Have Some Perspective, Ma'am

Shorter James Joyner:

Victims who agree with me are heroes. Victims who disagree are a shrill, vocal subset who are being bizarrely fetishized by the media.

Update:

Joyner rejoins in comments (and corrects the link.) The rejoinder doesn't impress me much. First of all, the people we're talking about have lost family members to violence. It is absolutely their right to question the actions of the government which might have prevented their deaths. As someone once remarked, "A single death is a tragedy; a million deaths is a statistic." (Yes, I know who said it; it's still perceptive.)

Overall, it's hard to take the rightwing criticism of the widows seriously. It's clear to me that conservatives are just reeling from being criticized by victims who they feel rightfully should be on the their side. They only become "bizarre" and "shrill" when they blame Bush.

In general, I oppose the universalization of the tragedy that James seems to be arguing for. It's shallow and devalues the pain that people feel from having someone they love being suddenly and senselessly killed. It's especially those who claim some divine right to advocate retaliatory mass murder just from being in the same country as the real victims who need to be ignored. As I've argued before, 9/11 filled a deep, twisted need for some people looking for a reason to justify their worst impulses. Note, please, I don't think James is one of those. But I am deeply skeptical of anyone who did not lose a loved one in the attacks but claim they were changed forever in some profound way.

Meanwhile, Roy Edroso at alicublog:

Some of you may remember the outrage Ted Rall generated with his ungenerous treatment of 9/11 widows ("bug," "ignorant little rant," "ugly, nonsensical," "evasive, gutless, dirt-eating," etc). ... [Given the new attacks on these widows, s]urely James Lileks, Little Green Footballs, Tim Blair, Aaron Rantberg, et alia, will rise to these 9/11 widows' defense?

That reminds me, I promised to buy Roy a beer a long while ago, just for how well he writes. I must owe him a case by now.

Comments

[James Joyner]

This would probably make more sense pointed to the post itself rather than the page....

But, no. Victims aren't heroes unless they've done something heroic. Firefighters charging into a burning building are heroic, regardless of their political views. Accountants murdered by terrorists are just accountants.

Regardless of whether their lost family member was a hero, though, the 9/11 families are merely victims and are no more entitled to direct public policy than any other member of society. What made 9/11 especially tragic was its universality--it had a profound effect on all of us--not the individual losses.