A couple of weeks after the seventh anniversary of September 11th, the timing feels appropriate to write about something I have always found completely offensive and unacceptable.
I hate the term 9/11.
9/11 is the media shorthand that many Americans and the press use to describe one of the most horrific acts of violence ever perpetrated against this country. In short, it's my opinion that to continually refer to that hideous day as "9/11" is to trivialize the enormity of the loss and the atrocity of the act. Thousands of people died that day - almost instantaneously - and they deserve more dignity with reference to the day they died than this ubiquitous code word, 9/11. September 11th is a more thoughtful, somber, compassionate and mature term. Period.
In writing this entry, I couldn't come up with a single, similar example of the casual use of a term to describe something profound. (Christmas vs. Xmas is the best I can do. ) I'm not sure why we've adopted slang to refer to September 11th, when I can think of no other American history horror story that's also described in jargon. Though it was an act of war, the Battle of Gettysburg was even nastier than September 11th, resulting in the deaths of almost 8,000 American men over a two day period. But we don't call it the B.O.G., nor do we refer to the Trail of Tears as T2. (I hate to even put these terms out there for fear someone will adopt them!) I can't imagine Franklin Delano Roosevelt saying, "12/7, a date that will live in infamy,"and while we're on the subject, google 12/7 and see what you get. There will be no references to Pearl Harbor. If we did start using the term 12/7 instead of December 7th, I would have to respond with the two favorite words of my 5 year-old nephew, Anthony and my 9 year-old nephew, Jake: "sick," and "tragic." I fear, sadly, that our citizenry is becoming increasingly sloppy, anti-intellectual and "acronymistic," and unfortunately, this isn't exactly a shock.
All this said, I do understand that some people may prefer to say '9/11' because everything that day represents is so raw, frightening and present in our minds, even seven years later. It's much easier for some people (mostly immature people) to use slang than it is to use "real" words. It affords us some distance from whatever it is we're describing, whether it's a bodily function, a body part or even just a way of making something sound cool. The problem is, though, that when we use slang terms to mask our own feelings of awkwardness, we sell short whatever it is we're talking about. We diminish the human body; we make light of sex; kids drop the F bomb in the mall (in front of old ladies), and as a society, we simply become less and less polite.
In terms of September 11th, we say 9/11 because we want to lessen the weight of the phrase and the tragedy of the day. Saying 9/11 helps us on a certain level to pretend that it didn't really happen. I fully understand and empathize with people's wanting to keep up protective barriers for the sake of their mental health (hey, a little denial can go a long way), but I also believe that in comforting ourselves by using 9/11 slang, it's at the expense of every person who lost his or her life that day. It makes light of heroism, denies sorrow, and absolves us from having to think seriously about the international conflicts that continue to keep us fearful. It keeps us immature.
The thing is, though, September 11th did happen, and in memory of those who died, the day deserves to be elevated, not degraded. The man who stayed behind with the guy in the wheelchair, the firefighters who kept going up when everyone else was headed down, the co-creator of "Cheers," the brother and sister who worked in the kitchen at Windows on the World, Mr. Trentini from BHS, my dear friend Gloria's cousin Carlos Montoya, the staff of Cantor Fitzgerald, the people who held hands before they jumped, and the passengers who purposefully crashed flight 93 deserve far, far more than a dismissive, casual remembrance in slang.
