I had an idea last night.

[gridlore]

As everyone knows, we are fast approaching the first anniversary of the September 11th attacks. Everyone is discussing how the best memorialize the event, and the people lost. Here's my two cents.

A day of silence on the Internet. For one calendar day, starting at 0001 11 SEP 02, your local time, stop posting, emailing, surfing whatever. A global day of silence moving around the world. I realize that this would be impossible for those in business who rely on the net, but I think it would be a powerful statement. I remember on that day the messages on the Traveller Mailing List to our NYC members asking "are you ok?" And I know the terrible silence when one person never replies to those calls.

So for one day, stay off the net. It will survive. talk on the phone, go for a walk, or just remember how much we all lost on the terrible day, one year ago.

Comments

[bookofnights.livejournal.com]

I love this idea. It's one of the few that I can do and mean it. (Not like the "wear red, white, and blue" idea that's going around at work.)

Thank you. This is very meaningful to me.

[poopsmoothie.livejournal.com]

I like this idea.

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

Actually I don't like this idea. While I understand the concept, I find that as the day approaches, it's more important to me than ever to connect with those I love. To share with them, because 9/11 was a horrible reminder of how everything can change in a heartbeat, how people can be taken away from you, and how lack of communication can be scarier than seeing video footage of planes flying into buildings full of people.

Besides, who are we sending a powerful statement to? To bin-Laden? To say what?

I think it is more important on that day that friends and loved ones stay in touch - through whatever medium works - to remind them they are in our minds and in our hearts.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'm with that. What we need to do is forget the date. And remember the lessons.

Kinda like an old Johnny Cash song, "San Quentin"...

May all the world forget you ever stood.
And may all the world regret you did no good.


Only different. The prison has been built around us while we stood here, by our supposed fellow citizens.

'Song has been waiting for the rant. I think it's time I gave it to y'all. Go check my journal in a bit....

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

It isn't a statement to anyone. As far as I am concern, Osama bin-Laden (assuming he's alive can keep hiding for the next 20 years. I think having his pet government bombed out of existence in two weeks was enough of a statement.

This is a memorial. A way for netizens to acknowledge that a lot of people died that day.

[kiya]

Last September, I remember watching several newsgroups reach out to their members, the news of people being all right spreading out as fast as anyone could get the news. I remember watching people talking to someone who, it was eventually determined, lost a partner, providing that person with a space to not be alone.

I remember being unable to get a message to my father (who sometimes works in the Pentagon) on the phone, but I got an email through to him.

I remember being able to get in touch with my loved ones at last, to confirm that they were there. I remember being able to make contact with other people, if only in a telnet window.

The people I love and I stay in touch through the internet; the people I'm close to the same.

I think that cutting myself off from my family and spending the day alone may be a memorial, but is much more likely to simply be a trauma.

[(Anonymous)]

It's been done already to some extent .. there was something like this among webloggers awhile ago, though I don't recall the reason behind it.

Don't change your normal habits

[shareinnc.livejournal.com]

While I am all for a moment of rememberence of those who died that day, the worst thing we can do is alter our normal activities. Disruption is the coin of terrorism. It is what they get from their acts. Don't allow them to win. Keep to your regular schedule. Say a prayer for your family and friends and our military men and women, but do what you always do on that day even more than any other.

[soldiergrrrl.livejournal.com]

I agree with Doug. I'll be off the net, but I'll be calling my family and friends to connect with them that way. I'll be looking at the folx in my unit that just came back from Afghanistan, and thanking the PTB that they made it home. I'll be calling my SO and thanking the PTB that *he* made it home from Afghanistan, too.

In the suggestion, Doug never said to spend the day in isolation, but to reach out to family and friends in other ways.

[feroluce.livejournal.com]

i think you get the point exactly. it isn't to isolate and remove yourself, it's to force you to get in touch by more intimate means. i think it's a great idea :) i think i'll walk over to my grandma's for lunch that day.

[flashfire.livejournal.com]

While I understand your intent behind this and the reasoning as well, I do not plan on changing my routine simply to make a statement. I believe going about my life the way I normally do makes a bigger one, and I also plan to write something on 9/11/02 as well. I would not be able to do this if I observed a day-long silence.

