It is the day that I have to keep my television turned off, and avoid my favorite internet news sites.
It is the day that it seems EVERYBODY wants to talk about what I don't ever want to talk about again.
And why should I? Even ten years later I remember every single thing about that day.
The phone call from my daughter telling me to turn on the television. "Daddy they are attacking New York!"
The day spent watching something happen which my mind refused to accept was even possible.
The next days spent watching the disaster over, and over, and over again. Until I could close my eyes and see every detail play out like I was watching it happen right in front of me.
Weeks spent wondering why, who, and how.
And just when the images had faded into the darkness of my psyche it was the one year anniversary, the two year anniversary, the three year anniversary, and here they came again, playing in a loop on every station, on every television, every year. The attacks only happened once, but through the power of the recorded image they continue to attack us again, and again, and again.
The news stations say they do it so that we won't forget. Who could forget?
Like all Americans alive at that time, I will NEVER forget.
So today I thought I would pay my respects to those who lost their lives on that fateful day, by living mine.
I went up to my favorite place and spent the afternoon appreciating the vastness of the world around me.
After I finished my hike I felt revitalized, and renewed, and not a drop of sadness remained.
Perhaps some will decide I am not a "good" American for not sharing in our national grief. But I have already shed so many tears, and feared so many faceless enemies, and yet it changed nothing.
So today I decided it was not just something that I cannot do, I decided it was something that I should not do. And I do not believe I could have made a better choice.
If every year on 9-11 our nation succumbs to an overwhelming sense of loss, and spends the day re-watching the handiwork of those who wanted to terrify us, who wins then?
Well today, for THIS American, the bad guys lost.
Thanks for this. I so agree. I hope all this memorializing is helpful to some people, but to me it feels like re-opening a wound. We will never "forget." The question is, what have we learned?
ReplyDeleteAmen!
ReplyDelete911 is like a Genetic Memory
ReplyDeleteIt is burned into the context of our society.
It begs the question of when the number 911 was initially designated as the universal distress signal, if there wasn't a brief precognitive slip of racial intuition, and it was actually at that point a painful memory as opposed to an unexpected event not yet having been inflicted.
It is the oddest of coincidences.
http://circuitsurfers.com/2011/09/11/911-2001/
Awesome post Grif and beautiful pictures to remind us that we have to continue to live on no matter what! I think you have said what so many of us feel.
ReplyDeleteI think the memorial itself is a wonderful thing for those who lost a person in their life. For some of them it is the only place they have where there is closure. For me, I will never forget, and I know there are some who have personal demons that remembering will never help. We have so many terrible things that are willfully happening to our country now. I feel a sense of helplessness that has nothing and everything to do with 9/11.
ReplyDeleteI hope your day brought you much peace.
ReplyDeleteWhat a perfect way to heal and celebrate life-yours and the world at large.To spend ones time focusing only on the ugly is to ignore the beauty of what the words life and love are really about.I believe in God(not religion). Nature is the best place to honor those who have died and feel the true power and love of His/Her Spirit.Thank you for sharing.
ReplyDeleteThanks for this beautiful post and the awesome pictures! They are very spiritual. I couldn't bring myself to turn the teevee on and listen to the screamers either. Did go to theobamadiary.com for some very moving pictures and video clips of our awesome President and First Lady. It was very healing.
ReplyDeleteKeep up the good work you do.
Thanks for the beautiful pictures & positive thoughts.
ReplyDeleteThis article is about my community....trying to move on.
http://www.nytimes.com/2011/09/11/us/sept-11-reckoning/queens.html
I will visit ''The footprints of the Towers''. I owe it to myself as a New Yorker. But today will be the last time I watch the reading of the names.
When will we have a reading on the names of our soldiers who defend our country ?
NYCgirl
I totally agree, couldn't have said it better. Just because I didn't want to watch, read, hear or post about this doesn't mean I have forgotten. I have those images burned in my memory, I have no wish to see them again and I don't mean that disrespectfully.
ReplyDeleteAmericans have this memorial day in their recent history 10 years ago. I was once told by an Israeli, that Americans no noting of the fear, pain and despair of growing up in a reality where life is an everyday walk of war( hearing bombs, gun fire and people dying are a norm)) Today, we should be grateful that our Culture has reverence for life and send out our prayers for world peace.
ReplyDeleteThanks Gryph. I thought I was alone in thinking the very same thing.
ReplyDeleteGryphen I feel the same way as you do about this day.
ReplyDeleteMy parents are from New York and I have family that live there. My cousin was in WTC bombing in 1993. She was 7 months pregnant and had to make it down 67 floors in pitch black smoke. She never went back to work there again. She felt it would happen again and looked for a new job and moved to the suburbs. She knew many people that died on 9/11.
As I type this my heart breaks in a million pieces for all who experienced the horror that day.
So I do as you do and try to avoid all coverage of it.
AliCat
Beautiful post by a beautiful American *hugs*
ReplyDeleteI said to my husband last night when he was watching one of the shows rerunning the events of the day..."why? why keep replaying these images giving those who hate us and those who caused this tradegy something to gloat over and celebrate? Honor those who lost their lives, support the families, never forget - but also show our strength, our compassion, our ability to heal, celebrate their lives, our lives."
I'm with you Gryp - I'm not pleased with the repeated coverage and because it's the 10 year anniversary, it seems excessive this year.
ReplyDeleteI will never forget the non-stop crying - the devastation and the horror that Flight 93 might have been shot down under Cheney's orders.
I know the official 911 report does not ring true and there are lots of discrepancies.
I'm horrified that the first responders will only get $5K each in their class action suit and the ones that died of cancer will get NOTHING. Nearly 1,000 died in the following decade from the toxic soup they had to breathe, yet NIOSH can not agree that was the cause YET.
I don't need to watch the towers fall again and again.
I won't attend ceremonies to honor the dead for one simple reason. The terrorists are gleeful that we celebrate their achievement.
I will NEVER FORGET.
Gryphen, We celebrated life in our family today by having a baby shower for my daughter-in-law. We can't let them win.
ReplyDeleteI spent the afternoon in my canoe, sipping a cold beer in memory of those that we lost. Nature has a way of renewing humans.
ReplyDeleteThis may be your most powerful post yet. Namaste.
