Many of you sent me a video of Herman Cain’s 9/11 tribute. Many individuals have made such tributes; they’re all over Youtube and making the rounds via email. There is no shame in honoring what we lost as a country on 9/11: lives and innocence. A decade is little salve to the wound inflicted on our spirits and psyches. Tributes are cathartic; memories of the worst attack on our nation’s soil are still fresh in the minds of Americans.
Salon, however, has a problem with tributes, especially Herman Cain’s. Republicans just can’t do anything right according to Salon. In a recent piece trashing Cain’s tribute, Salon attempts to position themselves the policemen of 9/11 memorials and taste, protecting progressives’ patent on tragploitation.
So, Joe Scarborough only produced the second-grossest 9/11 “tribute” video I’ve seen this week. Herman Cain’s presidential campaign produced this monstrosity, in which Cain croons “God Bless America” over footage of the 2001 attacks and their aftermath.
I don’t recall Pareene decrying the “tastelessness” of using 9/11 as a political tool, or fundraising off of Tucson, but I’m willing to extend to Salon the benefit of the doubt. It’s more than they’re willing to give to Americans who, each in their own way, want to mark a poignant time in our history.
Instead of using this time to print petty articles in the attempt to divide people, we should focus on out similarities and strengths. Salon would do well to back off and leave people to their remembrances.