9/11: Commemorating Sep 11th

Subject: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Murray MacLeod
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 07:54 PM

I haven't been watching much American news recently, so maybe everybody except me knows the answer to this, but what, if any, official plans are in operation to commemorate Sep 11th, with the first anniversary just over four weeks away?

At the very least, I would imagine there will be one, or two, minutes' silence. I would have thought that a full national day of mourning would be even more appropriate.

Will you be going to work as normal on Sep 11th 2002 ?

Murray

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Genie
Date: 08 Aug 02 - 08:28 PM

Murray, I have heard that the TV stations will, for the most part, be running specials that honor the victims, the heroes (especially), etc., and focus on hope for the future, rather than a day of mourning. A main reason that the idea of making it an official holiday was that people then to use these mainly for picnics and drinking beer.

I believe a period of silence is planned, for all the TV and radio stations, at the time of day when the second tower collapsed.

Probably some of you folks have more details.

If I have gigs (at retirement homes) booked for that day, I will include at least a few songs comemorating that day, and a few optimistic "patriotic" songs.

Genie

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Amos
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:57 AM

I have the terrible feeling I am going to get awful tired of revisiting Spetember 11th, 2001, before I wrap up this lifetime!!

I appreciate the impulse to remember, and all, and just as with Pearl Harbor it is not something we should just ignore or deny.

But on the other hand ... I am not going to be so terrorized that I won't get on with life. I am sure I can find something more productive to do than to regret last years sorrows.

A

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Sorcha
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 12:57 AM

I will pause and remember the images burned into my brain, Mr. will work as usual--he's a cop and they don't get Holidays. I'm very ambivilent about making it a National Holiday......

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Genie
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 01:16 AM

Well, I imagine this September will be the "biggie" as far as remembrances of 9/11 go. Then there will be more hype on the 5th, 10th, 20th, 25th, etc., anniversaries later on. I hope it won't become an annual "event" any more than the Oklahoma City bombing was or Pearl Harbor Day is now.

But you can't expect there not to be a big noise maid about this first anniversary of the attacks. I just hope the commercialization is kept to a minimum.

Genie

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 08:22 AM

Anyone who wants to get away from the hipe and war furry on Sept 11 in New York, the 15th street Quaker meeting house will likely be open all day for silent worship or silent get away from the political use of those who died.
Cheers Larry

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Genie
Date: 09 Aug 02 - 10:59 PM

I can't believe I spelled "made" "maid" above.  Must've bean been the bier beer.

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: The Pooka
Date: 10 Aug 02 - 10:50 PM

New York City will of course have a major commemoration, with former Mayor Giuliani leading a reading of the names of each of the 2,800-plus people killed. I haven't heard that hype and war fury is officially planned, InOBU; but silent prayer at a Quaker meetinghouse sounds very appropriate. // I imagine most folks will be at work. I will: I'm a state government elections-officer and September 10 is our primary-election day (as it is in a number of other states also); the following day we must compile the official results. Life, work, and democracy go on.

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Genie
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 04:37 AM

It's already started,of course. Some of the "commemorative" programs I've seen have been very well done, but there's still that sense of "overkill." I just noticed the checkout stands at a supermarket tonight and they were flooded with "special commemoriative issues" of various magazines -- most of which used pretty much the same photos. (They were all pretty much "sanitized," too -- no real scenes of death, just buidings on fire and rescuers and survivors pictured.)

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: gnu
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 06:34 AM

I had a visit from the stranded passengers I put up last year. Surprised the heck out of me ! And they were not the only ones. There have been a least a dozen such visits in the Moncton area over the past few weeks.

A memorial will be held downtown, many churches are holding special services, etc.... and we are just a small Canadian city, far away from the Big Apple. I suppose this type of remembrance will be going on all over North America because it's the first big terrorist strike on the continent committed by a foreign group.

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: katlaughing
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 07:07 AM

I will ask my daughter to take down the black ribbon I'd tied around her huge old tree one year ago on 11 Sept.

I know the first anniversary is tough and needs to be acknowledged, but I don't think it should be a yearly holiday or anything, either.

