He was wrong, but only by a few months. The public doesn't have a long attention span, and the Bush administration has been remiss in not reminding us, over and over again. Gradually, inexorably, the headlines turned to other things. Politics became politix as usual. The doings of Hollywood regained their former prominence. The fifth column spoke with more confidence, if less coherence.How different are we today from the way we were on September 10th, 2001?
Jon Benet is still dead, and now we know at least one person who didn't kill her. So are the victims in a long series of mini-Jon Benet stories in the past five years.
Gary Condit hasn't been heard from lately. Chandra Levy's body was found in a park in D.C. and it was a small paragraph in the metro section of the Post. There have been enough other seedy politicians to take his place, however. We never seem to run out.
The Gray Davis is gone and California's going through another hyperbolic election campaign, starring Arnold.
No one's been chewed up by a shark yet this year, at least that we've heard of, though Steve Erwin was killed in a freak stingray accident and we've had goofy animal stories involving every kind of critter you can think of, to include giant squid.
The price of a gallon of gas has peaked and now seems to be slowly receding, though it'll go back up. The Democrats are making noises about taking back Congress this year, though it's probable they won't quite do it. Britney's preggers with her second baby, and posed nekkid on the front cover of Harper's to prove it. Tom Cruise and his beloved had their baby's first poop bronzed.
By the measure of the content of our news, 9-11 five years later never happened. The public hasn't forgotten about it, but those who regard themselves as the public's handlers don't let them dwell on it. Images are rare, stories even moreso, usually tearjerkers about those left behind. The Clinton administration, past and in waiting, are busily and blatantly trying to kill an ABC docudrama on the subject. Two movies have been made on the WTC, one by Oliver Stone. The WTC memorial bogged down in political correctitude, with the Opinion Police demanding that the image of three firefighters raising the flag in the ruins be modified to show an approved racial and gender mix.
The brief (and incomplete) political unity of the immediate aftermath has been replaced by grandstanders, party hacks, Cindy Sheehan, MoveOn.org, and a busy conspiracy theory industry. And then there's Keith Olberman... We won't even dwell on that syndrome.
We've done lots, accomplished lots, since 9-11-01. This isn't it.
Today's 9-10.
All over again.
Rantburg's ace reporter, D.J. Wu, contributed to this article.