morning. A four-foot snow wall lined the parade route to keep people out.
The van for the talk radio station which we immediately dubbed “The Rush Limbaugh Freedom Van.”
A DC police officer securing freedom. Taken from ten feet behind him leaning back against a barbed-wire-topped fence.
One of the many signs promoting a September 11 rally without mentioning 9/11 in any way. This particular sign hung from a chain link fence close to a portion of the Pentagon wall that was destroyed four years ago.
Hooray, Freedom!
The man with the cross.
Yet another shot of the wall, protection the participants of the march from the rampaging hordes of freedom-haters on the other side. Just look at how much they hate freedom.
-Elana Berkowitz, Mark Pike, and August J. Pollak
Check out August J. Pollak’s photo-OpEd cartoon.
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