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Mrrzy
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 10:16 AM

I will go back to my old firm, where I was then, to see them plant a tree, a weeping cherry, in honor of the victims and heroes. I know they've told our sales people not to make any sales calls on that day...

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 04:52 PM

There's going to be a minute's silence in the UK, which seems way over the top to me, bearing in mind the many horrors that have afflicted the world without ever warranting such a gesture.

Anyone like me who's tired of the over-reaction could use that minute remembering Chile's (elected) President Allende and (this being Mudcat) the folksinger Victor Jara. They were murdered at the behest of the CIA on September 11 1973.

Kissinger's comment on that episode was: "We do not have to accept a country going Marxist because of the irresponsibility of its people."

I was going to say "How does the US get away with it?" But of course on one famous day last year it didn't.

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: CET
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 05:11 PM

Fionn you are beneath contempt

CET

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 07:58 PM

That's neither nere nor there, CET. I'm sure you'll agree with the points I made.

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Banjer
Date: 07 Sep 02 - 08:23 PM

I was going to share my plans for 9/11, but seeing the lean of this thread I won't waste anyone's time. God Bless America!!!

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: GUEST,Neil Comer
Date: 08 Sep 02 - 07:45 PM

Fionn, you are not beneath contempt. Anyway. I am cynical. Sept. 11 was a tragedy, there is no doubt. But, I have a funny feeling that Bush is going to use this date as a opportunity to launch strikes on the Middle East. (I didn't say Iraq because I think that the whole of the Middle East will de decimated) The USA is no saint. I bet Bush sleeps well. None of his people ( I mean people as in 'muintir,' the Gaelic concept, your kith and kin) were hurt on that fateful day. If they were, he [Bush] might not be as keen to launch slaughter on the world.

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Bill D
Date: 08 Sep 02 - 07:54 PM

Fionn---which country is it that we should all look to as a model?....that has never done anything reprehensible?....that is without blame?....whose leaders can be trusted???....and is that where YOU live? You don't mention that, but you have used up a VERY great deal of time in the last couple of years bashing the USA for various sins....

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: GUEST
Date: 08 Sep 02 - 10:46 PM

Fionn probably ought to be tarred and feathered in his own right, Bill D, and, if you're inclined, you're welcome to do it--but he isn't the only one who thinks as he does, leastwise outside the USA. There was a great deal of compassion and sympathy for what happened on 9/11, but a lot of water has gone under the bridge since then, and the sympathy has given way to a very different kind of feeling-

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Amergin
Date: 08 Sep 02 - 10:49 PM

Well...september 11 has always been a holiday of sorts around my place....so why not making it official?

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From:
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 12:03 AM

I can't find any songs commemorating Sept 11 on the Mudcat song database, nor have I seen a compilation. Yet I know that many have been written, because I wrote a song a few days after the event (see below) and because I have read about some, and heard another one the other night at the Folklore Society of Greater Washington sing. Please post other songs to the thread I started on Sept 8 called "Sept 11 Commemorative Songs." Thanks.

Here is my effort, dedicated to a colleague I used to work with, who was killed at the Pentagon attack:

SEPTEMBER MORNING

(Sung to the tune of "The Good Reuben James") by Llewellyn M. Toulmin

Written September 14, 2001

Dedicated to my colleague "Jeep" Fisher, who died at the Pentagon

'Twas a clear September morning in New York and DC The innocent were working, for you and for me Then a wing and a flash, and cruel explosions roar That hit those mighty buildings, and crushed every floor.

CHORUS:

Tell me, what were their names? Tell me, what were their names? Did you have a friend, on the ground or the planes? Tell me, what were their names? Tell me, what were their names? Did you have a friend, on the ground or the planes?

Passengers fought back, even though they knew they'd die Some of them did struggle, "Let's roll" was their cry They charged for that cockpit, and stopped short that plane They saved the nation's Capitol, their loss is our gain.

CHORUS

Day turned into night for our sailors and marines The Pentagon was burning, it was a hellish scene They draped a giant flag, when night turned into day Marking the tomb where our gallant soldiers lay.