A moment of silence? Certainly.

[hepkitten.livejournal.com]

Sorry, but I think this is the most idiotic idea I have heard yet. Why don't people volunteer? Help out at your local soup kitchen? Donate time to the SPCA? Become a Big Brother or Big Sister? Do something worthwhile with their time? Instead you are advising people to not write down what they feel, not talk to loved ones far away (one of my closest friends lives in Kuwait, do you have any idea how much it costs to *call* there?), not gather online to remember people they lost, or offer support to those that lost people, not read words of encouragement, words of remembrance, words to help bear lingering pain. I realize that for some people, this might seem like a good idea. But I talk to almost all of my friends and loved ones online. It lets me multitask and talk to several people at once. I don't believe in phones, so it lets me communicate with others without having to travel long distances to see them. It allows me to keep in touch with friends who would otherwise fall by the wayside due to my poor communications skills using other means.

Seriously. Instead of an "Internet Day Of Silence" which won't really have an affect on anyone and won't change anything, why doesn't everyone who can volunteer? That way, not only are you remembering 9/11, but you are also giving back to your community, and helping create a permanent remembrance and effect. I for one, will be volunteering helping out dorkbot (www.dorkbot.com) and at my local SPCA.

Loved ones

[cryptess.livejournal.com]

I don't know about anyone else here, but things like the WTC Attacks (as I plan to call them) don't make me want to go silent in mourning, anyway. They make me want to say in a loud and steady voice, "I LOVE YOU" to all the people in my life that make a difference. It makes me want to spend every breath I can with them. It tempts me to throw away my guard, and tell people I love them rather than hiding it.

As life is, before the Attacks and before I actually lost anyone to anything (the only one I've lost was to "old age"), I feared losing people. Having a heroin addicted father made me feel terribly close, and at just 20 I tend to make sure "I love you" is always the last thing I say to my loved ones, even if they're just going to the bathroom or for a smoke or something.

Tomorrow, September 11th, I'm going to wake up and be happy, because I have my loved ones. More directly, my philosophy on losing people is that afterwards you live and love for them, too, carrying a small piece of them wherever you go; being miserable will just carry those feelings to your small part of the departed you're mourning for.

I think...I'll celebrate those lost loved ones (NOT their loss!) tomorrow by sending special love-type-letters to all of my family and friends. If I can make somebody happy, for even one minute, the world will have been a better place for them, and that's all that really matters to me. (Just think, if everybody tried to do this once a day, there'd probably be no need for wars!)

[figmo.livejournal.com]

No can do. That's my livelihood.

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

My husband, who was my partner, lover, friend and breadwinner died that day. As I am surviving with that loss, couldn't you stand the loss of one day which could easily be made up with longer hours on other days? It's not that big a sacrifice in the scheme of things.

[opals.livejournal.com]

I think it's a good idea. But as figmo said, this is -my- livelihood. What I can do is eliminate the personal communications. But as another user said, it's a day when I'd like to be in touch with my loved ones and the way I do that is on the internet. The people I know that were most affected by 9-11 are thousands of miles away from me.

[lokiz-mom.livejournal.com]

Doug i think this is a great idea. if we all get out and meet with our families and neighbors, then we will all feel safe (IMHO). i can't say that i'll be able to be off the net completely for one day, but perhaps i'll go to the beach and pray for those who lost their lives. eventhough i'll be facing west instead of east, it's the thought that counts right??? ::hugz:: bravo bro!!!

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

I agree and I will let my friends know to call me instead to see how this family is doing that day. Make sure I have your number before then please so I may touch base with you. Good idea.

thinking I will be on the NO side of this one.

[chiefted]

From the sorta cheap seats here. I will be using the net that day in much the same way I did a year ok. Working. Last year it was boxing radios to go on a moment notice. Watching and updating the two O6s (Capts) I work for on what is going on, what are we doing. This is not the day to remain silent. This is a day to connect with one another.

One of my loves could have lost someone that day, her love in NYC. The only way to talk to him on that day was on the computer, via the internet. She opened a line to her mum too. As the calls came in from others in the area they were on the phone checking, praying that the phone would be answered.

