9/11 has become so politicized, sometimes it’s very easy to lose sight of the reality that a lot of people lost their friends and loved ones, four years ago today.
A visit to Dr. Pauly’s blog this morning put things back into perspective for me.
This is a moment of silence for them.
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Here is another tribute to 9/11.
http://www.drumcorpsplanet.org/911tribute/drum_corps_planet_memorium.htm
The music is performed by the Madison Scouts drum and bugle corps.
Hey, Wil,
Have you ever read Noam Chomsky, particularly his comments about 9/11? You read his books and you’re just: “Holy fuck there’s so goddamn much about the world I don’t know!”
There’s an interview with him here from a week after the attacks. Take a look. Or don’t.
I’m not the boss of you. 🙂
http://www.counterpunch.org/chomskyintv.html
Yes, I have. But this is not about politics today. This is for the human beings who lost their lives, or lost their loved ones four years ago.
*nod*
I’ll never forget seeing smoke in the air from my office.. some 35 miles away in New Jersey. Thinking of that always grounds me *really* quickly when I start wandering a little.
My own post to mark the day, I call, “Four thousand words for this day.”
I remember being glued to the TV with everyone in my office like it was yesterday. Stunned disbelief, outrage, and sadness.
There is nothing political about having to live without someone you love every day. Somehow all the speeches turn to white noise, and you’re left with only the empty space next to you.
*silence for the empty spaces*
I actually see that you are familiar with Chomsky. Sorry, I’m new to the site and was still tooling around reading when I saw some of your comments on him.
I’m not going to pretend I have any great insight to impart on 9/11 beyond agreeing with Chomsky, and those like him, who agree the world is comprised of the designs of some very cruel and very selfish men, all vying for their place in history.
And innocent people get caught in the middle, just trying to get by. Not be great, or renowned like these men, but just get by.
I was at work. At the time I worked for Sony Corp and I remember that the calls were stacked up as usual, about 50 or so were waiting then suddenly, the volume dropped to 0.
It wasn’t so scary right when it first happened but it does now. Everything seemed to stop in a matter of seconds. For me, it was the calls. For some, it was the world.
I remember being a kid and asking my stepdad about Kennedy and his story on where he was when it happened. I thought it was weird he’d remember something that happened 20 years ago. How could he remember what he was wearing?
But I remember where I was for the Challenger, when I heard we entered the Gulf War and heard Princess Di was dead and then waking up the morning of the attacks and crouching in front of the t.v., rubbing the sleep out of my eyes and trying to think who I could call that could explain what the hell I was seeing.
At first I didn’t even know what city it’d happened in, the reports were so frantic, and I kept looking out my window here in Chicago, certain they’d bombed the Loop or something.
I was at work on 9/11. I was a paralegal at the time and a client who lost several close friends in the tragedy came into the office to sign some papers. I’ll never forget the look in that man’s eyes (really, he was just a boy, barely over 21) as he talked about the friends he would never see again. He was like a zombie–going through his daily appointments and routine, but barely functioning. I tried to console him, but what can you say? That moment haunts me to this day and still sends a shiver down my spine. I don’t think I’ve ever seen anyone in so much pain from grief. I was actually afraid he would take his own life. The young men killed were his former hockey teammates, as I recall. If you consider the number of people who’s souls were partially destroyed–the walking wounded–the casualties of 9/11 far exceeds 3,000.
We watched it all day long at school. I remember being just very thankful that my family lives in Long Island not NYC. But mostly, I remember being freaked out the entire day and still for days after that something was going to hit San Francisco.
Wil,
I guess we can’t understand what “silence” means anymore. Too many talking heads to enjoy the feel of it.
John
Actually, johnboy, ( I know I’ve been posting my ass off in here today, but I’m intrigued – Wil you got some great insights ) and I don’t know if you’re still online or checking this johnboy, but I was wondering if you could clarify what you just said.
The reason I ask is that someone said something very similar to me not too long ago. Something about talking too much about things like the anniversary of 9/11 or Gulf War II and needing to just feel how you feel.
But that’s ironic, given that I think something important about people talking out this kind of thing is well, talking it out. Don’t know if that’s what you were going for, but I thought it was interesting.
I remember waking up the morning of 9/11 – it was a Tuesday, and wondering at first why reruns of the 1993 Trade Center bombing were on TV. I was appalled when I figured out what was really happening. I worked in a rural area of Washington State and figured my risk of getting blown up was fairly minimal. I got my then second grader off to School and went to work.
When I got home from work that evening, I was in dinner routine, when I hear a little voice from the living room “Mom, what is falling off the big building?” It was PEOPLE. MANY PEOPLE.
“It’s just part of the building” I said as I vaulted the back of sofa and turned off the TV. How exactly to you explain to an 8 y/o People jumping off a building rather than being burned and/or crushed to death?
That is the image in my mind of 9/11 – the horror of watching people jump, People who worked in an office like me, who had no other choice. I still can’t fathom what it must have been like in Manhattan that day.
As I read your short but to the point post, I tried to think what it was this reminded me of…and then it hit me while I was reading the comments.
9/11 has become like a political version of Christmas. People forget what it’s really all about and all they can see is the glittery fluff in front of them and not what’s underneath.
I cannot imagine what it’s going to be like next year, being a nice round number (5 years) and all. Thank God it isn’t an election year.
