Let it rest

Did we need all that 10th anniversary coverage of 9/11?   Every time the radio interviewed yet another fireman or American Muslim, I switched it off.  So my radio has been ultra-switched off in the last few days.   It was of course reasonable for the bereaved to have some sort of ceremony but the rest of us were forced to take part, willing or not. 

I don't want to take this particular tone:-

Neglected here is that it was a stroke of evil genius for Channel 5 to run Celebrity Big Brother against assorted 9/11 tenth anniversary tellyfilla. Crap celebrity event telly wins against pseudo-concerned wanky-woo.

No, I can't be as cynically callous as that.  But still. . .

I can get tearful on Remembrance Sunday when I listen to the ceremony at the Cenotaph, and Neville Chamberlain's constipated tones repeating that "I hev to tell you now that no such undertaking hez been received and consequently this country is at war with Germany" always make me solemn.  But 9/11?  Serious of course, an outrage for New York, a dreadful blow for those who lost family members.  But why should I mourn this more than any other large death count from an attack on a country that isn't mine?  

I found  however that there are Americans who did not want to join in an enforced collective grief.

Here's Slate's Agony Aunt Dear Prudence:-

Q. Husband Doesn't Feel Sad About 9/11: I have been married for 2-plus years to a man who is wonderful in many ways. However, with all the 9/11 hoopla lately, it's been on my mind a lot and I asked him yesterday if he was thinking about it. He told me that he doesn't allow himself to feel bad about what happened because that doesn't help anything and it would be disrespectful to those who lost their lives that day and in the war since. I don't get his logic and am left wondering if this is normal, or should I be concerned? It bothers me that he doesn't feel what most everyone else feels when they think/talk about 9/11.

A: It sounds as if your husband does feel profound sadness about all the lives lost. But his decision to push the thoughts out of his mind—a luxury that family members don't have, of course—is a perfectly normal one that I'm sure many people made. You asked your husband a question about his emotional life, and he answered you honestly and openly. His answer is reasonable and he's entitled to his own reaction and is not required to feel what you think "everyone else" does.

The assumed feelings of "everyone else" enables the media to fill up their spaces with reminiscences and repeat broadcasts.  Dissenters are regarded as hard-hearted or unpatriotic.  

Q. Overkill: I was a member of the military who lost colleagues and friends on Sept. 11. This anniversary seemed to me like media hype, picking a scab rather than allowing it to heal. Did I mourn? Yes. But can we put this in context, finally, and move ahead? Surely there is more to our nation than the events of this one day.

A: Thanks for this perspective. To the letter writer worried about her husband, I'm hearing from many people who had reactions just like his.

I'm glad that Americans - sane, nice ones - feel like this as well.  

Update

According to this smarty-pants I haven't missed much by my minimal involvement with the 9/11 commemorations. 

I tried insofar as possible to avoid all the 9/11 X ballyhoo, for a couple of reasons. First of all, with due respect to the very good writers who have tackled the subject, I have not read a blessed thing this month that has illuminated 9/11 -- as history, as event, as a social or political phenomenon or anything else that would make such an account worth reading.

I doubt if the USA will go on much longer commemorating this terrorist attack.  To be commemorated an event in history must be a turning point in the nation's ultimate fate eg a great defeat like the Battle of Kosovo for the Serbians or Culloden for the Highlanders or a step on the road to victory like D Day of Bannockburn.  World War II, the American civil war - and revolutions that really did change the society go on receiving some kind of public acknowledgement.  They have a beginning (war declared, independence declared) and an ending (war won, independence won).   

A terrorist attack is a side-show in the overall history of a nation.  Even if it is a step, as in the case of Northern Ireland, towards a power shift it's not something the perpetrators are proud of, and the victims can't keep on proclaiming their victimhood.  Of course the bereaved will commemorate the event that changed their lives but the nation should leave it alone.   As the man above said, it's picking a scab instead of letting it heal.  

Comments

[Andrew Coates]

I found it too much.

But I do get a gut-wrenching feeling of sadness when I listen to this: John Adams, The transmigration of Souls

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S6nrJ3ByzzE

[Rosie]

Very moving piece though I wonder if it would have worked so well without the footage.

[Bob-B]

It wouldn't hurt for the media to remind people of some of the other acts of Islamist terrorism: Madrid, Bali, Beslan, Mumbai, numerous incidents in Iraq and Pakistan, etc., etc.