I don’t know if this is better suited to IMHO or GD, but since I wanted to get people’s opinions and keep things civil I’m posting it here.
Several television networks have announced that on Sept. 11 2002 they will not air commercials in lieu of day-long coverage. Coverage of what, I can’t say. Recent polls showed that some people are avoiding flying that day. This morning I heard that Florida-based Spirit Airlines is offering free airfare to people willing to travel that day.
What I’m wondering is, will Sept. 11 always be a ‘marked’ day, in which people eschew certain activities like traveling, out of fear, or work, out of respect.
Should it be a national day of mourning, like Pearl Harbor Rememberance Day? A federal holiday? What would it be called, “Terrorist Attack Rememberance Day”? “World Trade Center, Pentagon, and Pennsylvania Field Rememberance Day”?
It shouldn’t be a holiday - there are far too many Federal Holidays as it is [sub]this from a Federal Employee[/sub] and having one a week after Labor Day would lead to a completely non-productive week.
I’m pretty sure that as time goes on, it will become like Pearl Harbor Day - remembered by some, ignored by most. Personally, I’m not looking forward to all the “Where were you” interviews that will be flooding TV and print media. I’m really not heartless and unfeeling about it, but there’s nothing to be gained by dwelling on the horror. Let’s learn what we can from it, rebuild, and get on with life.
I think it will be a very big deal for a while, then fade like Pearl Harbor day, D-Day, and others. People tend not to dwell on negatives and bad times.
I would bet air travel will suffer on that day for a long time, though.
I’d like to forget it entirely. Like the person who killed John Lennon, and is no longer given a name by Beatles fans.
It was a mistake the USA made. It was insanity by a group who will soon be forgotten. Forget the day. They’re common criminals. Don’t glorify anything they said, or did, or boasted they would do. The smucks.
The thing is, lots of us were personally touched by it. Not necessarily losing loved ones, but thinking for a while that we might have, or just being scared out of our wits.
The only time I’ve felt the same way was when the June 4 massacre took place in Beijing. Rumors flying around about how tanks were about to roll into Hong Kong. Everyone staring at the TV in disbelief wondering what was going to happen.
9-11 felt the same. You can’t forget that feeling.
I guess in the long run it will end up being like Pearl Harbor Day, and we’ll bore our grandchildren about it. So it will be a “marked day” for ever for some people. I’ll try to ignore the mawkish remembrance ceremonies, but I won’t be able to ignore the date - not for many years, anyway.
But Pearl Harbor started a war with a superpower who had decided on international oppression. It was a turning point for American history, because we thought that for hundreds of years, by the laws of the natural boundaries of the Pacific and the Atlantic, we were free of all old animosities in the Old World. Pearl Harbor was a profound shock, because it brought home to us that the violent world history we thought we’d gotten away from, we were still a part of.
9/11 was a couple of buildings. Sure, buildings we never expected to be destroyed. Yet the instigators of destruction are criminals who aren’t supported by a nation, a culture, or a religion. The BIGGEST insult to what’s left of the sniveling militants is to completely forget their beating off in public. Let’s go for 100%. Bury them. Forget them.
It’ll probably fade. In my experience hardly any one, except for me remembers what day the Branch Davidans compound was set on fire or when the federal building in Oklahoma City was blown up. Both were April 19 and I only know that because its’ my birthday. It will take longer, but it will fade.
I feel that making Sept. 11 a “national holiday” will result in the loss of attatchment to the events that happened. When businesses close for a day, people go out and party. Depending on whether you want a day of rememberence or a day of hedonism to “spit in the face of the attackers,” that may sound like a good or bad thing to you.
Personally, I don’t like the thought of hearing things like “The I-15’s jammed because everybody’s heading to Vegas for September 11th weekend!”
September Eleventh will be “September Eleventh” for a while. Partly because the date is the de facto name of the tragedy: Pearl Harbor isn’t called December Seventh, Armistice Day isn’t called November Eleventh, and so on, so few people remember those days. They might remember the signifigance (Pearl Harbor = Japan kick our ass, V-J Day = We kick Japan’s ass, and so on). (Although the odds of anyone knowing just what an Armistice is these days is rather low, and so WWI is a by and large forgotten war.)
There is only one other holiday known mainly as the name of the date: Fourth of July (derived from an archaic date-naming system) is more comon than Independence Day. Odd that September Eleventh will share a distinction with that most important holiday.
Exactly. I agree. I knew people who died in the WTC and I will remember them my way, quietly and with the dignity they deserve. I don’t think there should be a ‘holiday’ to mark it. (That word just seems wrong in this context to me.)
There has been tiny hints that September 11th is a “marked” day, even here in Western Australia.
The Law Society of WA regulates the dates at which law firms can offer graduate jobs to final year students. “Articles Day”, as it is called, was moved last month from September 11th to the 10th.
Only a tiny hint of recognition to be sure, but significant in its own way. NYC is a long way from here.
The RMT union in the UK has managed to mark the day in its own inimitable way – by scheduling an all-out tube strike. Unsurprisingly, opponents have been using the events of last year to criticise the selection of this date.
Typical (the tube strike, that is). I’d say September 11th will be remembered as special for about a decade or until the next great tragedy comes along. I’d just as soon not have it become a federal holiday for the reasons others have given. As for me, personally, September 11th became a marked day years ago. It was the day I was checked into the hospital nearly catatonic with depression. This is purely selfish, but I’d just as soon have it quietly vanish with no ceremony. This year, let people mourn and remember.