‘Political version of Christmas’ undermines anyone’s ability to communicate this. At least, I thought that.
Christmas happened for whatever reasons, a long time ago. Christ’s birth brought it out, all that. Many religions disagreeing, many people wanting to force their viewpoint.
9/11 happened in front of us all. There it is, for whatever reason you think it happened, it happened. No one forces their viewpoint about 9/11 when they’re just talking about where they were, whatever.
And then it made sense. What you were saying. I see what you mean. We’re all shaping our views of things based on that thing we saw and handing them off to some who haven’t, our kids, whatever. The future.
Purple monkey dishwasher and they’re taking our word for it.
Along the non-political tip, check out this: http://www.theseptemberproject.org/ It’s something to do on ‘Liberty Day’ besides feeling scared and sad.
That’s kind of what I meant, strangewater, but not actually the point I was trying to make. I didn’t want to get too heavily into it because this isn’t my journal. I’ve gone a little more into detail in my own lj though if you’d like to see exactly what I meant. just click on my name.
I did that and you’re right. Thanks.
Wil said not to let this get political, but that’s hard with everyone talking. I know this isn’t a personal forum, as it were.
But I understand what you’re trying to say. Your posts give me a better picture, as it were, of you. “like you’re supposed to” might sound childish to some, but you’re right.
Thanks.
I just went out to get a sandwich at the bodega up Atlantic avenue from me here in Brooklyn. Walking back, I noticed that they’d turned on the spotlights again in place of the towers.
Its very surreal. When they’re lit at night you can see them for dozens of miles at least. I live just across the water from lower Manhattan, and the close proximity creates a feeling of the light falling right on top of you.
I was born in New York City, but I wasn’t here when they came down. I was watching it on television on the north side of Chicago, running back and forth between it and my computer, talking to a friend who was on the roof of his office building, taking pictures of the scene with his mobile phone and describing it live. In a way I feel guilty that I wasn’t home when it happened, but I’m very glad I’m back now.
I’m not sure who’ll tell you this outside of New York, but this city has changed drastically since 9/11. A lot of native New Yorkers left in the months following, and created a pit of emptyness around here. There’s a certain lusty, potent energy that’s noticably, horribly missing.
I so agree with you on it being way to politicized. It’s crazy how time goes so fast. It happened during my senior year of high school and now I’m getting ready to graduate from college. I agree with David, it does feel like it happened just yesterday.
Completely offtopic, you were just indirectly on Family Guy. Or at least drawn on it. `8r) They had a TNG scene.
Wil Wrote: “But this is not about politics today. This is for the human beings who lost their lives, or lost their loved ones four years ago.”
Agreed.
Tomorrow, on the other hand, is reserved for the seething anger that comes from 2000 American troops, many times that number of Iraqis, and some yet-to-be-counted number of American civilians having died due to an unnecessary war.
Don’t be pissed. I mean, don’t be so unreserved in your feelings. No chaotic, gnashing hatred. If there is anger, if there is that fury, turn it toward those who deserve it, meaning toward those who could benefit from that energy.
Those things TBTB disregard, toward those things that, in being ignored by TBTB, demand to be recognized.
Give blood, donate some dough, whatever. On the way to work when you’re stepping over that homeless guy, don’t. Stop and talk.
Talk to a stranger on the train, or in the elevator. Take a breath back for yourself and relax. And then step forward into some new path, some new way of thinking for youself.
You could go break a window or whatever. You could rant out somebody on the street. That would change your life, for about a second.
Try to talk to them instead. They probably feel like you do. Scared, pissed. There might be a second of resistance, maybe. There might be two, but they’re well spent.
Today IS about the 3000+ people that died four years ago. I remember that it took me about 5 minutes to fathom that what I was seeing was real and not a movie or TV show. It just blew me away. To any of the family members of 9/11 victims that may be on here reading this, we all remember what happened and will always have them in our hearts.
(We can talk about the politics of all this tomorrow. There’s plenty.)
Strangewater,
No hidden meanings. Just that it’s good for the soul and good for the mind to be silent once in a while. Particulary on such a tragic anniversary. The moment of silence is of respect and thoughtful reflection, not a political statement.
John
Today IS about the 3000+ people that died four years ago. I remember that it took me about 5 minutes to fathom that what I was seeing was real and not a movie or TV show. It just blew me away. To any of the family members of 9/11 victims that may be on here reading this, we all remember what happened and will always have them in our hearts.
(We can talk about the politics of all this tomorrow. There’s plenty.)
Today IS about the 3000+ people that died four years ago. I remember that it took me about 5 minutes to fathom that what I was seeing was real and not a movie or TV show. It just blew me away. To any of the family members of 9/11 victims that may be on here reading this, we all remember what happened and will always have them in our hearts.
(We can talk about the politics of all this tomorrow. There’s plenty.)
Today IS about the 3000+ people that died four years ago. I remember that it took me about 5 minutes to fathom that what I was seeing was real and not a movie or TV show. It just blew me away. To any of the family members of 9/11 victims that may be on here reading this, we all remember what happened and will always have them in our hearts.
(We can talk about the politics of all this tomorrow. There’s plenty.)
Rock on, Wil. Pauly’s entry was very moving, too. From a 9/11 survivor, thanks for taking the high road (like so few others).