It's that day again.

[conuly]

9/11.

The day the Scots were defeated at the Battle of Dunbar in 1297.

What, you were thinking of another 9/11?

Sorry, I know, not solemn. But in another thousand years - hell, probably in another hundred years, nobody will care too much about today. Very few people care too much about December 7th, though of course they know what that day was. Nobody remembers exactly when the Boston Massacre was, and they certainly don't think about it yearly. I'm sure there's plenty of people who remember that OTHER 9/11, but I doubt they dwell on it. And people *do* dwell on it. Conversations just drift back there. While I feel generally bad about the dead, and I do think we'd all have been better off without it (for one thing, we mightn't be in Iraq, because we all know that was the excuse)... but I don't think it's healthy, the way people keep talking. "Never Forget" is a nice watchword, but how can you live your life if you really never forget, not for a second?

Comments

[missfahrenheit.livejournal.com]

I do realise I'm probably going to be inviting flames here, but I seem to recall an interesting point someone mad a few years ago- if 9/11 had occured in the Middle East, no-one in our sort of society would remember it five years on. But as it happened in America, the world will never be allowed to forget.
80,000 people died on 6th August 1945 because of the atomic bomb, and another 60,000 died from fallout sickness before the end of the year. And apart from people in Japan, who really remembers that every year?

[conuly]

I will now, thanks.

Who remembers the massacre of the Armenians?

[conuly]

Make that genocide, but I'm paraphrasing Hitler (eep!) and they didn't have that word yet.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I remember that it happened, because I went to a college in the largest Armenian community outside Armenia. But I don't think many people know about it. Is it our task as a human, though, to learn about all the atrocious things that have ever happened? I liked what you said in your post about those who say, "Never Forget." Because forgetting is healing. You retain the lesson you learned, but the pain of learning is lost. If we remembered everything, all the time... we'd have constant pain.

[conuly]

I didn't say we all should remember - I was just commenting on general forgetfulness of other people.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I was agreeing with you, just trying to awkwardly support your point. *grins*

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I would have to generally disagree. (I am not, however, flaming.) I don't think people in, say, Argentina, have much to say today on the anniversary of a terrorist attack in the US. People in China might get something in the newspaper about it, but they're probably not giving it much concern. Those living in Iraq may reflect on it, with rue or with relief, who can say. But I don't think we're not allowing the world to forget. Bush may try, in his speeches, but we have no say in what people of other nationalities may remember about it. Certainly when it happened, it garnered more press than many other horrible things--but has anyone heard developments lately on the school killings in Russia? Has it been the lead story on the news? For America, that one will lapse into our faulty collective memory fairly quickly.

Crises become a part of national identity. I'd say for certain that I remember at least once a year that my country dropped atomic bombs on another country, but I don't identify strongly with August 6th. Because I am an American, and so I identify with things that happened to my people, especially on my soil.

[catsluvdmb.livejournal.com]

Yet no one seems to remember what day the Oklahoma City bombing was, or the events at Waco, Texas or Columbine High School. No one remembers the tragedy that happened in the East River back on June 15th, 1906. Very few people could tell you off the top of their head what day the Battle of Gettysburg occurred or the dates surrounding "Bleeding Kansas."

conuly is correct, in 100 years, this crisis like many before it will be a few pages in a child's history book, soon to be forgotten after the test has been taken.

[ladytalon.livejournal.com]

I don't disagree, but that doesn't really relate to my comment. ;) For most other countries, 9/11 is already a footnote. It'll take longer for the U.S., and even though it's possible no one will remember it outside of history class, it's still left an imprint on the country--legislation has been changed, we went to war... Dates don't matter. Effects do.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

80,000 people died on 6th August 1945 because of the atomic bomb, and another 60,000 died from fallout sickness before the end of the year. And apart from people in Japan, who really remembers that every year?

I do, but then again, I'm an apocalypse junkie. Someone drops nukes, I remember.

[rainbow-goddess.livejournal.com]

There are memorial rituals every year where I live to remember Hiroshima and Nagasaki.