Here is my brother, in a light-hearted moment, with my mom. Interesting photo angle courtesy of my niece, Isabella, age 4.
He's 35 with the personality of a 70-year old Seinfeldian 'La Boca Vista' resident. He hates the Bush administration, he writes cutting letters to his congressmen, he thinks most human beings are idiots, and he refuses to watch any TV show in which "mini-interviews" are conducted (ie: those tiny segments in all reality TV shows in which the contestants are interviewed privately for the camera and narrate their views on a certain scene). In one of his most personality-revealing quotes I can think of, which occurred this weekend, he stated, "You might be social, but I just don't like people." And he's not kidding.
Tolerance is not one of my brother's stronger suits. Now granted, he is married (apparently he liked someone enough to tolerate living with them indefinitely), has two children, and works as a real estate developer and medical salesman, which forces him to interact with the human race --- but this is only because he must support his family somehow (he has admitted to me that he loathes making "small talk" with the hospital and medical office nurses). Ultimately, if it were up to him, I think he'd be a hermit on a desert island somewhere.
Therefore, it is not surprising that I have been semi-bombarded by phone calls from him recently (the latest being today in the gym locker room, during which he sounded off about the latest irritating soundbite on NPR)... his latest rant? All of the 9/11 hoopla in the US media.
Of course, I think we can all safely say that it was a horrible day for the US, and specifically for NY and DC. But my brother has been calling me the past two days to express his disgust at the ridiculous, tedious, and ever-present TV, internet, and radio coverage of this day five years ago. At the risk of being totally and completely non-PC, which I don't really care about since this is my blog, I'd like to bring up a couple of points of annoyance (most of which he brought up, but with which I largely agree):
1) Enough already with the lame mini-series, docudramas, and pitifully cheesy films. Enough!!!
What's worse than Nicholas Cage? Nicholas Cage playing a firefighter on 9/11.
2) Why do they play bagpipes at these memorial events? The bagpipes are awful and annoying to listen to, and moreover, they're not even American! They're Scottish. Enough of the goddamn bagpipes already...
Id' rather listen to a looping track of William Hung's performance on "American Idol" than this squeaking sack of air.
3) Bells tolled at the hour in which the north tower collapsed. To remind us? As if we forgot? Noooo!
4) Reading of the names. OK, if this makes family members feel better... fine. But it's getting old... do we have to keep reading these names every single year? What about all the other people in the world that die tragically every day? Are we reading their names? Are we reading the tsunami victims names too? Victims in Baghdad?
5) Why is the "five year" mark any more important than the 14 year mark or the 7 year mark? What's with us and five year increments?
6) Enough corny Dateline and Primetime Live specials on 9/11 -- OK, we get it... it was traumatic and sad and terrible. But do we need to hear Diane Sawyer (amidst teary eyed background piano music) telling some woman that a child born after the father died that day is a "gift from God"? No, Diane, we do not! Because it was awful, but that is a lame thing to say!
I can't take it anymore!!!!
OK, I'm pretty much done ranting, but I am really tired of all of this 9/11 "reliving the day" bullshit. We all know it sucked.
So perhaps my curmudgeonly brother is 100% right... US media, move on ... and stop dredging up this terrible event every single year!
Yours truly,
An annoyed citizen who lived through the day and doesn't need to relive it anymore.
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