ReplyDeleteI live about 8 miles away from the WTC and I remember that day like it was five minutes ago. The smell of burning plastic and other acrid odors lasted for days. We saw the smoke every time we walked out our front door. I couldn't wait to get back into Manhattan as soon as they let cars back in. It's my city, the city my dad grew up in. I had a knot in my stomach for months and I can't even express how much we all went through here, especially those who lost friends and loved ones, or those who had a close relationship with the WTC (people who once worked there, who live or work in the area, who went to appointments in one of the buildings). I drive past the site every time I go into NYC.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you, Gryphen. It's always in the back of my mind, but today I just couldn't relive it again and again and again, though it's probably cathartic for some. Thanks for a wonderful, restful post.
The fact you enjoyed peace in walking/hiking and your surroundings is the perfect scenario in my estimation. Loved the beautiful photos of your sojourn too.
ReplyDeleteIt is my feeling that your journey in the great outdoors did not take one thing away from the ten-year anniversary of 9/11.
I feel the non-stop TV coverage of 9/11 has done nothing more than continue spreading fear amongst the American population. That has to stop - by our government and the media.
RIP to all the lost souls in 9/11.
I'm with you on this one, Gryphen. Given the way we responded to the events of 9/11, somewhere those who were involved in the planning of the attack, or who were sympathetic to the goals of the attackers, are still laughing at how easily they brought down, not just some buildings, but a country. I applaud our President for honoring the dead, but enough is enough.
ReplyDeleteAs a member of the traditional media, I know all too well how this "holiday" (call it an anniversary if you want to) is being horribly exploited to extract the maximum feelings of powerlessness, fear and despair.....so you'll remain tuned into the "Fear Channel" (TM) and so forth.
ReplyDeleteFuck that shit. (Pardon my French.)
Those of us who have experienced loss (and who hasn't -- our entire country was devastated that day) prefer to grieve on our own schedule, in our own way.
This ritualistic, required, group gnashing of teeth is really shitty since it's sort of "You'd better talk about your feelings about 9/11! You'd better cry! Or else!"
Again, fuck that shit.
Like you, Gryphen, I quietly went about living my life with as much joy and dignity as possible today, ignoring all the mind control and cultish crap going on in the world of "You have to feel THIS WAY on a CERTAIN DAY EVERY YEAR or you're not a good person!"
Fuck that shit. I simply can't say it enough.
I have already grieved my friends, my freedoms, and my innocence which were lost that day. Purposefully engaging in reactivating post-traumatic stress disorder is EXTREMELY unhealthy.
Just say no to ANYBODY (including those of us whores in the media) trying to mandate your feelings, evaluate your "patriotism" according to how upset you act, and then turn around to try to get you to BUY stuff on top of it....commemorative 9/11 crap, anybody?
Bull fucking shit.
Thank you for posting this! I agree 100%. The extra coverage must make it even more excruciating for those who suffer from the effects of that awful day. I will never forget that day either, when suddenly we became vulnerable and I tried to wrap my head around the horror while worrying how to protect my 8 yr old's childhood. I am bothered by the huge coverage of the 10th anniversary. Why is it different than the 1st, 5th, 70th? Do we remember it more? And for all the focus over the last few days, tomorrow is September 12th, just another day.
ReplyDeleteGryphen, my husband and I agree. We avoided the television news, the internet news, the paper and even the radio today. Not out of disrespect for those lost, but out of respect for what they lost - life. We took a ride on our cycle, in the sun with the wind flowing on us, the birds seemingly moving along with us.
ReplyDeleteWhen we got to the aboretum, we were going to go inside and sit and enjoy the quiet spaces, but some people were walking by as we parked, talking about the memorials they'd seen on the shows.
We simply got back on the bike, and rode into open country, counting our blessings and thinking how those who've passed - by any means - would probably love the sun and the wind. We enjoyed it for them, knowing that in time perhaps someone will enjoy it for us.
We have so many, many reminders of 9-11 around us every day, particularly if we travel by air. There is unbridled hate and fear in one too many places.
We just decided to fill our hearts with a small amount of joy and gratitude. It would be what we would want for those who survive us.
Thank you for having the courage and the grace to share with us that you, too, have had enough of sorrow and fear. That life is for the living and that by living our lives consciously and with gratitude, we honor those who have died by any means.
It is time to put away the survivor's guilt (as anyone who has been in war), and honor life itself. You, Gryphen, have given voice to this plea and we thank you.
I agree also Gryph, but I am amazed up in Alaska in September on the mountain tops, you don't have snow? Is that the non existing global warming at work?
ReplyDeleteIt's time to move on, I think Sept. 11 should be a day for private memorials with the friends and the families of the people who were lost on that day..why go on televising this over and over for days on end..who is that helping..it's etched in our memory, we will never forget.
ReplyDeleteIt's time to move on, I think Sept. 11 should be a day for private memorials with the friends and the families of the people who were lost on that day..why go on televising this over and over for days on end..who is that helping..it's etched in our memory, we will never forget.
ReplyDeleteGlad you got to enjoy the bounties of Alaska before the frost (and more) sets in.
ReplyDeleteFor those most part I agree with you, although Paul Simon acoustically performing "Sounds of Silence" is truly moving and a reminder of the giant talents that emerged in the 1960s, offspring of the "Greatest Generation."
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3np0DMxXKzM&feature=youtu.be
Thank you for this post. Our family also made the decision to turn the media mess off.
ReplyDeleteI hope now that ten years have passed it can stop.
It's time to look forward, not back.
Remembering or memorializing is fine, preferably on a personal and private level. But it is the national public wallowing in grief, transformed to fearmongering, paranoia and bigotry, uber patriotism, nationalism and jingoism which is self-destructive and problematic.
ReplyDeleteI, too, stayed away from TV and blogs today, but I did find a marvelous thread from "Balloon Juice" that I'll link to below. Talks about death coming - but not in an overly maudlin way. Just beautiful.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.balloon-juice.com/2011/09/11/one-bright-morning-when-my-work-is-over-man-will-fly-away-home/
Amen.
ReplyDeleteI refuse to pick at my wounds.
We are still standing.
That is all there is to say.
I love your perspective Gryphen. Thanks.
ReplyDeleteWhat a great idea.
Why doesn't Oklahoma City get the coverage the 9/11 does?
ReplyDeleteOh yeah, wrong religion.
The people who died on 9/11 were poor innocents and that is tragic.
Much like those innocents in Afghanistan and those who fell in Shock & Awe.
Nobody condones the terror acts of 9/11.
But people Americans would do well to understand the feeling of having sacred territory (Mecca) occupied by foreign troops.
America always proclaims itself the best country in the world. That is ironic given America understands so little about much of the world.
That said, your photos are nice.
