Yesterday was a bad day to die

Here's a question that we didn't expect we'd have to ask one day: how many references does one hear these days in the media outlets of the Vast Rightwing Conspiracy to the victims of 9/11? We refer in particular to key members of what Atrios labels the 101st Fighting Keyboarders, the fearless crew manning the home front in Dubya's War on Terror. And we don't think that it's a valid answer to say it gets old or repetitive to talk about the victims of a major reverse for the USA. Because the US, like other countries, has a tradition of trying to salvage some honourable memory from a crushing defeat. Now of course, this is one ability for which it's true that you'll never beat us Irish: one fateful reversal after another is constantly revisited to recount the overwhelming odds and plain bad luck (e.g. that recurring Protestant Wind that kept William of Orange on course and Philip of Spain off course). But even Americans, usually typecast as triumphalist, are happy to Remember the Alamo, which was after all a defeat. Some countries do try to whitewash the participants in a defeat, especially recent ones (e.g. it took the French a while to be reconciled with the 1950s loss in Vietnam), but eventually a healthy country seems to come around to disentangling the memory of the victims from whatever national failures their loss might have represented. Which brings us to what we suspect is a growing tendency for the reactionary right to want to use the dead exclusively as a weapon for Dubya's political agenda, but otherwise does not want to hear about them at all. A couple of things brought this to mind. The implicit equation sometimes made explicit between bereaved 9/11 activists and Democrats. The attempt to shout down Ted Koppel's sober listing of the American military dead on Nightline a few weeks ago. Another was some random web surfing that led us to news of a memorial event for Mark Bingham. Mark Bingham is believed to be one of the leaders of the passenger revolt on the 9/11 flight which crashed in Pennsylvania, most likely saving the lives hundreds of people in a ground target still unknown. Was it that long ago that Andrew Sullivan had latched on to Bingham's gay identity to make him one of his heroes in the War on Terror? But now 9/11 is now just the rhetorical wedge for another Dubya speech, and as far as OpinionJournal is concerned, another 9/11 would have its uses, victims bedamned: Will it really take another Sept. 11--or more than one--to persuade Americans to stay the course? That is what is at stake as President Bush battles for public opinion. Remember, these are the people who refer to 9/11 as an Epiphany so there is nothing surprising in this latest restatement of its potential usefulness. But anyway, what of Mark Bingham remembered for who he was, rather than as a political tool for the glorification of Dubya? The former approach will be taken in London this weekend: Held every two years, the Bingham Cup is an international rugby competition predominantly for gay and bisexual men. The theme for the event is 'Our world in union' and it aims to encourage inclusively in sport, whilst fostering lively competition and encouraging high standards of play...The competition is named after Mark Kendall Bingham, who died in the tragic events of 11 September 2001. He was passionate about rugby and played for San Francisco Fog RFC, a leading gay and bisexual team from the US. The Bingham Cup was set up by IGRAB, an international group of gay and bisexual rugby teams, with the goal of promoting rugby as a non-discriminatory sport. The inaugural event took place in San Francisco in 2002. London was chosen to host this year's event with a bid led by the Kings Cross Steelers RFC. Can a sneering article from Dorothy Rabinobitch (credit: Sullywatch) be far away?