CHORUS

The firemen responded, as heroes always do Climbing ever upward, for me and for you They climbed up twin towers, until they could no more Instead of hell's fire, they found heaven's door.

CHORUS

We'll fly our flag on high, we'll fight 'til we're free Of this tyranny of terror, that's come from 'cross the sea We'll fly the Stars and Stripes of the land of the brave And we will get justice, for every single grave.

CHORUS

#end#

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: InOBU
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 04:20 AM

Well, I don't thik it is contemtable to remember Victor Hara. What kind of nation, what kind of human has the lack of heart to call to the world to mourn our dead, while refusing to mourne our victems. Victor..., Hermono..., Presente! La lucha continua... (sorry for the bad spelling.)
In solidarity and sorrow,
Larry

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Hrothgar
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 05:08 AM

I'm inclined to agree with Fionn, but I don't think it should have been put in this thread.

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Alio
Date: 09 Sep 02 - 08:23 AM

Neither do I....and I don't think it's too much to expect people in the UK to observe a minute's silence this first year. What's one minute compared to the lifetime of heartache felt by those who lost family, colleagues and loved ones in the Twin Towers?

OK, we may not like the way Bush (and Blair) are behaving at the moment - I'm wondering what future my little grandson can expect - but we shouldn't confuse that with supporting those who suffered on September 11th. Ali

Subject: RE: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 07:54 PM

Just alling by to take my lumps and lift that Kissinger quote for inclusion in a thread where Hrothgar may think it fits better.

Alio, it's a matter of perspective. What about the 800,000 killed in Ruanda in the space of four months, mostly with machetes, out of a total population of less than five million? Or the two million who have died in the conflict in DRC (Congo) - 300,000 of them killed, the rest dying of hunger and disease? What about the 10,000 people who died in such agony after the Bophal catastophe that we in the UK have been hearing so much about lately? How many of these far-away people have to die to qualify for a minute's silence?

Bill D, sadly I can't think of a single fatcat country that's showing any sort of example. However some of the Scandinavian countries are way ahead of UK and US on issues like social justice, aid to developing countries, and running economies that don't depend on the sickening trade in arms. (The UK and USA arm impoverished countries to the hilt then bomb the crap out of them if they even look like using what they've bought.)

And I can't say the UK is any better than the USA when it comes to media-hyped maudlin sentiment. The response to the death of Princess Di, for instance, was disproportionate in the extreme. Just recently the UK has been demented over two girls who were abducted and murdered. It was a desperately sad business, obviously, but over the first eight weeks of that saga, nine people were killed within the one square mile of London where I used to live. (Maybe just as many in other parts of London, for all I know.) As a doctor in that area asked on a radio show, how young would those nine people have had to be, or how many more would have had to be murdered, for them to qualify for the media-driven mass hysteria that attached to Holly and Jessica?

I fear we're being reduced to a baying mob, largely on the media's terms.

Subject: RE: 9/11: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Joe Offer
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 08:07 PM

We had a nice remembrance at the Unitarian church last night - lots of music. On Sunday, our Indian Catholic priest said that since 1945, American bombs have fallen on 40 countries and killed 6 million people, so many people have good reason to hate Americans.
Gives a person something to think about.

I suppose some people may be reluctant to put BS: as a label for threads having to do with September 11. If you wish, use 9/11:.

Thanks.

-Joe Offer-

Subject: RE: 9/11: Commemorating Sep 11th
From: Peter K (Fionn)
Date: 12 Sep 02 - 08:32 PM

I once heard a UK politician (Tony Benn) using those stats, Joe, but they seemed so incredible I decided I must have misheard. Strangely enough I could almost get my head round the six million dead. It's the bombing of 40 countries that I have real trouble with. It just beggars belief.

Just a point of detail re Joe's post. All the anti-American sentiment I hear is aimed squarely at the administration and not the people. But admittedly the distinction is often taken as read, and not spelled out as clearly as it should be. Most of the Americans I know are against a pre-emptive attack on Iraq, just as a majority of Brits are against Tony Blair's line.