May you know no war in your life.
God bless, Mr. Griffin.
ReplyDeleteAt the time of reading this post, I was watching the coverage of 9/11 from that day, realizing with horror that what I'd thought were pieces of debris all these years......were actually innocents jumping to their death.
Your post made me ask myself, why am I doing this? I can't have any MORE sorrow and grief than I've had over the last decade.
I am going to go to my brother's house now. I am going to bounce my 5 month old niece on my lap and look into wide brown eyes that have never had to process an act of terrorism, eyes which have only widened in wonder and delight.
Thanks, G.
Thank you Gryph for stating so eloquently my thoughts today. Very glad to know I am not alone with this.
ReplyDeletesheesh
I'm right there with you. I can't watch those "memorial" moments, or look at the photo's, video's again. My brain has been seared with those images. They don't need refreshing.
ReplyDeleteThe best memorial we can give those whose lives were lost and those for whom their lives were forever changed, is to live our lives as Free American's the best we can. And to refuse to let fear, prejudice, religious intolerance or political hay making change who Americans are and what America stands for.
I think the media went a bit over the top or the 10th. But at the WTC site (no longer Ground Zero) only the families attended. For others scattered 50 miles in all directions from Manhattan, the churches were full. Parks with new names were full, signs for streets with new names had bunting and memorial sites. For those of us who lived through it and who grieved with neighbors and friends, it was time to weep away a bit more grief, and to marvel at the children who have grown.
ReplyDeleteIt has the same effect as when Alaska Airlines Flight 1866 hit Nun Mountain on descent into Juneau. For Alaska, 111 people was a lot to lose. It is the same way in the burbs and hamlets of New York.
The only release is in forgiving and giving.
What an awesome perspective and post. Thank you, Gryphen. I too felt a nagging sense today that our national mourning is just giving the bad guys a full twenty-four hours to gloat with satisfaction at our sorrow.
ReplyDeletehttp://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3zXZX2sXHYI&sns=fb
ReplyDeleteMy favorite salute.
Gryph, you did the right thing. They don't want us to forget. It ties in with your post about Sarah and the fear-mongering. Fear is control. There is not a goddamn thing we can do about the times we are living in. Our friend Joe McG linked to the Doonesbury comic for today and it expresses your feelings. We get this shit everyday via cable TV. Endless FEAR, new "chatter", TERROR plots. Everyday is 9-11, except it's our kids sent to foreign nations, and the "enemies" they are sent to fight. Innocent people die everyday. Who benefits? Why, "the terrorists", of course. Those who push the fear-driven agenda of WAR. Why is every TV station playing this crap? They want you to relive How You Felt on 9-11. Voting for Obama has not changed a damn thing. Patriot act renewed, check. Wars in Iraq and Afganistan continuing, check. Poppy fields back up to production, check. Gitmo and torture open-for-business, check. Raping and pillaging by Wall St. and the banks, check. CEO's still getting mega-million dollar bonuses, check. If Obama does his job, maybe he'll get to head up the UN, or get a job with the IMF. Nothing you can do about it people, nothing. Sarah's secret is safe. Now, go back to vilifying that fake puppet Osama bin Laden/CIA asset Tim Osman. Obama got Osama, Rah, Rah, USA. And now the Navy Seal Team that took him out is dead, too, I guess. More confusion. We're for sure though that Jack Ruby took out Lee Harvey Oswald, right? Yea, Gryph, live your life with as much love, beauty, and happiness that you can muster, because THAT is really all that we have.
ReplyDeleteYou said:
ReplyDelete"The day spent watching something happen which my mind refused to accept was even possible."
You were so close to the truth.
It didn't happen. And it wasn't possible. There were no planes in the air that day. They were ON the air, in clumsy video segments sadly accepted as real.
No planes in New York. No plane at the Pentagon. No plane in Shanksville.
It took me a year to realize the terrible lies masquerading as terror that day, and nine more years figuring out what only a few now know.
But it's too late for the truth. The images - and that's what they were, only images - of September 11 did what they were intended to do.
There is so much more under the surface, so many more lies that were told.
You'd be stunned at how we all were fooled that day, and how easy it is to discover how.
Google September Clues.
The forum there is full of shit on several of their premises, but one thing they have on the button.
The only planes on September 11 were on TV.
A nation that doesn't provide for the health care of its citizens is no place I want to live.
ReplyDeleteOn this day of all days, think of all the first responders who still don't have health care.
The GOP talks about repealing Obamacare.....ask them how these people would get health care along with the 50 million who still won't be covered.
I agree. Have been on media blackout all day for the same reasons as you and others. Was surprised that Doonesbury has the same opinion in its latest offering. Made the mistake of going to Facebook where the "it's all about me" people were recounting where they were when. Does everyone not understand that this date and the events of this date will never be forgotten by those of us who were alive and cognizant on 9/11/01? Do we really need to be reminded? Although I have turned off the media, I cannot turn off the memories. May they rest in peace.
ReplyDeleteToday is the 10th anniversary of finding out one of my sons was alive ~ because i had feared him dead. I well remember the tears of relief and joy.
ReplyDeleteHe was supposed to be at a job fair at the top of one of the WTC towers at 9 am, 9/11/2001. He was able to get through to my cell phone around 2 pm, that day, to tell me he had gotten drunk the night before and didn't make the job fair.
Normally, i would have been furious.
I'm so glad you found solace in the beautiful outdoors, Gryphen. From my little house we can see mountains and Puget Sound, which seem to be eternal, as much as anything on this still heartbreakingly beautiful planet can be. If only we Humans could live in peace together...
ReplyDeleteThank you, Gryphen, that was just what I longed to hear. I think if I want to feel sad it should be most of all about the turn to the dark side that Bush took us on and I kept thinking back then of the Whos in Whoville who did not go to the dark side. We were capable of being Whos but our feckless leader wouldn't have it. He wanted his war.
ReplyDeleteI also switched off and got out. It was a beautiful day, and I wasn't going to waste it watching 9/11 porn.
ReplyDeleteI spent the day holding my fiancee close -- he's a soldier and will be deploying to Afghanistan again next year. We've avoided any sort of media all day.
ReplyDeleteWe'll NEVER forget the lives lost that day. We couldn't -- that's what he fights for.
