I hate it when people say "9/11."

I mean, I hate it when people can't bring themselves to say "September Eleventh." To me, it sounds as if the speaker is lessening the importance of that date. Cheapening it. The most terrible day in American history, and they can't even bring themselves to say "September Eleventh."

The WORST, however, is when people say "9-1-1." Yes, it is a little eerie that September Eleventh is coincidentally the same as the phone number for emergencies. But why label September Eleventh with a hoaky, cutesy title like "9-1-1"? We all know it was an emergency: ask any of the thousands of people who died that day.

Today on CNN I heard a U.S. Senator call September Eleventh "9-1-1" and I was so disgusted. It seems like such a disrespectful thing to say. Thousands of people died in a revolting act of terrorism, and now we can't even bring ourselves to say the name of the date? Is the attack on Pearl Harbor ("The day that will go down in infamy") just 12/7 now? In this age of fast media, instant gratification, Wagging one's Dog, it shouldn't surprise me that some people fall back on a catchy label with some goofy hidden meaning. He was a Republican senator, of course.

I guess we could follow our Fearless Leader's mandate and call it "Patriot's Day." I can't imagine a more manipulative misnomer than "Patriot's Day," however, so I must revert back to the only name that makes sense to me. September Eleventh. The worst day of my entire life, and definitely not one that I will cheapen with some numeric shorthand.