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

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.

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.

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.

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.