sigma7: Sims (dammit)
sigma7 ([personal profile] sigma7) wrote2011-09-08 11:16 am
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That time of year again

So 9/11 is three days away. Meh. People seem oblivious to the main advantage of living in a linear timeline -- that events happen, and then they stop happening, and you're free to move on with your goddamn life. Or you could pick at the scab and thoughtfully stroke your scars as if they were the only part of you that matter.

I'm getting increasingly cranky about the compulsion to note and somehow observe anniversaries of pivotal events as if we were honestly capable of forgetting them. Florida Rep. Allen West seems to think it's possible, but West is a tiny-minded anti-Muslim fetishist with a questionable relationship to sanity and an impressive disregard for constitutionality for someone sworn to uphold it. Every single member and institution of the media seems to think it's possible for 9/11 awareness to somehow slide off the public consciousness, and each seems legally obligated to weigh in as yet another anniversary closes. We don't need supposed sports columnist Rick Reilly weighing in with his educated assessment of the bravery of the passengers on United Flight 93 -- Rick, we know, there was a goddamn movie made which we've all had the opportunity to rent if we wanted to, now get back to recycling columns or sucking things out of my carpet. We know. If you can successfully recite two numbers and instinctively know that it refers to a specific event ten years ago (and it's acceptable AP style on any reference), it does not need constant reintroduction to the general public for fear of it evaporating into the ether.

I'm not saying it shouldn't be observed; obviously, if you want to mark the occasion for whatever reason (and I'm certainly not saying those who suffered personal loss on the date should soldier on obliviously), feel free. But we as a people have been doing this for ten straight years, and nobody should be slighted for wanting to finally turn the page.

If you really want to relive or revisit it, watch it as it happens from TV stations from across the world. I throw this out there because it's a fantastic resource and nicely presented and executed (though I wish the clips were longer than 30 seconds apiece), and because one of my personal interests has always been the media's reaction to earth-shattering events -- and I think it can be argued that 9:03 am is the most earth-shattering event ever caught on live TV, certainly by multiple networks (the only other two that come close in my mind are Jack Ruby and losing Challenger, and those were only shown by one network -- though the latter was being watch by thousands of impressionable and soon-to-be scarred schoolchildren). So yeah, I'm deeply intrigued by Diane Sawyer gasping for breath and the panicked shouting of the on-the-scene interviewees and the anchors getting things wrong, wrong, wrong as they unfold. But that's my personal peccadillo, and I've already revisited it at my leisure and to my satisfaction. (If the anchors are too restrained and collected for you, perhaps this reaction is more of what you're looking for; 102 Minutes That Changed America is the definitive found-footage documentary of the NYC end of 9/11 which unfolds in astonishingly swift real-time and is as riveting and horrifying as it could be.)

[identity profile] brightrosefox.livejournal.com 2011-09-08 05:17 pm (UTC)(link)
Thank you.

[identity profile] vulpisfoxfire.livejournal.com 2011-09-08 05:37 pm (UTC)(link)
Ahhhhmen to that. And considering a rather trite catchphrase of the time...I'd say that focusing our attention to a single event to the point of complete obsession for an entire *decade*, along with the subsequent (and increasing) destruction of US air travel (due to the efforts of the TSA and related agencies) was a definite win for the terrorists above and beyond the *actual* destruction and loss of life caused. You want to 'beat the terrorists'--then get on with your life, proving that you're still here, and they aren't.

[identity profile] sigma7.livejournal.com 2011-09-08 06:25 pm (UTC)(link)
For me, the ultimate terrorist victory can be measured in how much a criminal enterprise can effect political change through violence, and in that sense, I don't think you could argue that they didn't win. Maybe it wasn't exactly the change they were aiming for (or maybe polarizing Islamic states against the west was their specific aim), in which case you could argue they didn't succeed, but I can't help that in a rush to do something, anything, we as a society overreacted and still lurch toward compromise of our ideals as a reflex against further reprisals. I know there's an impulse among some to paint criticism of American policy as being anti-patriotic or even treasonous, but I don't see that there's anything anti-American about insisting that we can do better.

What I was fervently wishing for was an implementation and adherence to this philosophy: It's a lie. Any fool can blow something up. Any fool can destroy. But to see these guys, these firefighters, these policemen and people from all over the country, literally, with buckets rebuilding. That's extraordinary. That's why we've already won. It's light. It's democracy. We've already won. They can't shut that down. They live in chaos and chaos…it can't sustain itself. It never could. It's too easy and it's too unsatisfying. I think, in the long run, we'll make it to that point -- we're closer than we were five years ago -- but it's too early to say we're there yet.

[identity profile] vulpisfoxfire.livejournal.com 2011-09-08 07:03 pm (UTC)(link)
Yup...they keep focusing on what blew up, when they should be focusing on what happened *after*.

[identity profile] jenny0.livejournal.com 2011-09-08 06:12 pm (UTC)(link)
God, I remember our class gathering around the little TV from the AV center to watch the Challenger takeoff D:

[identity profile] jenny0.livejournal.com 2011-09-08 06:26 pm (UTC)(link)
Oh wow. That "102 Minutes" documentary. I started crying when they played the 911 call and the operator told the people in the building to stay where they were.

[identity profile] sigma7.livejournal.com 2011-09-08 06:40 pm (UTC)(link)
I can't confirm anything, but I may have been chanting "get out get out get out" aloud at that point.

[identity profile] jenny0.livejournal.com 2011-09-09 12:38 pm (UTC)(link)
The first 911 call set me off, but the third or fourth - where the operator was literally shouting at the caller to shut up and stay in their office - really got me going. I bet he feels like the world's biggest asshole now though, so....karma, a little?

[identity profile] sigma7.livejournal.com 2011-09-09 12:54 pm (UTC)(link)
The yelling at the caller and then hanging up on them unhinged me a bit, just like the girl in the apartment desperately rationalizing the jumpers into furniture. About the same way I was trying to rationalize the dispatcher's response -- the collapse of the towers was unprecedented and unpredictable, they probably wouldn't have made it out regardless -- and then I realize that however bad my sleeping patterns have been, I'm sure the dispatcher has had nightmares I can only vaguely imagine.

This is the luxury I have -- it's not an integral part of my life; I can turn it on or off at will. My heart goes out to those who can't.

[identity profile] tuff-ghost.livejournal.com 2011-09-08 07:53 pm (UTC)(link)
I haven't watched that TV news archive thing yet, but I will as soon as I get the chance. I'm really interested in the media's reactions too, thanks for the link.

[identity profile] teal-cuttlefish.livejournal.com 2011-09-09 09:24 pm (UTC)(link)
I am doing my best not to pay attention to the communal licking of the wounds. I never worked again after that, thanks to a MS degree and being old and overeducated. No one ever even called on my resume after that. So I have my own pain and bitterness over the time, though it's a private pain rather than a national one. So I prefer to work on the present, where I have a chance at making something go better for me than the past has, even if it's a minimal chance.