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

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

What we need to do is forget the date.

July 4th, 1776. November 11th, 1918. December 7th, 1941. September 11th, 2001.

Dates stick. Just like my mom can remember exactly where she was when JFK was shot, and my father could describe vividly everthing that happened in the early morning hours of June 6th, 1944, we are always going to retain the vivd memories of 9/11.

[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"

[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.