Today, at 8:45 a.m., the school PA system blared into life:

[1monster]

"Would everyone please rise and observe a moment of silence for the fallen of 9/11."

After about 45 seconds, "Thank you. Please resume your classes."

All the kids in the classroom were eleven and twelve years old... At most they were about one year old at the time of the 9/11 attacks. They have no actual memories of the events or the emotions. For them, the existance of the Twin Towers is ancient history.

And I ask myself why are we still dong this? After eleven years, why are we still trying to keep alive the chaotic emotions of that day? Why force it on our kids who were too young to notice or who weren't even born yet? Were they asking school kids to rise and remember Pearl Harbor on December 7, 1946? 1951? I know they weren't in 1962.

At what point do we ease our grip on the tragedy and let go of the past? How can we more forward and onward if our feet are always draggng in the past?

[arcane1]

1. I wonder the same thing about all the rebroadcasts the networks do

How much longer do we have to re-live that horror? I'm pretty sure we'll "never forget" without all that.

[TwilightGardener]

2. I remember Pearl Harbor always being noted on Dec. 7, but no, we didn't

have any sort of school recognition, prayers or moments of silence--it was long since history by the 70's and my parents drove a Honda.

[csziggy]

30. Yeah, but every August we're supposed to have a national guilt trip over

Hiroshima and Nagasaki .

[upaloopa]

3. 9/11 is stuck in our political hate fests.

Until we stop blaming it will go on IMHO.

[get the red out]

4. I keep hoping we will

It seems so ingrained now in the collective psyche. Why can't we allow ourselves to heal from this tragedy? There isn't any moment of silence for all those who had to die in Iraq because Bush wanted a war there and used 9/11 as an excuse.

[ananda]

5. They did that for my class of sixteen year olds too.

They were pretty nice and respectful about it though.

[Surya Gayatri]

6. My thoughts exactly. The maudlin spectacle

of public mourning on the Tee Vee today is embarrassing.

Just when, in what future year, will such public displays be discontinued, or will there be a yearly festival of grief for decades to come?

Will "nahn wan wan" become a national holiday?

[nadinbrzezinski]

16. You surely do miss the Annual Pearl Harbor Day

Seventy years have passed and it is still memorialized. It is not a maudlin spectacle. It's what nations do.

Now if you want to ignore this with Pearl Harbor day, nobody is stopping you.

What will change, it already is changing, is the intensity.

[jillan]

7. Well - it is a national holiday. Patriots day, so I can understand that.

[barbtries]

8. i wasn't born yet in 1941,

so i can't speak to the pearl harbor comparison. my daughter was killed in 2001, less than two months before 911, and to this day i will not work on July 19, the anniversary of her death.
i think it is appropriate to spend 45 seconds of this day remembering the victims. their loved ones should know they are not forgotten.

[forthemiddle]

10. bravo

I am so sorry about the death of your daughter, but like you I will never forget.
9/11 was my generations Pearl Harbor. For many it changed their lives forever.
If others choose not to recognize it, that is their prerogative, but it is only 11 years (not 70 like Pearl Harbor).
For gosh sakes, I read more sympathy on John Lennon's death anniversary, than I do here about 9/11.
Just because we remember 9/11 with reverence, does not mean we condone all our Country has done, in its name, since then.

[barbtries]

12. thank you.

[nadinbrzezinski]

14. My condolensces on your daughter's death

And Americans are quick to forget.

[barbtries]

17. thank you

nadinbrzezinski

[Ezlivin]

9. The psych-op continues

First, the perfect date, one that would always remain memorable since we use 911 for emergencies.

Second, the best television-worthy attack imaginable with all the major networks tuned in for the spectacle*.

Third, never let anyone ever forget it, not in deference to those who died, but to keep the fear ratcheted up.



*How many times did you hear "It looked like something from the movies"?

[tjdee]

11. Was just wondering how long Pearl Harbor was memorialized like this.

I think 9/11 was more devastating than the events at Pearl Harbor, that is my personal opinion, but I don't remember Pearl Harbor getting anything more than a passing 'oh hey, this is what happened today' on the news these days. I wonder how long that took.


Not that I think we should forget these things, honest question.

[nadinbrzezinski]

15. Well, given that we still memorialize Pearl Harbor Day

And the Arizona has a monument over it. It was the reason the US entered WW II, and Americans knew we were at War.

[tjdee]

20. I think I'm being unclear about what I mean, nvm. nt

[nadinbrzezinski]

23. Took at least fifty years

It will take the same. And it s already less than oh the fifth year anniversary.

[nadinbrzezinski]

13. It's been a couple generations since the Holocaust

Annual observances are still done.

Actually a problem with American culture is our penchant for hiding and forgetting history in an effort "to move forwards."

Those who forget history and all that.

A minute of silence is not a problem.

But don't worry, it will fade...it's the American thing to do.

[1monster]

25. I do not in any form suggest we forget history or fail to study history. I do believe we always

seem to take the wrong lesson from it. As, indeed, we seem to have done with the events of September 11.

We were unprepared and, apparently, deliberately unprepared.

[nadinbrzezinski]

27. Part of that learning is remembrance

I will suggest that 911 accelerated the dysfunction of our government, at all levels, a whole different discussion. But a momemt of silence is not uncalled for.

[JoePhilly]

18. Your kids need to know about it because its effects still remain.

If we pretend it did not happen, or minimize the after effects, the GOP will have us invading Iran because they have WMDs within the next 10 years or so ... just in time for you kids to go and FIGHT that GOP war.

Remembering 9/11 is painful, but ignoring its impact on this country going forward would lead to even greater disaster.

