RE: I Was There. Remembering 9/11.
I’ll never forget that day either. I wasn’t in the city, though. I was in Upstate NY, and unlike NYC where you had fighter jets flying overhead for days and weeks, I remember the absence of aircraft for days being particularly eerie and strange. I was with a close friend of mine who was frantically trying to get a hold of his sister, who lived a few blocks from the Trade Towers, and his parents, who happened to be in DC.
I’ll also never forget March 11, 2011. I was in Sendai, Japan during that big earthquake and tsunami. Fortunately I was just out of reach of the water and never saw the wave. I imagine that experience is much more similar to your 9/11 experience. Everyone around me, myself included, was displaced for days and weeks. It was a very strange and somber time.
I still just don’t understand the use of Never forget. It’s an imperative statement. It’s comes off as threatening and pushy to me. Like I need to remember that day and for a specific purpose. I was alive. I was effected, and because of that I’ll never forget it, just like I’ll never forget March 11, 2011.
You seem to be aware of the way this statement is often used and appropriated, that’s why I was curious as to why you use it too. For me, it’s kind of a negative statement, but I see that it doesn’t come off that way to everyone.
Thanks for sharing your experience.
Yeah, I don’t like how it gets used either. But that doesn’t mean I’m not gonna use it. For me, the big issue is I can use “Never forget.” because I was there. Those that weren’t there don’t really have the right to use it IMHO. I would bet that the people who weren’t there use it in the negative icky way you refer to. And those of us that were mean it in a sincere and respectful way.
Words are weird like that, huh?
You’re right about the earthquake. It’s that displacement for weeks afterwards. Like, what do we do now that we’ve experienced this unprecedented trauma? How do we catch our breath?
Lucky for me, I had friends in upstate New York and went up there for a few days and just kind of hid out for a bit. It was quiet. There were no planes overhead. No perpetual fire. That was a very healing time. None of us really had a clue how to act in such a situation.
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You’ve reminded me of a picture where two people are standing on opposites sides of a number and looking at. One person’s sees a six, the other a nine, and they are arguing about who is right. It’s all about perspective. I wasn’t in the city on that day and ever since that day I’ve only ever heard people who weren’t in the city on that day say, Never Forget, so it’s never really made any sense to me, just in the way the words are used and in the funny ways that language fails to communicate clearly the user’s intention.
I’m glad I asked you. I was afraid it would come off as rude considering the emotional weight of that day and the experiences that you had surrounding it. I’m glad you were able to escape the city for a time and recover. I was in Saratoga Springs, and even there, there was this sense of what do we do? How do we move on? How do we go to work when this is happening? I use the word happening because it seemed like something else would happen next. Everyone was just waiting, helplessly, worried, and wanting to know more for at least a week. It was a very strange time. A lot of the feelings I had on that day and afterward were feelings I had never felt before. I can’t imagine having actually been in the city on that day and afterward.