Any are free to place a monument in private cemeteries as millions of other Americans lost at sea, lost in war or disaster or remote mishap have been.

No one objects to family memorials unless that are obtrusive on others space (like the big garbage heap creches to fallen “hero” motorists that litter many of our roads), or are grandiose extensions of a politician or special interest group’s wishes – that the masses and other politicians are expected to pay homage to (The AIDs Quilt, LBJ Library, Cynthia McKinney Highway).

Questioning a “public billboard” defining people as heroes, though? That is something that members of the public have a right to utilize free speech to question.

2.3 million people die every year in America. Few get special tribute as exceptional to the nation, even less are deserving, even less get national monuments…

For the record, many of these pilots and flight crew are in the military reserves and have been to the front lines….have you?

Now you appear to advocate glorifying anyone who served in the military in the past or went into danger in other times of their lives as “heroic” by definition.

Even if their last words were “Stay seated! Be calm. Do not fight back, or talk back to the hijackers. We will be on the ground shortly..”

And if all past combatants deserve adulation for once being on the “front lines” (I was a Gulf War participant), without distinction to how they went out or their cause, then we are talking about “hero” ex-terrorists, suicide bombers, fallen SS at Bitberg, the hero Vietnam Vet executed for killing 6 people in a robbery…

Subdoc – I have and my recommendation is to keep your mouth shut until you know what you are talking about…..which I will be happy to shut for you.

Your recommendation is as worthy of respect as your threat.

Subdoc – Get life….and next time you get on a flight thank those that serve you…..

Now you veer into the near-Fascist ground of demanding homage and worship and gratitude to any government employee or private one who has a job that impacts public safety. The hero prison guards, environmental regulators, OSHA inspectors, flight crews, heroic bus drivers, municipal garbage workers who have a job twice as dangerous as cops or firefighters.

Heroism does not come from simply dying on the job as part of certain career path. We do make an area of exception for those who volunteer or who are Drafted into national service with the expectation of risk and sacrifice. But even then, the military, internally, parcels out recognition of who is a hero and who is just honored for service in their duty or becoming a casualty – very sparingly. Medals and honors are not handed out like self-esteem trophies. And most military object when the system is perverted to hand out unearned awards for valor or accomplishment at the behest of powerful “political” senior officers, or politicians like Daniel Inouye looking for “extra awards ” for himself and his pals.

I suspect that most of what the troops called the jihadis they faced and saw the bloody work of is unfit for print here.

Not all the heroes of this war, including the first day – 9/11 – wore uniforms. Neither Debra nor I place those who we call the heroes of 9/11 above our magnificant troops. I ask that you (cederford) review what I wrote at 4:11 PM on July 17 (above). Can you dispute that with some evidence? Are your merely unaware of the facts or just here to dispute terminology?

Again, another person presumes to be Enforcer for the victim families. Any questioning of any assertion or demand on society by a “victims family” breaches proper decorum and good manners? So the healthy thing is to be silent and – for example – acquiesce to all demands for “free” taxpayer-provided AIDs medicine from grieving lovers and families?

And questioning if all government employees globally who wear a uniform and die – are 100% Heroes? That is “spitting on the grave”?

Please.

You are just another tool brainwashed by the recent “Hero Narrative” into Fascistic worship of the organs of state security and mindlessly renaming all victims “heroes’ to invest their lives with more meaning.

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The MO of the hijackers on all four planes was the same. They killed the pilots, you jackass. You think these men sat their and allowed these people to commandeer their cockpits? You know nothing about aviation..

Actually I do, and on previous hijackings, pilots were instructed to allow hijackers to commandeer the cockpits without resistance – on the assumption that doing exactly as asked was the “safest thing.” That such behavior effectively rendered crew into sheep or at worse, actively enforcing the passengers to remain docile, calm and seated – does not make them cowards. It does not make them heroes either.
Nor does the fact that the last pilot was killed w/o warning when the time came by the hijacker team as easily as a sheep is slaughtered – does not make either a sheep or such a pilot a hero merely from being dispatched.

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I suppose he agrees with Susan Sontag, who, a few days after 9/11, objected to the hijackers being called “cowards.”

Well, these were the “cowards” who faced 70-120 “heroes” on each Flight and only failed in one mission. They voluntered for high risk, danger, and about half knew they were facing disgraceful capture if they failed, certain death if they suceeded.
It is like calling Kamikaze pilots “cowardly”.

The stupidity of the “American heroes” vs. the “cowards that hijacked the Religion of Peace” Narrative of almost 7 years ago was effectively debunked by spec ops in Afghanistan and Marines in Fallujah and their leaders in Congressional testimony who called the AQ fighters “unbelievably brave, dangerous, and committed men.” None of the guys I know who were in Afghanistan or the nephew I have that was on the front lines in Ramadi and lost 1/3rd of his platoon called the Jihadis heroes. But none called this lethal, adept foe “cowardly” either.

I suppose he agrees with Susan Sontag, who, a few days after 9/11, objected to the hijackers being called “cowards.”

Now, go find some Gold Star family to quibble with.

God bless the 9/11 flight crews.