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.

Re: I thank you for thinking about this, but...

[identity profile] hitchhiker.livejournal.com 2002-08-27 04:45 pm (UTC)(link)
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...

[identity profile] opals.livejournal.com 2002-08-29 08:11 pm (UTC)(link)
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.