Seriously, I'm honestly tired of "remembering 9/11". I'm tired of the commencements, tired of the tributes, tired of the commemorations. I'm seriously tired of it...
I know this is gonna rub some people the wrong way, but I'm seriously tired of "remembering 9/11". I'm tired of everything that goes along with it. The monopolization that this day gets beginning at the start of September. It's ridiculous. I'm tired of it hijacking the airwaves, my entertainment, the newspaper, every facet of life. I'm tired of people constantly asking me "Was I there?" "Did I see it?" "Did you lose anyone?" when they hear me talk since my Northern New Jersey accident is evident when I talk since I live in Southern Virgina now. It's not like I don't understand the gravity of the situation either.
I was across the river in Newark NJ and saw it standing outside from my apartment at the time with a perfect view of the New York City skyline. I saw the airplanes strike the towers, and I saw them collapse. I looked on with horror through my binoculars when I stood on my roof to get a better view and saw people literally jumping to their deaths out of the upper floors of the towers. I saw all that. I was deeply saddened when I learned childhood friends and family members were lost in the towers during the attack. But as the months went on, something happened. I got over it, and I moved on with my life. I grieved, and I mourned my family members and friends, but I managed to move on with my life. And that is what I'm angry about the most.
That we as a country have not yet managed to "Move on with our lives". Every year they do the commencements and the commemorations, it's like ripping the stitches off a festering wound, and refusing to allow it to heal. This doesn't happen in other countries. When terrorist attacks happen in other countries, they don't continually commemorate the day of the attack. They mourn, grieve, and rebuild, then finally move on with their lives and live them as they did before the attack. They don't let a single horrible moment continually define who they are as a people or as a country. Unfortunately, that's something we have not managed to do. We've allowed a single horrible event, to transform our country, and not in a good way. We've allowed this single moment, to define us as a country in terms of policy, politics, and in our daily lives. It's effects are everywhere. In our day to day lives, in the policies and laws that shape our lives[Patriot act anyone?], right down to our entertainment. It's just utterly maddening and sickening.
While I do appreciate everything the first responders did, and the people who lost their lives, and lost love ones in the attack, it's time to move on. It happened TEN YEARS ago. It's time to stop the commencements, stop the commemorations, stop the tributes, stop the overbearing faux patriotism, stop the "in tribute to", stop all of it, and move on with our lives as a country. It's been TEN YEARS. TEN YEARS of showing the terrorist that they still have great influence in our lives no matter how much we want to deny it. So with that being said, I'll leave you with this.
Fuck 9/11, it's time to move on with our lives.