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IN MEMORIAM 9/11
riverflow
Veteran
Just a thread as a general memorial for those killed 12 years ago, and their families....
Don’t sign your name
between worlds,
surmount
the manifold of meanings,
trust the tearstain,
learn to live.
~ Paul Celan
(translated by Nikolai Popov & Heather McHugh)
Don’t sign your name
between worlds,
surmount
the manifold of meanings,
trust the tearstain,
learn to live.
~ Paul Celan
(translated by Nikolai Popov & Heather McHugh)
0
Comments
Edited to add:
And besides, war is UGLY. No doubt about it. But we were not at 'war' with anyone when 9-11 happened. They were terrorists, targeting innocent (American) civilians, not soldiers or military people. 3,000 people died that day- because of religious zealots/terrorists.
9-11 forever changed (some of) our lives, especially those in America and close enough to smell the smoke and see the ash falling down. I sincerely wish the war in Iraq didn't happen, (it shouldn't have happened!) but that doesn't stop me from respecting the innocent lives lost here due to terrorism, nor innocent lives lost due to war(s) around the world. Please respect our day of remembrance & mourning, ok?
I think today reminds me that life is impermanent and short and I feel for anyone who has lost a loved one for any reason. I have spent the morning contacting those I love just to say I love you. Plus I am a block from the whitehouse so I am very "aware" of the dangers today may pose.
9/11 was also the first time in my life I truly recognized the illusion of life, of safety and security and how quickly the floor can be ripped out from under our lives. The definition of my feeling safe changed forever that day, as did the world my children are growing up in. It is the reason we are where we are with the NSA controversy and wanting to drop bombs before negotiating lest we be blindsided again.
The loss of all the innocent lives is a horrific thing. All of them are important, but today we remember what happened here that changed all of us. But in a sense, it is even worse that as a result of what happened 12 years ago, so many people live in fear of their fellow man, even fellow Americans.
When 9/11 happened, we felt a need to rise above, and yet it feels to me like we haven't. We looked to war to ease our anger and our pain and our fear and it didn't give us the answers we sought. The problems come from within all of us, and that is where the solutions lie as well. I'm not trying to be a downer, it's not been a good day for me in more ways than one
It’s about human tragedy; not about politics (for me anyways).
Thank you, @zenff. It's a shame more people don't see it like that...
The 2 things I remember from that day was the poor men, women, and children who were hijacked and knew they were going to be crashed into a building. I just can't even imagine how horrifying their last minutes and hour were.
I also remember how I felt. My school was 7 miles from the Pentagon and 4 miles from the CIA. Panicked parents came to pick up their children after the Pentagon crash, and there were also sorts of other rumors about local apartment complexes being bombed, and so forth. And I went to bed that night wondering if we would be evacuated or killed in some further attack.
I can forgive a lot...I do not forgive 9/11.
Nearly my entire family lives in North Jersey or in and around NYC. I had friends in the NYC area, as well as Staten Island, etc. Lots of them work/ed in the city.
I have some Aunts, Uncles, Cousins and friends who had either sons, daughters, spouses or neighbors and friends working in and/or very close to the Towers...
It was an excruciating time for them emotionally- waiting those initial hours to hear if their family member or friend made it out alive. Many thousands of people did escape the Towers and the surrounding area alive. But we all know thousands did not.
Like you @vinlyn, I often think about those on those four planes, as well as those who jumped to their deaths, who had no hope at all. I can't even imagine - don't want to imagine - their horrifying last minutes. I just can't allow myself to 'forget' 9-11...
:om:
9/11 is now synonymous with the attacks on the World Trade Center Building in New York. It was a tragic event that killed almost 3,000 and was seen by many Americans as an attack on democracy itself. But 9/11 also marks the anniversary of a literal attack on democracy that took place in Chile 40 years ago today, a US-backed coup that ousted the democratically-elected president of Chile, Salvador Allende. So when honouring and reflecting on the 3,000 who lost their lives 12 years ago, also take the time to honour and remember the 3,000+ who lost their lives as the result of Augusto Pinochet's brutal 17-year dictatorship, as well as the 40,000 who were held as political prisoners and tortured.
