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

[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.