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rachg82Hey guys. Sorry for the sudden absence & I hope I didn't worry people by being gone so long. I plan to do a much larger entry to get everyone caught up soon-ish (just depending on when I can focus on it. I've got a killer stomach-ache at the moment & it's totally distracting me. ARGH), but in the meantime I wanted to at least post about the anniversary of 9/11 today. It's kind of insane to me that as of next year it'll have been ten years since it happened, and it's fascinating how everyone has their own memories and experiences of that day. All I can do is speak for myself of course, but through my eyes it changed everything. The decade was shaped by it. And I think it's important to stop & remember how that day affected each of us as a person, and all of us as a society. Culturally, psychologically, you name it.
I was 19 in 2001, and I think it would be difficult to convey to those of you who were only perhaps 11 or younger at the time how iconic the twin towers were for Americans who grew up seeing them standling tall in the New York skyline. Looking at NYC after 9/11 was like looking at a gaping wound, and I still feel that way to this day. It's like something is missing, but can never be recovered.
With tragedy like this, I think people tend to get caught up in politics, anger, rhetoric, and all sorts of other ways of distancing themselves from the immediate pain of what happened. As far as I'm concerned, I don't think for one second that the majority of us who were exposed to the events of that day have let go of what occurred, and that's why encouraging people to stop & talk about it today is so needed. Not to exploit, not to wallow, but to heal.
For me, when this anniversary comes around, I'm hit by memories: sitting on the couch, glued to the news, tears streaming down my face; people leaping out of flaming windows; crowds covered in ash running; strangers crying & hugging each other; desperate pictures of the missing held up for cameras; the dead priest being carried out by solemn firemen; the search dogs who had to be given fake searches with live people to look for because they became depressed after finding nothing but dead bodies for hours; office papers fluttering in the sky & melted messenger bikes. . .the list goes on.
After that day, nothing was the same. It was like an earthquake with aftershocks felt all the way across the country, across the world. But it's the details, the small memories, that are at the root of that. It wasn't just the tragedy, it was the reactions. The people who carried each other down flights of stairs to safety, the firemen, the policemen, those who kept running back in over & over to save more people. Everyone around the world who came together in mourning & solidarity. It's the memory of walking down my street in the days immediately after & not seeing a single house without a flag on the door. Not with the kind of asshole "I'm a REAL American!" xenophobic spirit we see amongst so many now, but with a "We're all in this together" sort of unity. People's hearts were in the right place. That day, in a nutshell, was like the worst & best of humanity all mashed together and caught on film.
It's so easy to forget now how real that day was, how many people are still walking around with missing loved ones, how the people on the four planes must've felt, how many last-minute goodbyes were made by cell phone when it was just supposed to be another workday, and how many people in this country didn't just face the events of that day via the news like I did but actually witnessed it firsthand. In the grand scheme of things, it's just another tragedy amongst many--there've been so many others in this world--but there's no competition here & that doesn't make it any less affecting. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think it's important to look back. Not just for the memory of those lost, but for the people who mourn them, for the society that was changed, and for the part of all of us that will never be the same.
For my Vid of the Day, I'm going to post two very different vids. First is a tribute to the memories of that day, and second is what I think of as a love song to the city of New York. Life, as they say, goes on. We ♥ you, Big Apple.
I was 19 in 2001, and I think it would be difficult to convey to those of you who were only perhaps 11 or younger at the time how iconic the twin towers were for Americans who grew up seeing them standling tall in the New York skyline. Looking at NYC after 9/11 was like looking at a gaping wound, and I still feel that way to this day. It's like something is missing, but can never be recovered.
With tragedy like this, I think people tend to get caught up in politics, anger, rhetoric, and all sorts of other ways of distancing themselves from the immediate pain of what happened. As far as I'm concerned, I don't think for one second that the majority of us who were exposed to the events of that day have let go of what occurred, and that's why encouraging people to stop & talk about it today is so needed. Not to exploit, not to wallow, but to heal.
For me, when this anniversary comes around, I'm hit by memories: sitting on the couch, glued to the news, tears streaming down my face; people leaping out of flaming windows; crowds covered in ash running; strangers crying & hugging each other; desperate pictures of the missing held up for cameras; the dead priest being carried out by solemn firemen; the search dogs who had to be given fake searches with live people to look for because they became depressed after finding nothing but dead bodies for hours; office papers fluttering in the sky & melted messenger bikes. . .the list goes on.
After that day, nothing was the same. It was like an earthquake with aftershocks felt all the way across the country, across the world. But it's the details, the small memories, that are at the root of that. It wasn't just the tragedy, it was the reactions. The people who carried each other down flights of stairs to safety, the firemen, the policemen, those who kept running back in over & over to save more people. Everyone around the world who came together in mourning & solidarity. It's the memory of walking down my street in the days immediately after & not seeing a single house without a flag on the door. Not with the kind of asshole "I'm a REAL American!" xenophobic spirit we see amongst so many now, but with a "We're all in this together" sort of unity. People's hearts were in the right place. That day, in a nutshell, was like the worst & best of humanity all mashed together and caught on film.
It's so easy to forget now how real that day was, how many people are still walking around with missing loved ones, how the people on the four planes must've felt, how many last-minute goodbyes were made by cell phone when it was just supposed to be another workday, and how many people in this country didn't just face the events of that day via the news like I did but actually witnessed it firsthand. In the grand scheme of things, it's just another tragedy amongst many--there've been so many others in this world--but there's no competition here & that doesn't make it any less affecting. I guess what I'm trying to say is that I think it's important to look back. Not just for the memory of those lost, but for the people who mourn them, for the society that was changed, and for the part of all of us that will never be the same.
For my Vid of the Day, I'm going to post two very different vids. First is a tribute to the memories of that day, and second is what I think of as a love song to the city of New York. Life, as they say, goes on. We ♥ you, Big Apple.
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Date: 2010-09-13 09:28 pm (UTC)I think everyone remembers where they were 9/11.