Thank you. My husband has been glued to the coverage, and I cannot watch it all over again. When I saw young children (who were either newborn or very young in 2001) crying over the marble names, I wondered what is to be gained for them by making this so public over and over again. Yes it was terrible. Yes it was needless. But I think it is time to let the survivors live on, and stop pretending that our military has not done the same thing in many countries to many innocents. This 'exceptional' country is succumbing to the fear instigated and fed by Bush after 9-11, and we are the worse for that, for him. Need an example? The biggest applause at the GOP debate was when Brit Hume announced that 234 people have been out to death by Governor Perry (and we know that one at least was innocent.) Applause? Are we that callous now? Are we that certain that a man like Rick Perry should hold sway over another man's very life?
ReplyDeleteAnd then there is the parade of Bush and Rumsfeld and Cheney, the 'innocents' who 'kept us safe' by torturing others. These innocent men cannot leave the US or they will be arrested for war crimes. I'm sorry, but I still have a soul and a conscience, and they were wrong. From Day One they were wrong. If we have not learned yet that all human life is precious (why does the GOP only use that term for zygots?) and that all countries were created by one Creator, we are little better than the murderers in the planes.
It may seem insensitive, but reading your post just now...it was the first time all day I realized it was 9/11. I've been enjoying the company of my daughter and 6 year old grandson today. I think I'd just as soon keep it that way. I don't want to see another television shot of that plane hitting the tower as long as I live!
ReplyDeleteIt's the Pisces in you Gryphen...too much bad emotion connected to 9/11. I know because I'm a Pisces too and will not watch any of this...too much pain.
ReplyDeleteFINALLY ....GOOD FOR YOU GRIFFIN...
ReplyDeleteEvery year we honor our veterans on remembrance day....have respectful ceremonies... remember ALL the wars....they have never played out news reel footage 24 hours a day for days on end just in case we forget, Vietnam, Korea, D-Day Pearl Harbour etc.
All this is, is a media feeding frenzy ...all normal programming canceled so they can torture everyone with the real time footage as events played out on that day.
The TV was on when I returned from shopping yesterday, and they were playing real time footage with folks on the street, but the news folks are the same ones as are on today...it was current news reporters voices I was hearing..they did NOT indicate it was 9/11 for part of it...and with all the recent "credible threat" crap that the media has played up...for a couple of minutes, until they put the 9/11 at the bottom of the screen, it looked like ANOTHER ATTACK...what a bunch of ASSHOLES!
Why on earth do they love so stir up such fear?
IT does nothing to make Muslim relations any better, it just makes hate for Muslims a "justifiable", "acceptable" feeling for so many looking for an excuse.
It festers hatred from foreign, and not so foreign fundamentalist Muslims, it gives them the same excuse to hate Americans.
It does not do America, or the rest of the world for that matter ...any good what-so-EVER!
In fact it has gone so far overboard as to be UNpatriotic.
It is impossible to honor anyone by wallowing in and reliving the horrors in which they died.
I wonder what the price was for the commercial spots during these days?
It is a media money maker pure and simple.
If every American war and "conflict" were played out like this on their anniversaries ....it would be a never ending broadcast of misery and dispare.
Oh and BTW........there are still 2 wars going on and good men and women giving their lives every day.
How about covering some of THAT for a change!!
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
To make my point... this is the 10th anniversary of Pearl Harbour;
In 1951, thousands of Americans were dying on the front lines of the Korean War, the U.S. was in the early years of a nuclear arms race with the Soviet Union and cities were holding air raid drills to prepare for atomic attacks.
Pausing to remember Pearl Harbor didn’t dominate the news, nor, according to anecdotal newspaper accounts, was it at the forefront for many Americans.
On Dec 7 of that year, the top headlines told of the latest news from Korea.
Many newspapers put the Pearl Harbor anniversary on their front pages, but they squeezed it in among the dozen or so stories commonly crammed on a page in those days. Many relegated it to the bottom of the front page.
The only mention of Japan, Rosenberg said, came in a story about American servicemen from the Korean War seeking respite at Japanese baths attended to by “‘plump Japanese girls in pale blue play skirts.’”
There were several ceremonies in Hawaii to remember the attack.
LIFE, a weekly magazine that was among the most prominent publications of the time, made no mention of the anniversary in either its Dec 3 or Dec 10 editions, said Emily Rosenberg, a history professor at University of California, Irvine.
http://www.japantoday.com/category/commentary/view/how-10th-anniversary-of-911-compares-to-10th-pearl-harbor-anniversary
thank you! beautiful photos. i SOOO agree with you. i cannot watch the anniversary shows. i try not to read the newspaper articles (hard to avoid). there was a huge remembrance event in downtown cleveland today. i didn't go.
ReplyDeleteI totally agree. It is especially difficult for us teachers when we are expected to do a special lesson every year. Unfortunately, the media focuses on the event instead of honoring the victims and the first responders. We should be looking at any good that has come from the tragedy instead of making it a national hate Muslims day. Thank you for sharing your pictures.
ReplyDeleteToday's my birthday. I already had issues with it before the attacks. I also kept the TV off, stayed away from most websites, and spent the day doing something I love to do.
ReplyDeleteI also lit a candle in memory of Christina Green. I've lost a child, too, but I can't imagine what they're going through this first birthday after the death of their precious baby. I hope they were able to find some peace today as well.
Everyone remembers in their own way and there's no right or wrong way to remember. If the victim's families find comfort in this tradition, I will gladly give up my regular routine one day a year.
ReplyDeleteAs a NY'er and mother of a 1st Responder, my emotions are so mixed on 9/11. I grieve for the friends that I lost that day, yet my heart swells with pride when I remember the actions of my son and his brother firefighters, digging through the rubble by hand, looking for any signs of life.
It was a tragic day that none of us will ever forget, but please don't deny those that find solace in the public remembrance, their own pathway to peace.
Namaste
There is a reason this is called Disaster Porn.
ReplyDeleteOff to the side on the blogroll a Daily Kos headline currently reads "Muslims Mourn with America"
ReplyDeleteI can't even bring myself to read the post because I am so done with people separating Muslims FROM Americans.
Before I was born my father's generation put every American with an Asian face on the west coast in makeshift camps because Japan attacked Pearl Harbor. It wasn't enough to be a citizen - we insisted everyone look the part!
With all the cultures that make up 'real America' one would think that mistake would have been lesson enough for us.
Happy healing Gryph -
Wow. Finally I'm able to say the unspeakable here, that I do not care to be part of this national wallowing. Enough already. What happened on September 11 was horrific enough, but what came after was even worse: the hysteria, the fearmongering, the xenophobia, the rise of Christian wackos, the persecution of Muslims that persists to this day, the torture, the warrantless wiretaps, a needless war, thousands upon thousands more innocent lives lost. I love this country, but I am not proud of how we conducted ourselves after this attack. And that is why I refuse to participate in this annual spectacle. Peace to those who were killed or injured, and to their loved ones.