[cbdo2007]

19. I hope they never "ease our grip on the tragedy and let go of the past". This was a defining moment

for the USA.

The only way to learn from our past is to remember it and remind our kids about it and the importance of what happened.

[Egalitarian Thug]

37. Lacking any honest context, what's the point? Without discussing what we did, and continue to do,

to instigate this attack there is nothing to base a discussion on that I can see.

[markpkessinger]

41. And do you think it defined us in a good way? ...

... I certainly do not.

[Brickbat]

21. An honest discussion about it and its fallout would be a better way to "remember" than a moment of

silence before attendance, IMO.

[barbtries]

22. hopefully

teachers and parents all over the country are engaging their children in a discussion about what happened 11 years ago today.

[1monster]

24. Yes! Exactly. But we rarely ever give honesty about our history to our school

children. Especially about our history.

I have no problem with teaching the kids about 9/11, its causes, its heros, the failures of our government that made it possible, or about the reactionary way this country has acted since 9/11.

I have no problem with showing respect toward those lives were ended, destroyed, and unbearably altered by the events on September 11.

But I don't think that is what is happening...

[Egalitarian Thug]

33. Yes, but what are you going to say? That 60 years of U.S. foreign policy has generated a white-hot

hatred for our country among hundreds of millions of people around the world? That "our government" created and follows a policy of destabilization and genocide so that our corporate parasites are free to loot other sovereign nations of their wealth and resources? That our mighty military is nothing but a collection of thug enforcers for corporate goals, and that our servicemen and servicewomen are there to carry out crimes against humanity and to be sacrificed on the alter of corporate profits?

[Brickbat]

35. There's a place to start, right there.

[Egalitarian Thug]

36. Well we agree, but I'm pretty sure that Mr. & Mrs. Dumbass would object. n/t

[WooWooWoo]

26. its hard to say its ancient history

when the tower that's replacing the one's that got knocked down isn't even done being built yet.

[markpkessinger]

40. The absurdly long time it has taken to build the new tower ...

... is a testament to governmental turf wars, human egos and trying to balance too many competing interests. There is no particular reason it should have taken so long. So yes, after 11 years, I think it IS fair to call it ancient history.

[Odin2005]

28. As I mentioned elsewhere, it is our society's 2-Minute Hate.

Scaring people into supporting the destruction of our rights.

[Cleita]

29. Well, I remember having to do Pearl Harbor remembrances about then.

My classmates and I were babies at the time and had no recollection of it. However, our elders did remember and some of them were there. But I never resented it. We learned about it and I think those children will appreciate learning about it from the older people who do remember. It is part of our history now and the younger generation needs to know so it never happens again. Jews keep memories of the holocaust alive, which is very painful for them, but for the same reason, so that it never happens again.

[Egalitarian Thug]

31. Never. How do you propose to keep the sheeple in line if you don't constantly

fan the flames of nationalism and hate? The bogey-man is absolutely essential to keeping the flock in fear so they will bleat their approval for anything you present to them with the assurance that it is to keep them safe.

[dflprincess]

32. And you'll notice the thousands who have been injured or killed as a result of 2 needless wars

the 9/11 attack was used to start are never mentioned - nor are we reminded of the pain their families have suffered. It must be very difficult for all the families to have their noses rubbed in this for days surrounding the anniversay. I heard one report today that said fewer of them showed up in Manhattan for the ceremonies today. As hard as it is, they may be ready to move on and it's time the rest of us did too.

The government and the media are going overboard and they do it to keep the fear and hate alive. My mother remarked a couple years ago that she did not recall anyone going on about the "old" Pearl Harbor every December 7 outside of mentioning it in passing. Permanent memorials are one thing but the time for wallowing in it and flying flags at half staff every anniversay has passed.

[markpkessinger]

34. Thank you for raising this...

... I am a New Yorker, and was living here on Sept. 11, 2001. In some ways, I suppose I was less affected by that day than were many other folks. At the time, I was already in the throes of profound grief, having lost both of my parents just nine months prior, both to lung cancer, just 12 days apart. So I was pretty emotionally numb when 9-11 occurred. To me, at that time and given what I was already going through, it was just one more thing the universe threw at me to deal with.

Grief, as I can well attest, can take a much longer time to get through -- and it is something you get through not over -- than many people realize. It was a good three years after my parents passed that I began to feel at all like myself again. My mother died on December 13, 2000, and Dad 12 days later, on Christmas Day. Some of my happiest memories of them are from Christmas seasons past. Now, I suppose I could turn every Christmas season into a time of dwelling on the fact that they are no longer here, or thinking about their difficult, awful final days during the 2000 Christmas season. But my parents LOVED Christmas. They truly did everything within their ability to make the season special for their kids and grandchildren. I know that the very LAST thing they would want is for me and my four siblings to turn the season into some maudlin ritual of grief and remembrance. Of course, there is always a bittersweet aspect to the holiday for us now, but then again, there is a bittersweet aspect to nearly all happy, family events. We will always remember them, and we miss them every single day. That will not change. But the time for funerals and memorials comes to an end. As my Dad often said, "Life goes on." When I was younger, I used to think that comment was a bit on the callous side. But it really isn't. Indeed, life must go on.

So I agree with you. I don't find this national obsession with commemorating that awful day to be in any way healthy. As a nation, certainly, we are not in any danger of forgetting what happened. But as you so correctly point out, the past must be permitted to become the past.

[Pab Sungenis]

38. Grief porn.

Either that or we still need the two minute hate even though Emmanuel bin-Goldstein is dead.

[markpkessinger]

39. Very apt term for it! n/t

[Scuba]

42. Scare 'em early and keep 'em scared. It's the neo-con way.