So in much the same way of defiance as when her and I were standing on her balcony on the 13th of Sept and she and I looked up and saw a plane about to land at the airport, she yelled through tears streaming down her face...you bastards haven't won. I will use the net in the same way....they haven't won, I will remember the other life savers who gave thier lives so others may live.

[voltbang.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry, count me in the not only no but hell no camp. Osama Bin Ladin wants to disrupt my life. He will not. He prevented his peopel form using the internet, because it represents a free flow of information that he just can't abide. I will use it, and I will make a point of using it in ways he hates. I'll talk to people of differing faiths and creeds. I'll talk to people of differing sexualities. I will look at images he finds sinful. I will exercise my first ammendment rights to free religion and free speech, two right he hates. And if he doesn't like it, he can come talk to me and I'll show him what other rights I like to exercise. Or he can hide in his cave and pray for a dialysis machine.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Actually, he wants you dead. Has said so.

[http://users.livejournal.com/crossfire_/]

I'm not sure what I'll do on September 11...but I'm pretty sure I won't be able to remain silent.

To me, communication in any medium is very important. I recognize that silence is, in and of itself, a form of communication, but I think I'll have more to communicate than silence can do for me.

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

Just a general point. The internet is not very intimate. Sometimes I find it cold and impersonal. I will probably get many e-mails that day from people wondering how I am surviving my loss. But it would be so much more wonderful if those people would call me or even come over. It would be nicer to hear their voices or see their faces so I could really connect with them. You cannot see expressions or hear voice inflections over the internet, nor can you give hugs. I will be needing all of that that day and not some flat words electronically mailed to me.

[jilesa.livejournal.com]

The internet is not very intimate.

This just points up the truth that 'people are different'. See, for me, real time chat on the Internet is WAY more intimate than a phone call. That's mostly because I'm so visually oriented that just hearing words without visual cues feels like having half a conversation, even with someone I know very well and love dearly. All of my closest friends and loved ones live over 700 miles away from me, so dropping by for an in-person visit is not an option.

While I understand and support the desire to memorialize September 11, this particular means of doing so would serve only to isolate me at a time when I need connections to my loved ones. I think it may be a good memorial activity for some, but not for me.

[freyjaw.livejournal.com]

I have no clue what I will do on that dreadful anniversary. I lost two friends.

I may be offline, but only because I'll be with my love Eric, hubby Chris when he's not at work, and drewkitty if only by cell phone (he knows I'll need his virtual shoulder that day, bless him).

Hell. Starport is that night. May be a good place to be instead of online.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Starport would be a good thing. I'll see if Kiri and I can make it down.

[gingicat]

If it had not been for the Internet, I would not have known that the planes had hit the WTC until panicky parents started calling the school where I work as an admin assistant in Boston. I would not have had the mental time to prepare. As such, *my* way to honor the day might be to stay signed into #filkhaven, where I found out what happened. I very rarely go on IRC from work, but this seems a reasonable exception.

I thank you for thinking about this, but...

[browngirl.livejournal.com]

Everyone is discussing how the best memorialize the event, and the people lost.

It seems to me that it would be kind of difficult to find one best way to memorialize an event of this magnitude, and that setting any one way as The Way makes it more likely for people to conclude that those not participating are making a statement that They Do Not Care, as can be seen already from this discussion, a statement they may very well not be making. I think that setting up one way for everyone to symbolize how they feel runs a large risk of being more divisive than unifying, and I think that this particular way, which involves cutting people off from a communication method, runs more risk of that than many.

Ayesha.

Re: I thank you for thinking about this, but...

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

*nod*

Oddly, I find that I need to do something that's meaningful to me, and that I don't get much healing out of doing something that other people identify as ideal unless I do, too. I wore a white flowery dress to my mom's funeral because she thought children should be dressed in vibrant clothing. I celebrate New Year's Day by being out in nature. My sister had the mourner's kaddish sung at her Catholic mass funeral. My partner's father wanted no funeral, and had none. We do things in ways that are most meaningful to us as individuals.

I wouldn't want everyone to mourn the thousands of lives lost during the attacks of September 11 in the same way, as it would nearly guarantee that there would be people commemorating it in ways that weren't meaningful to them.