gridlore: Doug looking off camera with a grin (Default)
Douglas Berry ([personal profile] gridlore) wrote2002-08-25 10:02 am

I had an idea last night.

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.

[identity profile] soldiergrrrl.livejournal.com 2002-08-25 03:18 pm (UTC)(link)
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.

[identity profile] feroluce.livejournal.com 2002-08-25 11:48 pm (UTC)(link)
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.