There’s not much that we can do as a community when the anniversary of September 11 rolls around except be here to listen to each other and support each other. But it just occured to me that there IS one gesture we can make as a community which would bind us in some kind of solidarity. We could close down the Pit for 24 hours.
We - as a community - could make a public acknowledgement that what binds us as a community is far more important than what divides us, and we could declare September 11 - henceforth - a rantfree day.
If the rant isn’t worth waiting 24 hours to post, then it probably isn’t worth posting anyway.
And if we can all save our anger and our outrage for 24 hours, then maybe events like those of last year will never occur again.
Not a bad idea, but perhaps I’m only able to say that because I don’t post in the pit as much as in other forums.
What would of course be far more impressive is if we somehow all managed to voluntarily (leaving it open) stay out of the pit for a whole day, but I’m not sure that would ever happen.
Not a bad idea per se, but I see some downsides.[ul][]You just KNOW what the trolls-du-jour are gonna do: rant in other fora;[]Some posters may feel the (legitimate?) need to rant, really hard;And then, some of them might not be able to contain themselves in other fora.[/ul]A noble idea, but not very practical given both the size and diversity of the group of people, and the emotional character of the day itself.
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*Originally posted by Coldfire *
[li]You just KNOW what the trolls-du-jour are gonna do: rant in other fora;[/li][/quote]
Wouldn’t they do this anyway? I mean if they’re being trollish and ranted in the Pit, they’d still be trolls, no?
[quote]
[li]Some posters may feel the (legitimate?) need to rant, really hard;[/li][/quote]
You gotta admit, though, that if a person’s still really steamed after 24 hours, it’s a legit rant. A lot of rants are off-the-cuff ramblings that wouldn’t stand up to a 24-hour wait.
[quote]
[li]And then, some of them might not be able to contain themselves in other fora.[/li][/quote]
Yes!! I think it’s an excellent idea. I can’t remember ever seeing a rant posted in the Pit that, in its level of relative importance, didn’t pale in comparison with what happened on 9/11.
And yeah, I suppose the inevitable trolls would post rants in other forums–but they would thus mark themselves forever as trolls, so it might actually be helpful to the boards, in the long run.
And it’s the perfect gesture for us, as a community, considering the importance of the Pit to probably 90% of currently active posters. C’mon, admit it, all you Pit Virgins–y’all lurk in there like mad, doncha?
And “yet another MPSIMS commemorative thread” would be so–I dunno–done. Soon to slide off to Page 2 and into the archives…
I think people should be allowed to remember, grieve or post as they see fit as individuals, within the usual rules of this board. I understand the very genuine and well-meaning motivation behind suggestions such as this, but personally I’d like people to pick their own ways of remembering or dealing with the anniversary of 11 September. If that involves refraining from Pit posts, great. If it involves not posting at all, fine. If it involves acting as you would normally and refusing to let these events change your lifestyle, fine. If it involves flaming those you believe responsible to hell and back, fine. I can’t and won’t criticise any of these actions as inappropriate (not that I’m suggesting others are).
But I think we can collectively handle 24 hours of standing still with hats off, before we leap back into the monkey-raping, butt-mongering, “your mother was a hamster!” fray.
As a New York who has personally felt the impact of the September 11 attacks in a number of ways, I think that this idea is foolish.
I think the best way to commemorate the events of September 11 is to go on and live our lives as normal. Yes, we should remember those who were lost and the sacrifices that were made. But there is no need to change how we operateand make September 11 more than just another day.
Does that mean you disagree with all of the ceremonies to take place on September 11? Or the moment of silence that will be observed by Major League Baseball?
The difference between those is that people have the choice to participate. This will be a highly emotional day, and everyone needs to be allowed to commemorate it in their own way. By closing down the pit, you will be denying some people what they need to memorialize the events of last September.
Actually, I don’t. I’ve never actually opened the Pit forum, and the only Pit threads I ever read are those in Threadspotting or linked for context in another thread.
I’m not sure that I like this idea, though… If it’s a good idea to shut down the Pit on Sept. 11, why isn’t it a good idea to shut it down permanently? Not that I’m saying we should: The Pit serves a legitimate purpose. But it would serve that same legitimate purpose on 9/11 as it would on any other day.
'Cause it would be, like, a symbolic gesture. Why is that evidently such a difficult concept for some people?
I don’t get it.
Well, then, shut it down for an hour at 9:11 in the morning or something, get even more symbolic. If MLB can shut down for a few minutes at 9:11 p.m. local time, why can’t we do something like that?
And I don’t see anybody here in this thread suggesting that we make the shutdown permanent. Come on, lighten up.
I’m assuming that this was directed at my comment.
No, I don’t disagree with the ceremonies. Of coursewe shouldn’t ignore what happened. I guess that it wasn’t clear that when I said that “we should remember those who were lost and the sacrifices that were made,” I was talking about those sorts of ceremonies of rememberance. I think such commemorations are appropriate.
What I don’t think is necessary is to change how we conduct our lives on on September 11, even in such small matters as the forums available on a message board. As I have said in other contexts, I think that September 11 should be dealt with in the same way we deal with the December 7, as the anniversary of the Pearl Harbor attack.
Cheers mate. I just feel that enforcing a way to remember 11 September – and I stress that I know that nobody here means anything but utmost respect for the events – doesn’t feel quite right.