I'm afraid the point of this thread has been totally missed.
A simple call of remembrance and respect for innocent lives lost has been turned into a political "blame game" and "well, look what YOU/WE did..." thing.
What an example of "right speech", eh?
It's sort of like saying to your best friend whose mother just passed away;
"Pfft! Mothers die every day- It happens, no big deal, get over it..."
So cold and disrespectful.
We remember a lot of days in our country, why is it that no one comes here to dispute why we do that? We remember MLK and veterans of war, we still have news commemorating Columbine every year. Heck we celebrate holidays without having a clue where the things we use to celebrate even come from (Christmas trees, jack o lanterns, Easter bunnies). Why is 9/11 the ONE thing people feel a need to say "what about this person? Those people? That event? Those victims?" Why on Halloween does no one come here and say "When you are out celebrating with your kids, don't forget about the Salem Witch Trials!"
But I think that when you have a thread started to memorialize those who died in some specific event, it's rather inappropriate to hijack the thread to make political points.
And, you're correct, Karasti -- memorializing those who died in one event, doesn't diminish the importance of those who died in thousands of other events throughout history.
Maybe that's quite dualistic of me, but I think we're all made up of parts, banter and discursiveness being our more ornery aspect???
________
btw, I love this relegating of threads to where they cannot be bumped. How extraordinaire!
Seems to me that it's arguable that killing people chosen at random is rather an apolitical act. I think terrorism is more aimed at breaking down systems and upsetting the applecart than at addressing political issues. It's apolitical in the same way that anarchy is.Basically, politics is squabbling for what piece of the pie you want, whereas acts of horror or terror attempt to destroy the whole derned pie. Though true that most terrorists have conditions they'd like to have met, their behavior changes the ballgame.
Well, just a few sketchy thoughts that I myself am not very convinced of.
As to the actual physical perpetrators: They were just desperate men doing a very desperate deed. If I were desperately hungry and nobody gave me any food, I'd steal. However, I don't think I'd be making a political statement by so doing. -Nor would I, by poisoning the food supply so many more could suffer as have I, would I be acting politically. Crimes are not politically motivated, but come from a darkness and a cancer that is let to grow and fester.
All I'm trying to say here, I guess, is that such low-life acts of terrorism aren't political —they simply do not rise to that level. Politics is the art of give-and-take and consists of squabbling, not killing and maiming. That's crime and war.
I'm not saying that all political points made are relevant or tasteful in and themselves; but in this case, I think it's fair to make political points because the attack itself was a political event, our response as a nation (two wars) was a political response, many of the ways 9/11 is framed and memorialized (e.g., nationalistically) are also political in some shape or form, etc. Politics covers far more in our lives that what goes on in, say, Congress or political action that's approved of by us. The IRA, for example, was a political group even though they also committed acts of terrorism, i.e., the context was political even if some of the things they did seemed like mindless acts of violence.
My basic point is that we can and should honour the victims of tragic events like this; But we should also allow for political discussions because these things are more often than not political events that by their very nature open up political debates and have political consequences.
I do fail, however, to see the actions of those blinded by their own bitterness and hatred being guided by "politics," speaking straightly. Hatred and violence are not policies [cp to "politics"] but are methodologies or strategies if not just downright pathologies.
Again, if acts of terror are a methodology or part of a strategy to achieve a political end, they are not forthright and direct enough to guarantee any result. If beating a horse will not make it a better horse, then promulgating acts of terror against people simply because they cannot see the suffering they're causing others will probably not make them better attuned to their actions, either. IMO political action is calculated action. On the other hand, acts of terrorism are just acts of impetus: upset the apple cart just to throw things off balance long enough that maybe... (pigs will fly?).
You just cannot fight hatred with hatred. It will only recoil multifold on you.
-- paraphrasing the Buddha
The only difference between a cult member and everyone else is that they tend to join at a moment of heightened vulnerability in their lives, such as after a divorce, losing a job or attending college away from home for the first time."
icsahome.com/infoserv_articles/tourish_dennis_culticdimensions721_en0403.htm