The Meaning Behind ‘Never Forget’; Cars Create New Privacy Concerns

Indy Digest: Sept. 11, 2023

There are people hanging out legally in bars today who were not yet born on Sept. 11, 2001.

Yep. There’s a whole generation of people who weren’t yet on this planet on that awful, awful day. Perhaps that helps explain how things like this happen, as reported by The Associated Press:

Sports betting company DraftKings apologized Monday after using the Sept. 11, 2001, terror attacks to entice people to bet on baseball and football games on the anniversary of the tragedy that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The Boston-based company offered users a 9/11-themed promotion that required three New York-based teams — the Yankees, Mets and Jets — to win their games Monday, the 22nd anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon and the downing of a passenger jet in a field in Pennsylvania.

After an outcry on social media from people offended by the promotion titled “Never Forget,” DraftKings took it down and apologized.

Wow. Really?

Not only are there people born after the Sept. 11 attacks who can go into bars; far more importantly, a good chunk of our military was born before then. NPR reports on a South Carolina group of Marine recruits, being talked to by Staff Sgt. Mark Anthony Ross:

“By a show of hands, who was born after the September 11th attack … most of us right?” Ross booms. “Do we know what happened during the 9/11 attacks? For those of us who may not know what happened, our country was under attack from the terrorists, make sense? They came within our borders and attacked us from the inside.”

Monday marks the 22nd anniversary of the September 11th attacks. It was a raw, searing day for Americans who watched the Twin Towers collapse, the Pentagon burn and a plane meant for the U.S. Capitol slam into a Pennsylvania field. More than 3,000 people died. But the terrorist attacks are now fading into history, now that American troops are no longer at war.

All these new recruits were born several years after the 9/11 attacks. Even their instructors have vague memories of that morning. One of the drill sergeants outside was in kindergarten when 9/11 happened. And Sgt. Ross? He was just 8 years old.

This brings us to that phrase used by DraftKings as the title of that ill-advised promotion: Never forget. We wouldn’t, couldn’t, ever forget, could we? Well … we, as society, seem to be forgetting about a major atrocity that happened in the last century, as well as a whole lot of other history, as The Conversation noted several months ago—and the problem is only getting worse as political hacks move to literally rewrite the history being taught in our schools:

Many Americans born between 1981 and 2012, according to a 2020 Schoen Consulting national poll, lack ‘basic knowledge’ of the Nazis’ murder of 6 million Jews and millions of people with disabilities, homosexuals, Romani and members of other oppressed groups. About two-thirds of respondents grossly underestimated the number of Hitler’s Jewish victims and knew little to nothing about the world’s largest-ever death camp, Auschwitz.

Ignorance plagues other difficult topics, as well.

In May 2023, the National Center for Education Statistics released a report showing eighth graders’ grasp of U.S. history and civics has reached a historic low. The report revealed that in 2022, only 13% of eighth graders understood historic U.S. events such as the Civil War, a 5 percentage point drop from 2018. Few children and adults realize Europeans enslaved millions of Indigenous people throughout the Americas. Comprehension of African enslavement runs nearly as shallow. Nine out of 10 high schoolers who filled out a 2018 Southern Poverty Law Center survey failed to recognize slavery as the Civil War’s central cause.

Turns out “Never forget” is not just a cliché or a nicety. It’s a serious plea.

—Jimmy Boegle

More News

• Updated COVID-19 booster shots will indeed be available in just a few days. NBC News explains: “The Food and Drug Administration on Monday greenlighted updated COVID boosters from Pfizer and Moderna. The shots, which are formulated to target the XBB.1.5 subvariant, are expected to be available later this week, after the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention signs off on them. Anyone age 5 and older can get an updated booster shot from either Pfizer-BioNTech or Moderna, regardless of whether they were previously vaccinated, the FDA said in a statement. People who have been vaccinated should wait at least two months after their last Covid shot before getting the new booster.”

• Some people, including yours truly, will get their COVID boosters and their annual flu shots at the same time—and Time magazine reports there are signs that this year’s flu shots may be rather effective: “Different strains of influenza circulate from year to year, which means making the annual flu shot is always a bit of a gamble. Twice a year, the World Health Organization consults experts from around the world to help inform its recommendations about which strains should be targeted by the shots used in the Northern and Southern Hemispheres. Experts’ predictions aren’t always perfect, which is why flu shot efficacy varies depending on the season. Preliminary data published by the U.S. Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) suggests this year’s gamble may pay off. Flu shots used during the beginning of the Southern Hemisphere’s flu season—spring and summer in the Northern Hemisphere—did a good job of keeping people out of the hospital, which suggests the same may be true during the U.S.’s looming fall and winter flu season.”

