Five years

[pecunium]

This week has annoyed me.

Yes, a terrible thing happened five years ago, but you know what... I don't need to be reminded of it. At some level I'm never going to forget it. The people suffering from grief irreducible don't need t be told the rest of us feel their pain, by now they know, or they don't.

I'm not trying to disparage those who are still grieving. I have friends in NYC, and the service, who lost something of themselves when the WTC came down, and a chunk of the Pentagon was blown in, and up. But we, as a nation, as a people, don't need to wallow in it. We are, sadly, living with the aftermath, daily, still. We have bent our public policy because of it.

Worse, we have taken a nation which had nothing to fear, but fear itself, and become a mewling bunch of babies, begging for anything which will keep away the Northmen, the beasties under the bed and things which go bump in the night. There are days I'm scared. Times I ponder just how much of a target my city is, times when plots to blow up buildings I inhabit come to light (there was a group of people who wanted to blow up armories with recruiting stations. If they'd not been fool enough to fund it with bank robberies, they might have pulled it off. My armory was on that list), when I get on airplanes.

And I ignore those fears. I go on with my life, because the odds of a terrorist (be they Islamic, fundie-Christian, right-wing separatists, ALf, ELF, or leprecauns who've had enough of being mocked by Lucky Charms commericials) is practically nil. I am far more likely to be killed by an asshole with road rage at my honking when he fails to see me and damned near knocks my car into a pylon than I am to be victim of terrorists.

On That Tuesday, Maia and I went to the LA County Fair (at which we were working) even though it wasn't a day we were supposed to. We figured the place was likely to be empty; and the cows would need milking. It was, they did and the people who were supposed to show up didn't (to be fair, they lived further away).

The cows don't care what the people do.

Well it's time we, as a nation, remembered that the cows need milking, and our tragedies are transient.

Remember, sure, but there's a difference between recalling that it was a horrible thing, and wallowing in it; again.

I'll stop now, before I start to repeat myself.

Comments

[pecunium.livejournal.com]

I don't think I have any way to do that; apart from my pointing out that I've been hearing about it, in detail, for the past week.

Honestly, if I try to define it, I think I move to a more likely offense, because at that point the thing I do is beome the arbiter of what is reasonable for others to do/feel.

What offends me is the vast coverage of it, much of it telling me how I am supposed to feel. Stories which are aimed at playing on my emotions, which seem to be meant to make me feel as I did on that morning.

That's not introspective (not even, "public introspection," if such a thing exists), that's wallowing.

TK

[annathepiper]

What offends me is the vast coverage of it, much of it telling me how I am supposed to feel. Stories which are aimed at playing on my emotions, which seem to be meant to make me feel as I did on that morning.

Preach it, brother. I mean, I appreciate the propriety of marking the date; I did so on my own journal. However, there's a bound of "within reason" here. I boggled when I saw that cnn.com is rerunning all the coverage they broadcast on the day. I was all, "For fuck's sake, WHY DO WE WANT TO WATCH THAT AGAIN?!"

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

What offends me is the vast coverage of it, much of it telling me how I am supposed to feel.

That I understand. I also don't much like people playing on the emotions of others.

There are also a lot of folks out there for whom today is imporatnt to commemorate, and to talk about, even in public. I just think it's important to distinguish the two by being careful of the feelings those who fall into the later group. I know you're a considerate person, I jsut worry about so amny of my friends for whom having a public voice on today is important.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

Basically, as far as I am concerned, people who were more or less involved (broadly construed to mean all New Yorkers, people in the D.C. area, and certainly all those who lost a loved one or friend) have a right to talk about their personal experiences. The rest of us should simply listen. Hell, if GW were to talk about his emotions on that day honestly, rather than trying to spin it into something for political gain, I'd be willing to listen.

[sinboy.livejournal.com]

I'm fairly uncomfortable with telling people they don't have a "right" to talk about whatever they want. I'm not obliged to listen with respect, but people have the "right" to talk about whatever they want. That includes someone who wasn't in NYC, didn't loose any friends, and just wants to talk about how they felt. I'd listen to them too if what they said was honest. But that's my choice. There's a differnce between a right to talk and a right to an audience.

[patgreene.livejournal.com]

I phrased myself badly. Everyone has a right to talk; however, the farther removed one is from the situation, the closer it comes to wallowing. A certain amount of "Where were you when..." is inevitable.

I still feel like I am not saying what I really want to say, here... but your "no one has the right to an audience" is part of it.