It is approaching soon. I’m already getting the “deep” and “meaningful” emails. I don’t really feel the need to wallow and revel in that day’s tragedy. It’s like picking at a scab.
I understand the importance of the attack on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. But I understand it in a historical context. Not this orgy of patriotism and mourning. 9/11 has been used to manipulate government policy and national opinion too often. So, I cannot join in with all the scab pickers anymore.
I’m sorry if you lost someone. Just as I’m sorry if you lost someone in a drunk driving accident. Allow yourself to heal, rest, and mourn.
But you know what? I’m not done yet. I will never forget watching the plane hit the building, watching the buildings collapse, watching people covered in soot and dust stagger out of lower Manhattan. I don’t WANT to forget. I’ll watch the images again this year, and I’ll feel rage, and helplessness, and despair all over again.
And that’s just fine with me. I don’t think I can let it go this year.
I just hope that where I work, they don’t read the same thing they did last year.
Last year’s speech was, for someone who actually lost friends in the collapse of the WTC, extremely disturbing as they continually dwelled on the dead.
Example: “On Monday, parents came home to their children. On Tuesday, they did not.”
If they want to talk about it in a historical concept, fine. If they want to talk about how the country banded together, fine. But I really hope they don’t spend another twenty minutes rehashing the deaths.
I won’t watch it on TV because I don’t want to see friends die again, and I hope my employer shows more sensitivity to the fact that, although we are 370 miles from NYC, at least one of us lived there and lost friends and we don’t want to have an old wound reopened again.
The fact is, I need no pictures to remember that day, or how I felt, or where I was, or where my family was, or how I sat there transfixed as I watched thousands of people die. I don’t need commerative plaques, or pictures, or books or videos to remind me of what happened.
I don’t need a memorial to remember who died, or see the faces of families as they stood at Ground Zero. And I’ll NEVER need a reminder that September 11th is the anniversary of that tragedy.
I will say this though, we will NEVER heal unless we are allowed to just let it go, move on, and accept that the memories of those that perished will not be forgotten in our hearts. That, IMO, is all the tribute they need.
In no way do I wish to minimize the horror of 9/11. It should always be remembered, respected and memorialized.
However, I think it would be a tragedy if we allowed 9/11 to dominate our American character and culture. Unfortunately, I’m afraid it has already exerted undue influence on our public policy decisions.
At least this year there will probably be less of an undertone of fear and anxiety permeating the day. Last year it seemed as though a lot of people were expecting something similar to happen, like it was going to be the New International Day of Terror from now on. (Yeah, I was one of those jumpy people-- I became ever so slightly hysterical when CNN’s laconic crawl kept saying “Hijacked plane believed to be heading for White House” without making it clear that they weren’t talking present tense…)
Last year, I tried to avoid most of the coverage of organized memorials.
I was deeply moved, though, by a BBC documentary about two American women who compiled a huge audio archive of contributers’ memories of the WTC, which is still available to listen to online: A Memorial in Sound. It sounds like it would be tacky and exploitive, but it’s sincere and very touching. So many disparate vignettes about the sounds people associate with the WTC helped to reify something that was largely remote and abstract for me. I lost it when one person said that, for them, the sound the Twin Towers was the sound of spanish-language radio drifting through the empty halls as the cleaning staff went about their duties in the small hours.
I’m all for having a Day of Rememberance. I just hope that it doesn’t take over every channel again.
I remember on 09/11/01 when it got to be around 9pm or so, I just wanted to watch something else. Anything else. I needed to think about something else. I ended up putting in a movie.
AmericanMaid, I believe you and I think somewhat alike. Last year, around this time, I wrote a very similar OP here. Reactions were… varied.
This year, it doesn’t seem to be as bad as it was last year. There seem to be more people genuinely expressing grief, remorse, or pride, and less engaging in “wallowing” behaviors or “reveling” in the tragedy. Early indications suggest that the media won’t be so overburdened with pre-fab specials and forced tributes.
I watched the French Brothers documentary last year, and that was pretty much it. And I must say, I found that particular piece worth watching, because it focused on things that deserved attention, and could even be considered a vehicle for healing.
Anyway, I understand what you’re saying AmericanMaid, and in large part, I agree. I would say, however, that at least this year doesn’t seem to be packing the onslaught last year did.
Then again, it’s early yet. And I did notice that Showtime is doing a dramatized special about the Bush Administration’s reaction to 9/11, called DC 9/11: Time of Crisis. Yeah, I think I’ll be avoiding that one.
On one hand, I can see what most of you here have said so far: You want the day to fade in our memories. I say that will come with time for some of us. You don’t want to see the video tapes anymore, you don’t want to be reminded of the horror I think most of the world felt that day.
On the other, I’m with Bricker. I don’t want to forget. I will not change the channel when they talk about, more than likely. I don’t want to let it go either. I don’t think I ever will. It was one of the most shocking, horrific things that has happened in my lifetime. Pearl Harbor has faded, you say? That’s mostly because a good deal of the people who were old enough to truly remember then are starting to die. It never hit us as hard, because we were born 30, 40, 50 years later.
I can understand that you don’t want to see it or hear about it anymore. I’m not sure what Avalonian means by people “wallowing” or “reveling” in the tragedy. Sometimes it’s best to just remember that people grieve in different ways.
I agree with that last sentence, which exactly why all the TV specials and mass e-mails we saw last year were so annioying. Just because I don’t want to see some producer’s glitzed-up version of what he/she thinks 9/11 was about doesn’t mean I don’t grieve. It means I grieve in a different way. I’m not ignoring it or trying to forget it. I don’t think you understand what I was saying.
As to “wallowing” and “reveling,” I used those words in particular because the OP used them. You might ask what the OP meant, but my use of them refers to the use of the events of 9/11 to sell something, be it a political agenda or commercial time on television. Some people are geuninely grieving, and I have no problem with that. I do have a problem when someone tries to elevate their own feelings of grief or sadness to be more important than anyone else’s feelings. Note that I’m not saying you’re doing that, but some people are.
And I definitely have a problem when the events of 9/11 are abused as political capital or a way to make a quick buck, because this has nothing to do with grief… it has more to do with greed. Again, this phenomenon was worse last year than this, at least so far.
I’ve seen it for sale in video stores. I taped it when it was on the first time, that one and another documentary about the firefighters at the WTC (my husband is a firefighter). I’ve never watched them except for the night we taped them.
I agree with you jaade, I dont want to forget either. Actually I will never forget, I can’t, the images of that horrible day are seared in my mind(soul). Of course we will gather around the memorial tree they planted at work and sing the National Anthem and cry and remember the pain all over again.
I think I’ll just go home, turn off the TV and lurk around the ole SDMB. I might even post something about Stephen King or Superheroes.