• After a death that may be related, the maker of an especially spicy tortilla chip, called the “One Chip Challenge,” is pulling them off the shelves. NPR says: “The cause of Harris Wolobah’s death on Sept. 1 has yet to be determined and an autopsy is pending, but the 14-year-old’s family blamed the challenge. Since his death, Texas-based manufacturer Paqui has asked retailers to stop selling the individually wrapped chips, a step 7-Eleven has already taken. The One Chip Challenge chip sells for about $10 and comes wrapped in a sealed foil pouch that is enclosed in a coffin-shaped cardboard box. The package warns the chip is made for the ‘vengeful pleasure of intense heat and pain,’ is intended for adults and should be kept out of reach of children. Paqui, a subsidiary of The Hershey Company, said in a statement posted on its website Thursday that it was ‘deeply saddened by the death’ of Wolobah. … Authorities in Massachusetts also have responded by warning parents about the challenge, which is popular on social media sites such as TikTok.”

• The owners of Spectrum and Disney have reached a deal that will return ABC and ESPN to cable subscribers—and shows how much streaming services have changed the TV landscape. The Los Angeles Times reports: “The companies announced a new agreement Monday that requires Charter to pay higher fees to distribute Disney programming. The cable company gained the ability to provide Disney’s ad-supported streaming apps — including Disney+, Hulu and ESPN+ — along with Spectrum’s television service. Charter eventually will be able to offer the ESPN channel as a streaming add-on when Disney takes that service directly to consumers. Some analysts had warned that a failure to resolve the dispute would have expedited the unraveling of the traditional pay-TV bundle. … But in the end, executives on both sides wielded tremendous leverage—and they worked together to hammer out an agreement that preserves the cable bundle for now.”

• Some Republicans are trying to kill a student loan repayment plan that is proving to be quite popular. CNBC says: “Republican Sens. Bill Cassidy of Louisiana; John Thune of South Dakota; and more than a dozen other GOP colleagues introduced a Congressional Review Act resolution … to overturn the Biden administration’s new, more affordable student loan repayment plan. ‘Once again, Biden’s newest student loan scheme only shifts the burden from those who chose to take out loans to those who decided not to go to college, paid their way or already responsibly paid off their loans,’ Cassidy said in a statement. President Joe Biden’s plan, known as the Saving on a Valuable Education, or SAVE, plan, is expected to dramatically shrink many borrowers’ bills, with some seeing their monthly obligation fall to zero dollars. The U.S. Department of Education announced Tuesday that more than 4 million people have already signed up for the program.”

• The NBC News headline is: “Cars are collecting data on par with Big Tech, watchdog report finds.” The details: “Mozilla, the nonprofit that develops the Firefox browser, released a report Wednesday detailing how the policies of more than two dozen car manufacturers allow for the collection, storage and sale of a wide range of sensitive information about auto owners. Researchers behind the report said that cars now routinely collect data on par with tech companies, offer few details on how that data is stored and used, and don’t give drivers any meaningful way to opt out. ‘Cars are a humongous privacy nightmare that nobody’s seemingly paying attention to,’ said Jen Caltrider, who directs Privacy Not Included, a consumer privacy guide run by Mozilla. ‘And they’re getting away with it. It really needs to change because it’s only going to get worse as cars get more and more connected.’ Unlike Europe, the U.S has few meaningful regulations on how companies trade and store personal data. That’s led to a bustling industry of companies that buy and sell people’s information, often without their knowledge.”

• And finally … the Los Angeles Times reports on a party that was all about the Ryans: “In an area full of warehouses, down graffiti-rich alleys and past a filthy mattress, a line formed for one of downtown L.A.’s most exclusive events. Bouncers checked IDs multiple times in a three-tier security system. But it wasn’t to check ages — they were looking at names. For free entry into this party, your name had to be Ryan. Lucky for me, it is! This was the Ryan Rave, where anyone named Ryan could meet, chat, eat, drink and dance, regardless of age, gender or ethnicity. … Well, almost anyone fit in. There was one main rule to the Ryan Rave: No Bryans allowed. Seriously. This was a safe space from the tragic social blunder all Ryans endure: having that insufferable ‘B’ inserted in front of our names when we just want our coffee or a pleasant introduction.” The story goes on to say about 550 people attended, including non-Ryans who had to pay a cover.

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