Month: September 2003

Well, despite my ranting regarding keeping a day of silence on 9/11, I actually did pretty much that thing, after that initial post. I didn’t stay offline — I ended up checking most of my regular haunts. But most folks, too, had little to say, aside from an initial commentary.

Actually, all things considered, at most of the places I visited it was a day curiously without rancor. 9/11 not only revealed that we in the US had been living in something of a fairyland of childish ignorance, but the reaction to it revealed some serious fissures in American self-image, vision, and political philosophy. For all the venom that has been spewed (from all sides) over the last two years, yesterday was remarkably calm.

What I did avoid was listening much to the radio. I listened to music, instead, courtesy of the van’s CD player.

Rather than write up something long and tediously maudlin, I’ll simply point you at my 9/11 category, which has my previous posts on the topic, starting on The Day.

I will add this:

It is not time to “put it all behind us.” It is not time to “get over it.”

Where I “dwell” on 9/11, it is not to wallow in self-pity as a victim, or to wallow in recriminations as to what we did to bring this upon us, or to obsess on killing everyone who looks at us crosswise. It is to remember what happened, remember that there are people who would do such things, and to try and figure out how to keep it from happening again.

I don’t have the answers. I think most of the steps we have taken since then have been the correct ones, though not all of them (and not even the correct ones have been executed as well as they should).

I don’t know where we’re going. I don’t have the five year view, let alone the fifty.

But I will remember.

A proposal here to Unplug on 9/11.

To honor all those who lost their lives in the 9/11/2001 attacks (and all those who have lost their lives since as a direct result of them), I propose that we turn off our computers and stay off the internet all day on 9/11/2003.

Hmmm. Why?

1. Silence and reflection are an appropriate response to such an indescribably ugly day and to all the ugliness that has been created in its wake.

So are shouting and screaming. So are reflections on the tragedy, screeds of anger, poems of hope, and reaching out to others.

2. A day of disconnection from the Internet will create one less means by which unscupulous people can tell us how to feel about our country and ourselves.

Right. Better to let the “unscrupulous people” put forward their nefarious agenda without anyone to disagree about it. That makes sense.

3. The SoBig.F worm and other disruptive programs may be preparing for larger, more damaging attacks on 9/11. Let’s withhold host bodies from these parasitic infections. A computer with its power turned off cannot be infected by a computer virus, nor can it pass that virus on to other unsuspecting users.

Right. Live in fear of computer viruses. And if you keep your computer permanently turned off, it won’t ever get infected or used as a zombie.

4. I really just want to see if I’ve got the willpower.

Well, that’s not a bad reason. Though I’d reserve that for Lent. (Hmmmmm …)

My opinion? It’s better to stay connected. If someone is expressing an opinion about 9/11 and what it means, and you agree — great! The power of community was one of the lessons of that day. If someone says something you disagree with — wonderful! The strength of differing opinions and the freedom to express them is another valuable lesson from that day.

There are any number of folks who will try to hijack 9/11 to their purpose. That’s what makes a horse race. Some of it will be touching, some of it will be maudlin and cloying, some of it will be inspiring, and some of it will be enraging.

But that’s both the strength and the weakness of living in a society. Sitting in a darkened room to avoid hearing opinions you don’t like — from whatever end of whichever political spectrum you’re overly sensitive to — is to let them have the field.

But if you want to have some quiet time and reflection — well, yeah, that’s okay, too. Just do it for the right reason — out of strength, not out of fear.

Whatever you do on 9/11, don’t let anyone dictate it to you, and don’t let anyone take it from you. Your feelings, your values, and your country are your own.

That I can agree with.

(via WMT)