ReplyDeleteI just had this same conversation with a few other people. I so agree with you G. Unfortunately many seem to think we need to mourn forever.
ReplyDeleteI do not see how this country can ever move forward if we keep locking ourselves in the past.
I'm glad you had a good day.
I agree. Other than checking this blog, I've stayed away from anything resembling news and worked on some art instead.
ReplyDeleteI was tempted to pull out the VHS tapes I made that day. When I woke up that morning and turned on CNN like I always did, I reflexively started feeding tapes into the VCR and taped the various news channels all day long.
But I've never watched them. Packed them away for posterity. I thought maybe the tenth anniversary would be a meaningful occasion to watch them, but I just couldn't bring myself to do it.
You're right, reopening that wound just lets the evil win again and again.
After you break your leg, you don't re-break it every year to make sure you never forget how awful it was. I don't think it's necessary to relive a national tragedy over and over to prove you're patriotic or that you care.
I think the best victory over terror we could have would be to let it fall by the wayside. Not be forgotten, but not be ghoulishly displayed either.
Every time that footage runs, the terrorists win.
And it's weird anyway because look at WWII. We always see the bomb and the ruin of Berlin, not endless footage of Pearl Harbor...
When did it become patriotic to accept victimhood?
Anon @ 4.38...How beautiful that you lighted the candle for little Christina. And happy birthday, ok? I know it's not the ideal date for one, but just reading your post...well, I hope you do something special for yourself, too.
ReplyDeleteABSOLUTELY the right thing to do....
ReplyDeletegreat post gryphen, love the pics. and I was thinking earlier... man I sure am glad gryphen doesn't have one of those "feel sorry for us it's the 911 anniversary" posts up. frankly I am tried of it, people need to move on and stop grieving every fucking year. yeah I'm sure that won't win me any friends but fuck it. it's 10 fucking years later, people need to move on.
ReplyDeleteWell said.
ReplyDeleteWhat a wonderful way to honor those lost. You are such a cool dude.
ReplyDelete3:01 I absolutely agree with you. As a NYC resident who was in town on 9-11 (didn't lose anyone personally but friends who did), I'm SICK of this over-dramatization of what happened.
ReplyDeleteWe were exploited like crazy, this was used for political and propaganda purposes and still is, in my opinion. At the risk of being politically incorrect I say this whole shebang memorial stuff is totally overblown.
And the fact that people who had some die got millions in compensation? What's that about? Unless Cheney really did orchestrate it as the conspiracy theorists suggest, then why do these people get such a huge payoff? Why don't people in car crashes, who die of cancer, who died in Oklahoma, etc.
there are PLENTY of current things we should be doing something about--like the hundreds of thousands of innocent puppies and kittens being murdered everyday in most animal shelters in america--not because there is no other option--it's because most Americans bury they head in the sand and don't try to demand that the shelters change this system. (For more on that look up the no-kill shelter guy Nathan Winograd)
I find it very odd that people who weren't even in NY have such a profound sadness/sense of loss--you can theorize all you want but I believe that EVERYONES emotions were manipulated adn this weird sense of grieving by the whole nation stems from the very successful propganda campaign that this was used for to wage fear and create some common anonymous enemy. Rember all those ORANGE alerts by the Bush admin? Getting everyone terrified to fly/travel/go to public places, because of some loony with a homemade bomb?
If it was some random 'terrorists' why aren't we up in arms about all the terrorist attacks everywhere? I think the whole thing is ridiculous and I don't turn on the TV, not because I cant bear it, but because it's ridiculous and there are better things for us to waste our time on rather than dwelling on this.
I really could care less about anyone's 'story' on that day. Everyone was doing something, of course, but why is any of it meaningful? It's not. Several thousand people died--awful, yes. But come on, what about the hundreds of thousands in all those earthquakes around the world, what about all those radiation poisoned in Japan, what about the Katrina victims? This is WAY BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION.
Be sure you're not being played by the Koch brother--they like to keep the population cowed so they can seduce you with their false promises of waging an imaginary 'war on terror'.
MORE people die from car crashes, robberies, diabetes and cancer than die from the 'war on terror'. IN fact, from a statistical standpoint barely anyone, a miniscule percent, die from the 'war on terror'. So we should stop making this bigger than it is.
Jesse, I'm with you. I didn't turn on the TV today, I avoided news sites on the internet. I spent my day with those I love, doing things I love, not because I forgot but because I remember. That day in September of 2001, my first instinct was to get my family home, I first went to the middle school to pick up my son then to the high school to pick up my daughter. As soon as I got them home, I went to give blood. Dang, 10 years later, I'm in tears just trying to type this. No, I did not lose someone near to me that day but I did lose someone dear to me...my old self. I'm not sure that I have words to explain how I feel and how I have changed because of That Day...
ReplyDeleteAnon @ 3:51, Please, Hologram theorists just muck up 9-11 truth. It makes it too easy for de-bunkers and deniers. The 9-11 truth movement was torn to shreads by people like you. Stop finger-fucking for the details. Buildings fell, people died, war continues. We don't know exactly how they did it. We do know that NORAD blamed the FAA. We do know about PROMIS software, the drills that were going on to confuse the air traffic controllers, Pres. Bush sitting in a classroom, an immobilized CIC, DOING NOTHING AFTER HE WAS TOLD THE SECOND PLANE HIT WTC. For the people just waking up to the truth of 9-11, Hologram Theory just confuses. So stop. Let them get the facts first.
ReplyDeleteI agree 100% Gryph. Living our lives normally is how we win. The terrorists want to disrupt our lives - don't let them. They want us to live in constant fear. Do we really want them to have that kind of power over us? I think not.
ReplyDeleteI will never forget that day. It was indeed horrifying. It makes me wonder about the people who live in places where that sort of thing happens on a regular basis. It must be terrible. One more reason that I feel very lucky to have been born here...
Not sure if anyone will read this post, but why do we feel so injured? Look at what we have done world-wide for hundreds of years...who is commemorating the losses of those innocents, putting up plaques to all those who died at the hands of the U.S? Oh yeah, when the U.S. kills there is a reason...don't you think the guys who killed on our soil felt they did as well?
ReplyDeleteGryph,
ReplyDeleteBest.Post.Ever.
