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

[frogmajick.livejournal.com]

I hope you don't mind, but I see you comment in every community I read. Ok, not every single one, but a lot. We also have a lot in common and I think you are a charming and interesting person by what you post. I want to friend you so I can read your LJ, do you mind?

[conuly]

Wow. Everybody's friending me lately!

No, I don't mind. Never have. Though I do warn you, I tend to post a lot.

Question: Charming? Seriously?

[frogmajick.livejournal.com]

Absolutely seriously. Everytime I see your phoenix icon in mock the stupd, metaquotes, feminism, buffyphilosophy, baaaaabyanimals, and probably some others (including trollprincess's lj comments) I can't wait to read what you have to say.

I post a lot too. Sometimes 8 or 10 times a day, although it may decrease once classes start. Ooh, introduction fact! I'm a grad student in English. I've completed my credit requirements for an English Lit MA and am working on the courses for a Composition and Rhetoric MA so I will eventually graduate with a dual Master's.

Thank you, I'm sure you'll see me in your comments!

[conuly]

God, I only posted in that baaaaaby comm when that girl was carrying around all those baaaaaaby animals. *shudders* Poor baby wabbits.

But. I'm not bringing THAT up again. It's over.

[aya-avallon.livejournal.com]

hey, i really love your icon, you royal master of design!
may i ask you, your highness, what's the name of this layout? LJ lets you choose between different layouts of your journal, but there isn't a preview for each one, and i was wondering what's the name of this one. you understood me? No? can i become your Fool now? LOL

[conuly]

There is a bit of a preview for each one, actually. I hope this link works! Also, many styles seem to have communities about them, so that might be helpful.

My layout is a component style. It's not available for free users, though.

[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?

[aya-avallon.livejournal.com]

thanks!

[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 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.

[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.

[apocalypsos.livejournal.com]

Hell, in fifty years, people won't really give more than a passing thought about it, and only then on the anniversary. Look at Pearl Harbor.

[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.

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

I agree with you, I understand that people that were personally involved with the incident dwell on it still, for they are, understandably, still wounded from it, but I can not comprehend how some people in places far away for the US that are weeping for this now. In particular those that have no connection whatsoever with anyone who was gravely affected by this occurrence. That is just dwelling on the negative side of things. Life is all in all a rather nice state, and it is my firm belief that we should make the best of it we can, dwelling for ever on the negative and hard things will not bring about any salvation of the psyche, one needs to move on.

[queengodzilla.livejournal.com]

F@ck yeah!

Let's make this "Remember the Scots!" day from now on. Works a whole lot better than the sobfest we're groaning over.

Hope you don't mind

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

Post Scriptum:

I borrowed this from you, it is beautifully phrased:

"Never Forget" is a nice watchword, but how can you live your life if you really never forget, not for a second?

[thetwistedsista.livejournal.com]

9/11 has a new meaning for me too.
My account at Neopets got hacked.
But no-ones going to remember that.
Around that time, my TV broke down, and we had no cable. Bored out of my wits, I was.
It's also sad that we remember that, but other things don't get remembered.
Like what you said about the Scots.

[mhari.livejournal.com]

Poor Scots.

[neurotica0.livejournal.com]

As an Oklahoman, I would like to add that hardly anyone outside of Oklahoma remembered the Oklahoma City bombing the year after it happened. After another year, it was basically forgotten in almost every other state.

[tinchen.livejournal.com]

Well it's always horrible if people die, but remind everybody about that event is good for US-American politics. I wonder how many people will remember the events that took place in Breslan - where terrorism aimed at families, children, babies.
The Twintowers are mentioned today, in the news and Tv, but I guess it's nothing like how it's remembered in the US. Here in Germany they use the date to describe what happened afterwards and what will come out of it.

[wodhaund.livejournal.com]

Oddly enough, this reminds me of the time I drove by a row of cars and saw one with a bumper sticker that said "9/11 We will never forget!"

Took me a good half-mile before I realised what it was that I was supposed to be remembering.

Horrible awful thing that happened? Sure. Horrible awful thing that happened that we deserve to be victims of and remember forever and ever because oh, woe, nobody has it as bad as us???

Sorry. No.

(Crap. This whole comment is incoherent. That's it. Don't ever let me reply to ANYTHING before noon.)

[conuly]

I *did* look at pearl harbor! I just decided to move up another 50 years.

[conuly]

Well, it does make a nice point.

[conuly]

After Oklahoma City, nobody remembered the first WTC bombing. Nobody remembers it now, in fact. *I* remember it, but only because my mom was going to meet my dad there and didn't.