I will never forget. And I will do my best to make sure no one else does either because, obviously, the media has decided to just blow this day off in favor of ratings and advertising dollars.
For starters, you can go here and read the personal accounts I collected one year ago, for a project alled No Ordinary Day. There are more here. They will break your heart, they will make you cry and most of all, they will make you remember. Which you damn well better do.
I'd like to continue with the project I started last year. If all the voices gather together, we will never forget. I'm going to change the name of the project from No Ordinary Day to Voices.
I will add to the voices as you wish; memories, memorials, a few sentences a lengthy essay. Unlike last year, it doesn't have to be about your memories of that day, though it could be. Just use your voice so we don't forget. If we speak loud enough, if there are enough of us, we can become a symphony of shouts and tears and whispered pain, so we can always be heard and never, ever forget.
You can add your comments here and I will transfer them to the project, or you can add them to the comments there, or you can email them to me.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Michele, very powerful and important. I think your tone and emphasis are about exactly right. "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over" and for all the reasons you mentioned, it isn't over.
2 - Al Barger
Very well written, Michele.
I might suggest another way of looking at the 9/11 anniversary, though. We shouldn't forget- indeed, I'd like to have a DVD with all the strongest graphic footage, particularly the people jumping from the towers. That's the most horrifying video I've ever seen, and it might be good to steel people's nerves, and keep these images in mind when they are hearing about our continuing war casualties.
However, it might also be seen as a sign of our strength that we're not continuing to dwell on it obsessively. The economy is rebounding, and people are mostly just going about business- which now unfortunately now has to include knocking down a couple of nasty dictatorships.
We are not that traumatized, that terrorized. They hit us with their best, and two years later it's not that big a deal to us. We continue to knock down terrorists and their supporters, but otherwise are largely unaffected.