Thank you.
Doesn't this over-dramatization of terrible events suggest the scenes form '1984' where they require attendance at the daily hour of hate?
ReplyDeleteWhat good will it do, other than to once again fire up the racism and hate that overtook America after that day?
I think the sane people are those who would not participate in this 'rite'.
I'm with all who spent the day in a way that's meaningful to them. This constant re-hashing and "keeping up with the joneses" in the media MUST STOP. They should have one or two channels devoted to 24/7 "everything you experienced on 9/11" channels, so the people who feel the need to watch it over and over and over again can get their "Fix", better yet, make it pay per view, and donate the money to the families, those suffering PTSD, those dieing because of their heroism the months after while digging through the rubble.
ReplyDeleteI lived in North Jersey at the time, and had family and friends who commuted daily to the WTC's. I was in New York at 9:a.m. and saw with my own two eyes the first plane hit the towers. They were, without a doubt, planes and it did, indeed happen, despite the bullshit conspiracies being perpetuated.
By some quirk of fate, my direct family was spared, and seeing these images being exploited over and over just brings back the guilt I feel that our friends never made it home, and the hell their families go through.
Today, I baked a cake from scratch (my therapy is cooking) and we sang "Happy Birthday" in honor of Christina Green after spending the day in a park having a family picnic.
Gryphen, you're not the only one! Nothing in the world grounds us, refeshes our sprit, and makes us feel more alive than communing with nature while looking inward.
My heart goes out to everyone, everywhere, who are hurting.
The dreariest night may lead to a heavenly dawn.
Thank You for sharing your experience.
Namaste
What beautiful pictures you shared. Next year I will substitute the news horrors for pictures of people in adversity who have done wonderful things for others. In memory of each person any where who has been killed in the name of war or terror. I felt that somehow this memorial day of news is necessary for some. Especially those who were to young to have witnessed, but those of us who have lived lives connected to the military know that sorrow and fear must be balanced with love and plans for the future.
ReplyDeleteMaryW
plus I can't help but wonder if the TV images produce some kind of hypnotic mind control. I CRY whenever I see the images....10 years ago, 5 years ago, today.
ReplyDeleteenough, already.
This is an excellent post. Americans seem unable to cope with horrible crime except through maudlin tear-jerking sentimental outbursts. That sentimentality is the flip side of the violently brutal nature of our country. The pointless drama to seek "closure", a thing that can never happen for people who truly care, trivializes the pain of truly broken hearts.
ReplyDeleteHow could anyone forget 9/11. It was immortalized by being used as an excuse to wage a war for oil by the corporations which exploit it.
I share your sentiment! I took my family out and we hiked to a remote hermitage.
ReplyDeleteThere are landmark dates when we honor people who died in the service of our country. We will stop on December 7 and remember people who were attacked at Pearl Harbor. On Memorial Day and Veterans Day, we honor those who served and died. We remember the day when Kennedy and King were assassinated. It's fitting.
ReplyDeleteThis is a time when our country is as divided as it as during the Civil war, and the issues are not that different. Slave owners didn't want the government telling them that their unpaid, forced labor was illegal and inhumane. The North was industrial and had a conscience. These sound like Tea Party issues, asking government to stop trying to regulate their business (except for sticking their nose into marriage and reproductive health, equality regardless of gender, sexual orientation, race or anything else). You know which political group cares about their fellow citizens and which group is selfish and looking out for their own self-interests.
There is nothing wrong with the nation trying to come together in healing. If they tug at your emotions to do it, we've been picking too many unnecessary fights lately. If you don't want to watch TV, read a book, write some comments on blogs, find something in your TiVo, listen to music, call a friend, go for a walk, or listen to the last of the crickets as summer fades away.
The other lesson of September 11 is how the Bush Administration seized the opportunity to go to Iraq, a country that did not attack us. They had that on their "to do" list from the minute his hand came off the Bible. September 11 was a great excuse. It has cost us three trillion dollars, thousands of lives, and the Iraqis have lost hundreds of thousands, while seeing their country destroyed. September 11 was the excuse to violate civil liberties. It remains the excuse to torture people. If we honor the innocent who died and the brave people who died trying to rescue others, then we also have to fix blame of Bush for failing to heed the warning in his presidential briefing. (He was on vacation.) We should blame his administration for the costly war in Iraq. While we are at it, National Guardsmen from Louisiana were fighting two wars abroad instead of being on hand to help their own people during Katrina. This date should make us remember many things, in the same way that we honor all of the other patriotic holidays.
Thanks for putting this out there, G. My husband & I had also pre-determined to keep the TV off this weekend.
ReplyDeleteThen our 5th grade son came home with a homework assignment to ask his parents about 9/11.
Sigh.
We had a good conversation. Not the first.
See, he's 10. He was born in 2001, and was 8 months old that morning. We were practicing his crawling when my husband called with the news. I lived in NYC for a couple of years, love The City deeply, and still have dear friends there. My reactions were much like everyone else's. And I'll never forget it.
There was a Leonard Pitts column in the following days (Miami Herald) that added 2001 to the other years of infamy -- 1941, 1963, etc. As a "Kennedy Death Baby" born a few days before JFK's assassination, I know it all too well, and I think it's an interesting coincidence that my son & I now share this, as well as eye color, lame motor skills and natural ability to spell. (Every b'day that's a multiple of 5 is blasted on the teevee news....)
Well, I woke up this morning and was instantly aware of the anniversary, even without a Big Media reminder. I said a prayer. Then I did my part to defy our attackers by living my life, parenting my child, loving my husband, reading a book, buying some stuff at a craft store for a project of my husband's, enjoying a lovely family dinner outside on a gorgeous September evening.
Peace.
Good for you! I can't stand the slobbering over 9/11. There are horrible tragedies every day happening to people all over the world. Our own country is responsible for many of them... how many innocent people going about their daily business have been suddenly taken out by U.S. drones, bombs, and monsters like Jeremy Morlock, uneashed upon them by our arrogant and criminal government invading their country.
ReplyDelete9/11 is NOT unique.
Thank you Gryph for this uplifting post.
ReplyDeleteThe first time I spent hours watching a horror was when I was 17 and JFK had been shot. I spent days in front of the TV watching, over and over, all the info about the horror and then the funeral.
I watched the horror of 9-11 for a few days.
I have decided that there are a few stories that I must immerse myself into and then let it go.
I will not watch each anniversary of 9-11. It is history and should be honored as such. It should not color our now and future forever.
We must let go and get on with our lives.
