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

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

Actually I don't like this idea. While I understand the concept, I find that as the day approaches, it's more important to me than ever to connect with those I love. To share with them, because 9/11 was a horrible reminder of how everything can change in a heartbeat, how people can be taken away from you, and how lack of communication can be scarier than seeing video footage of planes flying into buildings full of people.

Besides, who are we sending a powerful statement to? To bin-Laden? To say what?

I think it is more important on that day that friends and loved ones stay in touch - through whatever medium works - to remind them they are in our minds and in our hearts.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

I'm with that. What we need to do is forget the date. And remember the lessons.

Kinda like an old Johnny Cash song, "San Quentin"...

May all the world forget you ever stood.
And may all the world regret you did no good.


Only different. The prison has been built around us while we stood here, by our supposed fellow citizens.

'Song has been waiting for the rant. I think it's time I gave it to y'all. Go check my journal in a bit....

Nothing bad should ever happen on anyone's birthday.

[azurelunatic]

My nephew's birthday is September 11. There's no chance of that date being forgotten by this household.

Does anyone remember the day when the Chinese army ran over protesting students with tanks? I do. That was my birthday.

It's horrible when some disaster or act of war can make people blank out at the nice things in life, like birthdays and anniversaries and weddings and graduations and holidays that are there for the happiness of it.

Unfortunately, with the confusion over what to call the incident at first (accident, act of war, act of terrorism, bloody major fuckup) and the initial confusion over whodunit and why (no one was exactly waving flags), I think that the date has stuck in people's minds as the name of the event.

Re: Nothing bad should ever happen on anyone's birthday.

[wolfieboy.livejournal.com]

That's also cindygerb's birthday. We're going to Met Grill - a nationally famous restaurant and then we'll go home to celebrate life...

[grittynoir.livejournal.com]

I agree.

And anyone who uses Johnny Cash to illustrate a point is A-OK in my book.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

*chuckle* another closet fan of the Man In Black, eh?

I saw the special on VH1 commemorating the Man's career, where they had all these musical guests paying him tribute, and they also had Tim Robbins. Tim Robbins? Why would they have Tim Robbins on a show about Cash?

(http://www.filmsite.org/shaw.html)

And like Andy, I've just about had enough.

Re:

[grittynoir.livejournal.com]

God only knows... but I guess they wanted the guest list as eclectic as the Man himself.

I'm gonna go put on one of his records right now.

Yep, I said record.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

What we need to do is forget the date.

July 4th, 1776. November 11th, 1918. December 7th, 1941. September 11th, 2001.

Dates stick. Just like my mom can remember exactly where she was when JFK was shot, and my father could describe vividly everthing that happened in the early morning hours of June 6th, 1944, we are always going to retain the vivd memories of 9/11.

[technoshaman.livejournal.com]

Dates stick because we're conditioned that way. Do you remember the date of Challenger? I don't. But I'll never forget where I was. I see that neither of us remember the date of JFK, either.

I think perhaps "September 11" has been used as a handle for that event simply because to try to describe what happened that day in such a way as to keep it from needing a "parental discretion advised" disclaimer is close to impossible. You can say "Normandy invasion" and it doesn't sound quite so bad as "terrorist attack."

On the other hand, the cynical side of me muses that they (whoever "they" are) might be attaching far more to that handle than just a pot... perhaps a rather large bonfire. Loading the words to make them fnord have a lot fnord more chill power fnord than they might otherwise have. Fnord, fnord.

--
"This will get out of control.
It will get out of control and we'll be lucky to live through it!"
    -- RADM Josh Painter (Fred Thompson), "Red October"

[gdmusumeci.livejournal.com]

Challenger was lost on the twenty-eighth of January, 1986.

"And I want to say something to the schoolchildren of America who were watching the live coverage of the shuttle's takeoff. I know it is hard to understand, but sometimes painful things like this happen. It's all part of the process of exploration and discovery. It's all part of taking a chance and expanding man's horizons. The future doesn't belong to the fainthearted; it belongs to the brave. The Challenger crew was pulling us into the future, and we'll continue to follow them..."

Clear skies, stout hearts.

[gridlore.livejournal.com]

It isn't a statement to anyone. As far as I am concern, Osama bin-Laden (assuming he's alive can keep hiding for the next 20 years. I think having his pet government bombed out of existence in two weeks was enough of a statement.

This is a memorial. A way for netizens to acknowledge that a lot of people died that day.

[branwynelf.livejournal.com]

The original post said that it would be a powerful statement, so I was questioning a statement to what and to who. That's all.

[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.