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

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. Thank you for explaining it. Perahps no surfing, only work related things to show respect might work for you? Just wondering.

[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.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* another closet fan of the Man In Black, eh?

I saw the special on VH1 commemorating the Man's career, where they had all these musical guests paying him tribute, and they also had Tim Robbins. Tim Robbins? Why would they have Tim Robbins on a show about Cash?

(http://www.filmsite.org/shaw.html)

And like Andy, I've just about had enough.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Dates stick because we're conditioned that way. Do you remember the date of Challenger? I don't. But I'll never forget where I was. I see that neither of us remember the date of JFK, either.

I think perhaps "September 11" has been used as a handle for that event simply because to try to describe what happened that day in such a way as to keep it from needing a "parental discretion advised" disclaimer is close to impossible. You can say "Normandy invasion" and it doesn't sound quite so bad as "terrorist attack."

On the other hand, the cynical side of me muses that they (whoever "they" are) might be attaching far more to that handle than just a pot... perhaps a rather large bonfire. Loading the words to make them fnord have a lot fnord more chill power fnord than they might otherwise have. Fnord, fnord.

--
"This will get out of control.
It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!"
    -- RADM Josh Painter (Fred Thompson), "Red October"

[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.

[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.

[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.

[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.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Actually, he wants you dead. Has said so.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

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

Re:

[grittynoir.livejournal.com]

God only knows... but I guess they wanted the guest list as eclectic as the Man himself.

I'm gonna go put on one of his records right now.

Yep, I said record.

[freyjaw.livejournal.com]

Barring any problems, Chris, Eric, drewkitty, and I will be there.

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.

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

Fair enough. I agree, what works for some people doesn't work for all.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I agree with you. In fact, I had just flown back from a combination Worldcon/parental maintenance trip on the east coast the day before. That could have been me on one of those planes.

Needless to say, the thought of isolating myself on that day totally freaks me out to begin with.

I'd like to do something, but not using the Internet seems to be the wrong way to go. It's not a fun-toy for me; it's work. I do LJ to warm up my writing, then do the real writing for work. I use AIM to communicate with my boss and with contractors in North Dakota. I use IRC to communicate with friends who help me with various aspects of my work and with folks I need to contact re: nonprofit activities.

If folks really want to do something noticeable, we should all flush toilets at the minutes the first and second plane hit to symbolize all those lives that went down the drain. Why? If everyone does it at once, the water table drops visibly at that time.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I'm going to suggest an alternative. What would happen if everybody flushed their toilets at the moments the first and second planes hit, the moment the plane hit the pentagon, and the moment the fourth one went down? It would symbolize all those lives going down the drain, and it'd have a quiet but noticeable effect on the water table those minutes.

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry but I I find that offensive and it feels like you are making light of a very serious situation. Also at those moments I will be attending the big memorial service at the site for Liam and all those that lost their lives that day and that is far more important than being home to flush a toilet.

[kiya]

The internet is not very intimate.

Perhaps to you.

Perhaps if you had a phobia of telephones (I do) or had met and spent most of your time communicating with a mate in email (I do) or had your major work and social contacts maintained via telnet (I do) or kept in touch with a partner all day while that person is in the office through the net (I do) and are living between five hundred and . . . several thousand miles, I'm not sure whether or not it's further to Alaska or Finland from here . . . from the people who are your normal support you might have a different perspective.

To you, avoiding the net is encouraging intimacy. To me, it is slaughtering it.

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

Thank you for a fresh perspective. I see your point.

[mactavish.livejournal.com]

For me, whether it's intimate depends on to whom I'm talking. It's very intimate with some, not at all with others.

I'm sure I'll find ways to stay closely connected, that day, with people I need to connect with, though I'm not yet sure which media I'll use most.

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.

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

Challenger was lost on the twenty-eighth of January, 1986.

"And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them..."

Clear skies, stout hearts.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Well, along with the rather questionable symbolism imvolved, there is also the matter that such an act can be destructive.

Lynn, I was clear in the first message that I understand that people who need to use the net for their jobs would not be able to take part. I'm just saying that we should take a little time to reconnect with the real world.

I'm going to be at Starport that night, one way or another. Hope to see you there.

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

[hitchhiker.livejournal.com]

True - personally, anniversaries aren't usually very meaningful to me, and September 11 falls into the "the event was significant; the date wasn't" category. I mourn the people who lost their lives (particularly Liam, who I am very glad I got a chance to meet at C'con), but I don't think I'll mourn them any more because it happens to be 'a year ago today'. Again, just another personal perspective, since people have been sharing them; I'm not trying to trivialise the issue.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I wasn't trying to make light. It really does have an impact if everybody does it at once.

I will be trying to work that day, but my mind will be elsewhere. It won't be easy, but I have to keep money coming in so I don't wind up homeless like a non-trivial number of my friends.

I think back to when my father died. He didn't want me to take time off from work or school other than to go to his funeral. He insisted I go to my company's holiday party if it hit right after he died because they were going to charge me if I stayed away and mourned. It did, I did, and I was miserable.

This is the stoicism with which I was raised. I can't justify going to a memorial service when I didn't know anyone firsthand who died that day. Someone has to keep the country running while those who need to mourn do.