I chose to spend the day engaged in "life". My Sunday was a typical late summer day, puttering around the yard and house. I figured the best way I could honor all of those who passed on that fateful day was to spend it like a normal day. Those that passed that day would most likely have been doing similar things if nothing had happened. I didn't forget, I just chose to spend it doing activities that the terrorists tried to take away from us. Living our lives in spite of their insane acts. Normalcy.
ReplyDeleteAnonymous 5:14 "I really could care less about anyone's 'story' on that day. Everyone was doing something, of course, but why is any of it meaningful? It's not. Several thousand people died--awful, yes. But come on, what about the hundreds of thousands in all those earthquakes around the world, what about all those radiation poisoned in Japan, what about the Katrina victims? This is WAY BLOWN OUT OF PROPORTION."
ReplyDeleteYour entire post is a gem -- what a relief to hear someone say it so coherently! But where are all the other people in this country who think so, too? Why aren't we saying it out loud??
What I remember of the days immediately after 9/11 is having to warn my teenage daughter to be very careful about what she said in public, not to repeat our dinner table discussions about the hysterical, disproportionate, un-American response to the situation that passed for patriotism.
Can we finally speak up now without being set upon by angry mobs?
You know, they could of killed JFK without the full force spectrum dominance. 9-11, more of the same. It was designed and executed so you won't forget. Remember the slogun, 9-11, Never Forget. We won't,
ReplyDeleteever. The day the world changed, for some us, and the day some of us realized nothing ever changes. Remember the Lusitania?
In Iraq the good guys lost don't you think? A half million of them or more. Now that's something to remember with some sadness.
ReplyDeleteI am all for each of us doing whatever works on this day. I have just returned from a NYC event with scores of families who lost people. I don't think any of those I spoke with gave a hoot about the coverage but I can tell you that without exception, the trauma of the day ten years ago, including watching their loved ones die on television, has left very deep scars though they are doing their best to move forward. The "enough already" crowd pains me to be honest.
ReplyDeleteI didn't lose anyone in 9-11 but it impacted my life for years to come personally. I heard a great story this week on NPR about people who felt moved to join the armed services because our country had been attacked. My daughter was one of them, a bright, beautiful recent college graduate who felt the call to serve. She became an Arabic linguist which is really difficult to learn but she took to it naturally. While I was immensely proud of her, I just couldn't wrap my head around these wars. The day I dropped her off at the recruiting station and handed her over to the US. government was the most devastating day of my life. I ran away, to Glacier National Park where I took a job for the summer. I needed to get as far away as I could physically,mentally and emotionally to come to some clarity. It's been a long haul, got really involved in MFSO (Military Families Speaking Out), the anti-war movement much to the outrage and dismay of my family but my daughter always has known that I love her and supported her decision. Long story short, she is out now, met another Arabic linguist, married and has a beautiful daughter.
ReplyDeleteEvery year, on the anniversary of our occupation of Iraq, I help put up tombstones of all our soldiers who have lost their lives and we read their names. Every year, I hope that this will be the last time we do this, but alas, we are still involved in endless wars.
May we all know peace in our lives and love in our hearts.
I think it's absolutely fine for people to chose how to personally spend a day like this one. It's unprecedented; the 10th anniversary of a terrible attack on our country, a horrific trauma. Everyone processes grief and reflects about life in different ways. There is no right and wrong.
ReplyDeleteI also completely agree that there is much we still do not know about how that unthinkable tragedy happened at all...
I have watched much of the coverage this evening, however, and I must disagree that it has been fear-mongering or hate-mongering. I have seen stories on intelligence failures (and a good discussion about the questionable interrogation tactics instituted after 9/11), on heroism, on love, on loss, on the lingering physical and emotional effects of that day, on different projects underway for documenting and understanding the experience - particularly involving those who were there. These people deal with the wounds to this day. Those of us who were not there may not be able to fully understand the ongoing challenges which they face. This is politics aside, for I have much I could say about all of it and yet it doesn't feel the right time or place.
It's fine to make a personal choice that watching coverage like that is unnecessary or not the way you chose to honor this sad day, but I don't feel it is accurate to call it a media frenzy.
I hate corporate media as much as everyone else, but it seems to me they have made a decent effort to avoid politicizing it and instead to simply honor those lost and those left behind. It's easy for us to put it out of our minds if we weren't directly affected, it seems.
Well done, Gryphen!
ReplyDelete9-11 was NOT blown way out of proportion!
ReplyDeleteI wasn't going to watch it either, but our air is bad & I got sick from the bad air; so I couldn't hike or enjoy nature.
ReplyDeleteThe part I watched I thought very tasteful, and honored mostly those involved. There were stories I had not heard. The poetry and music was beautiful. Brian Williams did a nice job; of course I was watching MSNBC. I even liked the Psalm 46.
Finally, I decided we HAVE become complacent again; about human life and what's important in families in general. For Ron Paul to complain that the TSA are making sexual attacks is, welll....just over the top. They are constantly having to adapt their policies; they may change back the shoe thing. But we gripe about the airlines, when they've had a near perfect record for so long. I would say Americans in general are a little self-centered.
But like a funeral or memorial service of a family, you should deal with spirtual things they way you WANT to. Loss is loss; some less traumatic but difficult for ALL of us.
I hope I made sense, lol.
Great post, Gryphen! Good for you! Beautiful pics :)
ReplyDeleteI, too, decided to shun the media circus and spent the day with my wife and kids. Then, late in the afternoon, I went for a 30 mile bicycle ride. It was BEAUTIFUL. The sun was making the fields of corn and wheat look like green gold and I passed a whole convoy of beautiful vintage cars, probably heading to a memorial because they all had flags flying. I truly enjoyed experiencing our collective freedom. As an aside, I also did my 30 miles in just over 1:40, which is pretty good for this middle aged guy :)
The tragedy is 10 years past. I have very clear memories of the day - very specific and painful. I feel no need to graphically re-live it every Sept. 11 via the media.
Gryphen--I think the comments to this post are veering off the rails into negative energy territory to say the least!
