9/11 Over and Over

[Andrew]

None of this is meant to be insensitive to anyone's experience or feelings on the subject. In fact, it's a question of sensitivity that came up for me yesterday.

I recalled, after walking past some big event downtown during lunch yesterday with flags and loudspeakers and memorials, and then to find that most of the television programming was centered around the "fifth anniversary of the attacks," and a speech by the president, that there was some talk of moving forward five years ago. Don't let them change our ways of life. Get back to work, keep things moving. Don't succumb.

And when I got back I heard some folks murmuring that September 11 should be a federal holiday.

The first thought that occurred to me was that by reopening and reopening the wound, it isn't going to heal. I don't know how much Memorial Day has helped either. Or Veteran's Day. People need what they need, or think they need, and it's not for me to say. Just been thinkin' again.

[robertaxel]

One thing about holidays in general... it is a fact of life that their meaning is soon lost... I think the last day to be signed into law as a holiday was Martin Luther King's birthday in the 80s.. honestly, how many people spend the day thinking about Dr. King? Washington and Lincoln's birthdays are no longer celebrated separately, but combined into President's day which has become a big sales day for merchants.

I would rather that 9/11 be left as is than go that route..

Robert

[erik]

Apart from commemorating the memory of the 3,000 lives that were annihilated five years ago, I too think the meaning of 9/11 has gotten lost. I don't think it has gotten lost among We The People, but I do think that for certain big-name politicians, the deaths of all those innocent people are nothing more than a propaganda tool to make us bend to their will.

I for one try to put that aside by remembering those who died and those who are left to carry on through listening to great music, as opposed to political speeches--works like Samuel Barber's "Adagio For Strings", excerpts from Mozart's "Requiem", and the slow movement of Beethoven's Symphony No. 9.

We can't concern ourselves with what other people think or do about 9/11. We can only honor them in our own individual ways.

[ronstadtfanaz]

My take on 9-11 is that if the government (Bush) has nothing to hide then why are they hiding everything?

Until there is a full and truthful accounting of what happened and why this chapter will never be closed. (and it shouldn't be)

[mattmidd1]

I don't think that it should be holiday becuase it was a very upsetting time for people - I think it would cause more grief.
I can remember when I was there on 9/11. I saw the second plane crash - Every-one was just crying for ages afterwards.

[robertaxel]

Not to be insensitive (I was at Ground Zero that day) why make 9/11 a holiday and not Pearl Harbor.. a lot of innocent people died that day, and it since it triggered the entry of the US into the Second World War, it was arguably more significant..