Commentary
I wasn't sure if I wanted to add to the din--if not the discussion--of today's anniversary. I don't have much to say and I've been on self-imposed personal media blackout for most of the day: no TV, no blogs, no papers, no NPR.
On September 11, 2001, my best friend and I had been living in Chicago for about three weeks. I was looking for work. She had a job but was off that day. We rose late and turned on the NPR, and the first thing we heard was "...White House is surrounded by troops, but we don't know where the President is. Again, both the President and Vice President are unaccounted for..." and I thought someone got him; someone got the bastard. The coverage was unclear; we had no TV to check against. Radio off, breakfast on. When our friend called us to come over and watch the big screen at his apartment, things became grave. Everyone left work and we all gathered round and watched 5 or 6 hours of the world changing.
My mom and dad were both turned loose from work about that time as well. They went to my grandmother's house and watched together. After several hours, my 87-year old Okie grandmother mused that this seemed like an opportunity for an awful lot of skulduggery. And she was right. We've been witness in the last half decade to heretofore mind-blowing amounts of skulduggery, and I think it's wrong to simply commemorate our national loss without acknowledging that. Today is a fine day to think about the true tragedy, the real attack and affront to our security and our way of life. But I don't think it is fair to all of our memories to omit discussions of what lead up to the attacks and what resulted from them--everything that resulted from them. Dangerous amounts of history are being at best glossed over and at worst rewritten by people who would reduce the events of September 11, 2001 to a single point of feeling, a "9-11 (tm)" to hit on when a certain feeling is required of the audience or electorate.
So let us remember those who needlessly died, but let's not give up the memories of our anger or the feelings of outrage towards our government that some of us felt. I'm not interested in keeping my angry mouth shut today because of some imposed sanctity. Today's anniversary is a terrible one, but it should not be given over to mourning only. We need to commemorate the feelings that will allow us to move productively forward, or else we'll all be left staring at our clasped hands as politicians and pundits lay benedictions on us, telling us how to feel on this most life-changing day. I don't feel like they should have this near-holiday for themselves; it belongs also to the angry and the unsatisfied, who have also watched the world change and don't at all care for those who are orchestrating the changes.
So much has changed; the world has changed and I have changed, and America has changed. To paraphrase, let's mourn the dead, but let's fight like hell for the living.
It's not a novel opinion or position, but ain't that the beauty of teh intarweb: I can needlessly add to the blah blah blah and still feel like I spoke my mind.
On September 11, 2001, my best friend and I had been living in Chicago for about three weeks. I was looking for work. She had a job but was off that day. We rose late and turned on the NPR, and the first thing we heard was "...White House is surrounded by troops, but we don't know where the President is. Again, both the President and Vice President are unaccounted for..." and I thought someone got him; someone got the bastard. The coverage was unclear; we had no TV to check against. Radio off, breakfast on. When our friend called us to come over and watch the big screen at his apartment, things became grave. Everyone left work and we all gathered round and watched 5 or 6 hours of the world changing.
My mom and dad were both turned loose from work about that time as well. They went to my grandmother's house and watched together. After several hours, my 87-year old Okie grandmother mused that this seemed like an opportunity for an awful lot of skulduggery. And she was right. We've been witness in the last half decade to heretofore mind-blowing amounts of skulduggery, and I think it's wrong to simply commemorate our national loss without acknowledging that. Today is a fine day to think about the true tragedy, the real attack and affront to our security and our way of life. But I don't think it is fair to all of our memories to omit discussions of what lead up to the attacks and what resulted from them--everything that resulted from them. Dangerous amounts of history are being at best glossed over and at worst rewritten by people who would reduce the events of September 11, 2001 to a single point of feeling, a "9-11 (tm)" to hit on when a certain feeling is required of the audience or electorate.
So let us remember those who needlessly died, but let's not give up the memories of our anger or the feelings of outrage towards our government that some of us felt. I'm not interested in keeping my angry mouth shut today because of some imposed sanctity. Today's anniversary is a terrible one, but it should not be given over to mourning only. We need to commemorate the feelings that will allow us to move productively forward, or else we'll all be left staring at our clasped hands as politicians and pundits lay benedictions on us, telling us how to feel on this most life-changing day. I don't feel like they should have this near-holiday for themselves; it belongs also to the angry and the unsatisfied, who have also watched the world change and don't at all care for those who are orchestrating the changes.
So much has changed; the world has changed and I have changed, and America has changed. To paraphrase, let's mourn the dead, but let's fight like hell for the living.
It's not a novel opinion or position, but ain't that the beauty of teh intarweb: I can needlessly add to the blah blah blah and still feel like I spoke my mind.
posted by Nora Rocket at 4:37 PM
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