September 11, 2007

No disrespect. But everyone grieves in their own way. Thinking about that day may be to painful for them. Let people make their own choice
how they wish to remember what was lost that day. For me, it was "Peace".

izisharp wrote: Very thoughtful of you to point that out. But in all honesty isn't the fact that there was no thread discussing the date a good thing? I think it's overdue that 9/11 become more a day of private mourning and remembrance for those who lost loved ones, instead of treating it like a public funeral year after year. Do those who died in WTC really deserve to have their names read on TV and on radio every year, while 99.9% of people who've lost family members to tragedy are left to grieve on their own?

Yea, this is a tough one though.

It is important to remember that we were attacked as a nation...not privately, but indiscriminately. The fact that you or no one you know may not have been killed is only coincidence and luck and NOT personal... ( if you do know of someone, I am sorry about that though)

I don't know what "getting over it" entails exactly, but if you mean no more televised ceremonies or less of them I guess that is possible.

But maybe we also shouldn't be in such a rush to "get over it" and look at it on this one day as the tragic event that it is and was.
But I don't think this is something that just happened to families who lost loved ones...it kinda' happened to all of us, or am I mistaken?

I am trying to think of a single event in American history that was worse than that day. Pearl Harbor, Stock market crashes, maybe even the bombing of Japan if one expands a little, but 9/11 is truly worth a few minutes on CNN, IMO. I went by Dean firehouse today to pay my respects.

Even after a "long" 6 years....

if you've ever lost

you know that grief is personal

when performed for others it becomes a cheap card trick

I don't pray, as I'm an atheist.

I am sick of and angry about how that day has been appropriated and exploited to justify a second term for the worst president in U.S. history, a poorly-planned war that continues to kill both troops and civilians, the evisceration of our Constitution, and tons of other evil bullshit.

I do remember the day, what happened, my own experiences working a few blocks away, and the people who were lost, but I choose to do so privately, preferably without an American flag, cross, or yellow ribbon shoved down my throat.

It amazed me from the beginning how in the deepest part of my soul I felt the loss of so many souls in the same depth that I had experienced the loss of those people in my life who were relatives, family, friends of so many years.

I do think that over time there will always be the public mourning. I agree with Bloomberg (and almost never agree with him at all) that in future the mayors and politicos of NYC will decide on the memorials of 9/11.. He said this in relationship to the possible cessation of reciting all the names of the lost in the future.

For me I have established personal rituals as a rememberance ... and they work for me.

Did I need to see a thread here on this forum?... nope..

Restless Native wrote: I did not write the message above, another member of my household did, but anyway here's what I've got for you:

It is unfortunate that many of you are forced to be inconvenienced with reminders of 9/11 year after year, when you've got so many more important things to turn your thoughts to. :king:

But if you would take a minute out of your busy schedules to consider, as far as days in American history go, 9/11 was just a tad significant, don'tcha think?

I mean I know it is a stretch to say that, with all the other times 3,000 of our fellow citizens were killed without warning on a single day, while going about their personal lives. :-'

Those are good points.
I do hate the trivialization and commercialization aspects of the "mourning" that go on in the face of real pain and loss.

This is rather a unique event also because of its scale and scope and because it was also televised globally. We literally watched the murder of thousands of people live on television - Americans. This is different from a car accident or a crime you hear about on the evening news.

While I do not get the impression folks want to forget 9/11, what do we expect to gain by not commemorating it? Increased productivity? Better daytime TV programming on that day? We are so quick to move on sometimes and have short attention spans - and NYers are the most cynical too. But wasn't 9/11 supposed to "change" everything in our thinking? Perhaps it did and still does but I remember all of the things in the news leading up to 9/11 : Shark attacks, Brittney spears with her snake, etc. And it was said that we needed to wake up and take notice of what was happening in the world outside of our own entertainment system.


