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

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I guess I see it as my job to keep things going to f*** the terrorists back.

I'm still numb from the whole thing. I didn't know anyone firsthand who died that day, but I'd been to the WTC many times when I lived in NYC. I'd been to the observation deck, eaten at the Marketplace many times, and even had a job interview there once. My first computer job was for a company based in that area, so I knew what was lost before the media out here realized it.

Those sonofabitches trashed my home, dammit. I am soooo not going to let them paralyze me or my country, no matter how much it hurts.

Re: Nothing bad should ever happen on anyone's birthday.

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

That's also cindygerb's birthday. We're going to Met Grill - a nationally famous restaurant and then we'll go home to celebrate life...

People Are Different

[opals.livejournal.com]

I agree with this very much. I for one can't afford to call people because I only have a cell phone available. I'm in bad financial straits and I'd rather not further my distress in that respect.

I would like to agree with ororo who says that there is most likely no one right way to memorialize that day.

I'm hoping I can work on a memorial quilt that day and be here to support my friends.

Mahalo for listening

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

[opals.livejournal.com]

I have to agree with you. According to research my brain is damaged and my memory is skewed. So I feel no time distance if that makes sense. Thus an anniversay or a memorial day doesn't seem to be significant today other then historically.

I seem to think of 9/11 on at least an every other day basis if not every day. I remember the losses that incurred on that day whenever I read the news.

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!)