ReplyDeletewhat do you think would happen if next year no one on tv mentioned 911? i think this country would go apoleptic. i think the survivors would feel betrayed and forgotten. its a tv. you can turn the channel. the lady hoarding puppets was on tonite and i found that way more disturbing than 911 stuff. i myself am obsessed with 911 and have been since it happened. and when i say obsessed i mean i read and watch almost everything thats ever on tv and everything i can find on the internet, even the crazy truther stuff (yes crazy because it isnt SCIENCE!!!!). i have seen all the pics of dead splattered bodies and body parts and i have a file on my computer of every image of the falling people. i probably have 20% of the names of victims memorized. i have been crying for days watching the shows that have been on. the personal stories, not the replay of the morning. that i have had enough of. but everything else i watch and read. and i am FULL OF HATRED!!!!! not for the brown people in afghanistan or saudi arabia or iraq or wherever. but for the republicans. it is crystal clear to me they were incompetent and possibly allowed 911 to happen, they used it to take us to war, they ran the war incompetently, they stole from the national treasury, the ruined valerie plames life (and many others they outed who dared question them or not follow their orders - and i have a personal story to tell about that), they conducted torture in our name, they bankrupted the country on purpose, they are doing everything to not support the sick first responders, first by threatening the filibuster against the 911 responders bill and now by wanting to offset FEMA aid for this years disasters with money pledged to help the responders. this week has really galvanized my complete hatred of the republicans in congress. im not happy with the dems including obama, but i HATE the republicans. and i am MOTIVATED to do everything i can to bring them down. so for some of us this has all been good. now tonite i did take time to have dinner with my parents, and then watched a kick ass sunset over the gulf of mexico. plus the moon is in my window right now so i am using family and nature to help me stay sane. but tomorrow morning its back to the trenches of raging against the republican death machine. JOIN ME!!!!!
ReplyDeleteThanks for this post Gryph. I felt the same way this morning and deliberately avoided the newspapers, TVs, and memorials. I tend to marinate in news, politics, and current events and the idea of reliving my memories of that day was just too much.
ReplyDeleteToday in Boston it was heartbreakingly beautiful, just like that Tuesday morning in Manhattan. I said a quick prayer for those lost, but spent more time praying for those I know who are currently hurting or troubled. I chose to spend the day being grateful for normalcy, grateful for the beautiful day uninterrupted by terror, and for the innocence of my two youngest children, who had yet to be born that day and don't have a care in the world.
My 11-year-old still doesn't get it, really. I decided not to spend this week explaining it to death or forcing him to watch any of the news coverage.
I did tell him however that we still have yet to fully understand how much America changed that day. In some ways I feel like this collective renewal of grief is a way of telling ourselves that what has happened in this country in the past 10 years isn't our fault. I don't happen to completely agree, so maybe that is why I did not feel like participating.
I can understand why it is so meaningful to the family and friends of victims, but beyond that ... it feels somewhat hollow.
Anonymous said...
ReplyDeleteI think it's absolutely fine for people to chose how to personally spend a day like this one. It's unprecedented; the 10th anniversary of a terrible attack on our country, a horrific trauma. Everyone processes grief and reflects about life in different ways. There is no right and wrong.
~~~~~~~~~
It is not "unprecedented"...Terrible attack, horrific trauma...that is what Pearl Harbour was too.
Time to suck it up and move on.
Time to stop the propaganda from the politicians and the media.
Consider Great Britain being bombed CONSTANTLY , day after day, night after night. from one end of their country to the other, having to send their children abroad to keep them safe.
Consider the horrors that all the European countries lived though being taken over ..not simply attacked and they all lost thousands of lives. Their monuments destroyed their national and personal treasure plundered..and then there was the holocaust.
Those were entire countries, not just one city.
And lastly consider the millions of Iraqis who lost their lives as America tore their country apart and slaughtered MILLIONS ...as it turns out...for no good reason AT ALL!.
Americans went along with it, were manipulated by the Bush administration using 9/11 to get him there.
Think for yourselves and study history..world history.
The millions of Iraqis killed is a far greater tragedy than "9/11".....especially for America.
Amen, brother, amen. I, too, dislike wallowing in the National grief. It's not that I hope to forget that day; it's just that I choose not to dwell on it. I watched a little of the ceremony this morning, but then went back to sleep and did other things today with the TV off.
ReplyDeleteMy Senator wrote a note saying that he was glad we had conquered the bad guys by going on the way we normally do, so I wrote him back, saying that we did NOT go on as normal. Instead, we gave up civil liberties, blood and treasure and allowed the terrorists to bankrupt us morally and economically. I asked him to please restore our rights, get us out of other peoples' countries and eschew torture for all time. Then, maybe, we can claim our moral high ground again.
Namaste.
~physicsmom
Flattop from Glen Alps.
ReplyDeleteYeah, I lay low on this day as well. I know 4 people who died that day. But, I lie low becasue i just can't bear to here the official story which is a fucking lie, told ad infinitum. Any mention of the 9/11 commission report makes me want to vomit. We have been lied to, massively. I'm not an "inside jobber" but after much much reading I KNOW what they tell us happened is not what happened.
ReplyDeleteI just don't buy into the lies. People lost their ives, I know 4 of them. It is a tragedy and eas orchestrated to serve a purpose. The plan hasn't quite worked, but taht just means their is more in store I guess.
anon 4:53
ReplyDeleteHold on to all your recordings. There are researchers who will be interested in them. Many images and stories have already been altered from the original airings. Don't record over them.
Exactly how I feel, Gryph. I will never forget, but I don't want to wallow. I want to live.
ReplyDeleteWow, as others have stated, I thought I was alone in not watching and reliving that event. I just couldn't do it. It does NOT mean that I am not a real American (maybe to the teabaggers & repubs though) or that my heart still does not break for the families that had loved ones die. I just couldn't do it.
ReplyDeleteI have no problem with the families & people who wanted to be part of this event. I just wished they hadn't shown the horror of it a million times over. I don't know.....
Glad you enjoyed the beauty that Alaska has to offer. The best thing we can do for the people who died is to LIVE our lives. I am sure that is what they would tell us.
Gryph, thank you for this lovely post.
ReplyDeleteI needed this after reading some truly horrendous comments at c4p about our President and how he is not properly celebrating "this sacred day".
Again, thanks.
A
Bravo, Gryphen!
ReplyDelete9-11 was/is such an intense experience that it simply has to be left to each and every one of us how to process the memories. For some the coverage works, for others--obviously--not. Turn it off then. Do what Gryphen did or something else. You pick it! But please, don't call the original day overblown. Civilians were tortured to death, whether they were on the planes or in the towers or in D.C. at the Pentagon. It does stand on its own as an incredibly evil thing.
ReplyDeleteGood for you Gryphen for making the day a positive one.
ReplyDeleteMature people grow beyond their sorrow and anger.
Unfortunately this nation wallows in and hallows both.