Lastly, separate from the personal or national grief at loss on that day, the events of 9/11 were also an act of war: we were attacked that day by a group that wants to destroy us. They make that very clear weekly on TV and online. Ironically and tragically, the figure head of those attacks is still making video tapes. Unfortunately, 9/11 (very separate from Iraq) is a harsh reminder of a "clash of civilizations" that is taking place as we speak. Many people still do not want to believe that it is real and 9/11 is simply a reminder of that also.

Unfortunately, it isn't over when we say it's over,
its over when they say it's over.

I don't think anyone's forgetting 911.
I think were forgetting the asshole in the presidents seat and all the horrors he's wrought on humanity.

I don't think people who say "move on" or "get over it" are all necessarily callous or insensitive (maybe the people who say "get over it" are making a poor word choice, but...)

We do all process grief differently. But there is something to the thought that at some point, after you've suffered a loss, that you have to accept the fact that, well, you are still alive. Your story didn't end. And at some point there comes the time to stand up and walk forward and continue your story -- not in spite of those who can't, but because there are those who can't. You don't forget them. You can't forget them. But you can remember them while walking forward and continuing your own life.

Now, everyone becomes ready for this at different times. But there are some people who continue to sit in one place for some time afterward, and even though they're still alive, they keep themselves stuck in that place -- and it's as if they died that day too, and maybe that's not a good thing.

izisharp wrote: [quote=sweet tea]I don't think we should stop mourning 9/11.

But I do think we need to start mourning the soldiers who've died since then for the sake of politics (meaning them NO disrespect, only those who sent them into harm's way for the sake of selfish gain) and those whose physical and mental lives will never be intact again and the chaos that has ensued in Iraq and the job that isn't done yet in Afghanistan and the shame we hide in Guantanamo.

Amen! How can one justify the public reading of the 9/11 victims year after year while the mainstream media does not offer anything close to that respect to 3000+ military killed since, and while most media outlets refuse to even show the images of flag-draped coffins? Of course we should not, and will not, forget 9/11 and it's significance. But I sincerely feel that the focus on grieving that consumes it's anniversary distracts from what our priorities and questions SHOULD be -- have we countered 9/11's plotters? Are we equipped for a similar attack? Are we actually safer here than we were that day? Can we regain the world's support and sympathy we gained on 9/11/2001 and have since eroded?

True,

This is a country that loves the media.
But I think as long as the American media, Hollywood directors and misguided actors keep portraying our soldiers as bloodthirsty murderers, rapists and dumb hicks duped in to service, they will never get the respect for their courage, professionalism, dignity and honor that MOST of them carry out their duties with daily.

SevenOneEighty wrote: This is rather a unique event also because of its scale and scope and because it was also televised globally. We literally watched the murder of thousands of people live on television - Americans. This is different from a car accident or a crime you hear about on the evening news.

It goes without saying that 9/11 was unprecedented in it's reach, it's power and horror, it's imprint on public consciousness. However, if the car accident or crime you hypothetically refer to caused a death, I find it unfair to compare the impact that death has on individuals touched by it to those touched by 9/11. While I've been fortunate to never have lost a loved one to a sudden, tragic death, I imagine a hit-and-run fatality would be just as painful as any other kinda of murder, be it a mugging or a terrorist attack. This is why I feel it unfair to sensationalize and broadcast the grieving every 9/11.

izisharp wrote: [quote=SevenOneEighty] This is rather a unique event also because of its scale and scope and because it was also televised globally. We literally watched the murder of thousands of people live on television - Americans. This is different from a car accident or a crime you hear about on the evening news.

It goes without saying that 9/11 was unprecedented in it's reach, it's power and horror, it's imprint on public consciousness. However, if the car accident or crime you hypothetically refer to caused a death, I find it unfair to compare the impact that death has on individuals touched by it to those touched by 9/11. While I've been fortunate to never have lost a loved one to a sudden, tragic death, I imagine a hit-and-run fatality would be just as painful as any other kinda of murder, be it a mugging or a terrorist attack. This is why I feel it unfair to sensationalize and broadcast the grieving every 9/11.

