9-11 Funnies

This one was the cartoon Plotnik liked best today -- baby Wren builds towers with her blocks as everyone else watches, knowing what happens to towers built out of blocks when the baby gets done with them.

The Sunday Comics all had a 9-11 theme. Most were the same -- like Wanda here, most characters had their heads bowed and hand over their hearts, except for Charlie Brown who just trailed along behind everyone else as always. But Charles Schulz died in 2000. It's a good thing Snoopy never found out about it.

For the most part, Plotnik can't stand the militarism of this day. It may as well be St. Army Day. So now we've got November 11 and September 11 and Memorial Day and don't forget December 7. He just looked up to see four Blue Angels jets buzzing Giants Stadium. He heard it here and then saw it on TV. But there are still places like Arizona who don't want to celebrate Martin Luther King's birthday. It's a sickness.

Of course, Plotnik feels a nostalgic sadness too, like everyone else, for the world that existed before Osama and the Shoe Bomber and Tim McVeigh and the Unibomber and Khalid Sheikh Mohammed. But, hey. It's gone, baby. In our lifetimes we won't have any more simplicity, nor innocence. We will have a police and army presence at all times, a barely concealed hatred for Muslims and an inability to grow beyond it.

Plotnik is not immune. He saw a one-woman show Friday night, in which the Muslim performer played five different roles, in each one her head covered by a hijab. In his review, Plotnik had to admit the hijab was a turnoff for him. How can a performer reach out to an audience if her clothing is meant to keep them away?

He would probably feel the same away if an Orthodox Jew or a nun was on stage trying to be funny. They'd have to be REALLY funny. But here on September 11, 2011, Plotnik freely admits he finds little humorous about Muslims.

But militarism and singing choirs and the Blue Angels and speeches about America Number One and skinheads wrapped up in the flag aren't a barrel of laughs either, are they?

It's OK. There are people to honor. They need remembering and we need to remember. We couldn't forget if we wanted to.