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'm going to suggest an alternative. What would happen if everybody flushed their toilets at the moments the first and second planes hit, the moment the plane hit the pentagon, and the moment the fourth one went down? It would symbolize all those lives going down the drain, and it'd have a quiet but noticeable effect on the water table those minutes.

[fimbrethil.livejournal.com]

I'm sorry but I I find that offensive and it feels like you are making light of a very serious situation. Also at those moments I will be attending the big memorial service at the site for Liam and all those that lost their lives that day and that is far more important than being home to flush a toilet.

[figmo.livejournal.com]

I wasn't trying to make light. It really does have an impact if everybody does it at once.

I will be trying to work that day, but my mind will be elsewhere. It won't be easy, but I have to keep money coming in so I don't wind up homeless like a non-trivial number of my friends.

I think back to when my father died. He didn't want me to take time off from work or school other than to go to his funeral. He insisted I go to my company's holiday party if it hit right after he died because they were going to charge me if I stayed away and mourned. It did, I did, and I was miserable.

This is the stoicism with which I was raised. I can't justify going to a memorial service when I didn't know anyone firsthand who died that day. Someone has to keep the country running while those who need to mourn do.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

Well, along with the rather questionable symbolism imvolved, there is also the matter that such an act can be destructive.

Lynn, I was clear in the first message that I understand that people who need to use the net for their jobs would not be able to take part. I'm just saying that we should take a little time to reconnect with the real world.

I'm going to be at Starport that night, one way or another. Hope to see you there.

[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.