Oh yea,

I hate that "camera on the grieving widow" crap too.
That part I think is straight insensitive and manipulative; we dont need to SEE the families grieving.

It's not necessary at all and is such an attempt to manipulate everyone's emotions and even worse, it turns the memory of the event into a spectator sport of triteness and fake symbolism used by networks and media. We can have commemoration without the "TV angles".
But today, its almost impossible to acheive real meaning in a public setting. Its as if everything has been turned in to "reality TV" like an episode of "The Real World" or "Big Brother". It seems we have lost the ability to truly empathize and can only watch things like a TV series...all the while, waiting for the next episode to hurry up and come on next. If it doesn't, we become annoyed and impatient. I'm not sure if we can ever break this cycle now. obviously, poeple are still touched when they see the grief of the famileis, etc. But it also feels so voyeuristic...do I need to see that specifically to remember 9/11?. Probably not.

Ironically, the events of 9/11 actually did break that cycle, for a minute or two...

alafairnadia wrote: someone told me (was it BigGuy?) that they were showing actual news footage from 9/11 on some stations yesterday. now that is crass and obscene. it's one thing to show a memorial service, it's another thing to show all of these newscasts from the actual event. I wonder how many people had massive PTSD-related anxiety attacks yesterday. I, for one, partied a little too hard last night, and I know part of that was related to the day.

I have to confess, I actually watched MSNBC's re-broadcast of the first 2 hours of 9/11/2001 NBC coverage. I lived in Minneapolis on that day and slept thru those horrific early hours (hitting snooze bar to NPR, slowly gathering news in my sleep of planes grounded, possible hijackings, and finally WTC collapsing!!!), so i was compelled to watch the live news coverage for the first time (It was on at 10pm - midnight, not primetime). I found it rather fascinating -- the utter shock is apparent in Couric, Lauer, and Brokaw, so much so that not even a gasp or "oh god" is said when the buildings collapse. And the degree of naivete they hold about terrorism is hard to fathom by today's standards. By contrast, I found the coverage from those hours after the collapse of WTC, and into that night, far more disturbing. It was then that the truly visceral and horrifying footage from lower Manhattan made its way onto the news, and that the reality of what had happened had set it. The shock, confusion, and loss for words overwhelmed those first few hours of coverage. At least from the eyes of a first-time viewer six years later. In any case, I see nothing wrong with viewing such footage for historical curiosity now and then, just as I was entranced by the rebroadcast of 11/22/1963 when I was 9 years old, to mark the 25th anniversary.

yeah, sorry. I was here on that day, calmly telling family members that the buildings wouldn't collapse, and then hysterically crying on the phone with them later, apologizing for being wrong. also, my current job was obtained because I was working on the insurance litigation, and a lot of the work I had to do early on in that case involved extremely fucked up shit (cataloging photos of jumpers and which floors they were jumping from, for instance). I couldn't walk away from the job - there were no jobs to be had after 9/11 - so I have this really bizarre love/hate relationship with my job at the moment, partly because of our early beginnings.

frankly, I would have flipped my shit if I'd been in a deli on 9/11/07, ordering a sandwich, and glanced up at the tv to see coverage of 9/11/01. I'm glad work and rain kept me at my desk.

I'm sorry I offended you. The headline wasn't meant to be dismissive of 9/11.

"Getting over it" was supposed to be a reference to izisharp's post, and the idea that maybe it's time to "get over" public mourning and make it private. I guess I failed to capture that in a short headline.

It's interesting. I didn't see any real-time footage of news on Sept. 11, 2001. I was at work in a place that didn't have T.V. (or rather, it had one that only got Telemundo, which I happened to watch for about 3 minutes that morning, enough to see the second tower go down and the newscaster screaming). I kind of yearn to see the footage in order to understand how much of the U.S experienced the events that day.

Maybe it's just perverse.

Did the T.V. channels go down in NYC that day? I seem to remember something about how, after the towers fell, that people could only get certain channels. Did cable work?