But I just don’t know that I necessarily need to write it out or publish it. Instead I will point you toward this post and this story and let that stand for now.
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I Wrote A Long Post Aout 9/11 In My Head
I think the real reason is that they just want to attack schools. They view private (non-Christian, at least) schools…
@Elusis, Here's the bill. I didn't spot anything that said "receives funding from..." what I saw was "all schools." But…
@JSO - it almost certainly has to do with funding sources. "Receives funding from the state education budget" or the…
I wonder how this can be limited to schools and pass legal muster. Like, could they make the same law…
Yes, you're right.
I liked your story a lot the first time and I still like it. If you don’t mind (and if you do, please invoke author’s privilege to give a completely nonsensical or ambigous answer) I want to ask a question about the story. Does the title refer only to the woman mourning her husband who was one of the bombers? Or to everyone? Do we keep the 911 rituals alive because, on some level, we can’t forgive the dead for being in the wrong place at the wrong time? Or am I just completely misreading your story?
Interesting story. So, then, to what purpose do people continue to invoke the anniversaries of such days as 9/11, D-Day, Veteran’s Day, etc.?
Right now most everyone watching the 9/11 observances were alive when the event happened. For my generation the question was “Where were you when Kennedy was shot?”, and everyone can describe exactly where they were and what they were doing when they heard (I was in 6th grade and was waiting for the bus to go home, about 20 miles from where JFK was born). If you look on the blogs, Facebook, etc., the question is often asked “Where were you when 9/11 happened” – but in fact the answers focus not on where you were but what you thought and felt.
So these observances are filled with that spirit. People mourn the deaths, and honor especially the firemen and police that gave their lives to save others. But there are other feelings; anger, at least, towards the perpetrators, and a realization that we are vulnerable. Some people understand that to mean that we live in a dangerous neighborhood and we have to be vigilant and be able to defend ourselves. Others understand that to mean that our relationship with the rest of the world is flawed and that it has to change. My viewpoint is that the two are not mutually exclusive.
In the 9/11 ceremonies in the U.S. – at least in the ones I’ve seen or heard about – there is no parallel to the woman mourning the bomber. But there was in the Columbine rememberances. You may recall that afterwards, when crosses were raised for the dead, there were crosses raised for the killers as well, and how controversial that was and how different people with different relationships with the victims and the perpetrators reacted both at the time and then later on.
The story looks at the effect of the passage of time on such things. Compare how we observe 9/11 with how we observe 11/11 11:11. Very few people are alive who personally remember the latter event, and they would have been quite young. While mourning and vigilance are both elements of that observance, it has become much more generalized and less specific to the particular event. I suspect that will happen with 9/11. It would be interesting to compare the observances of 9/11, 11/11 11:11, Columbine, D-Day, JFK’s assassination, Rev. MLK’s assassination, etc., and look at how they change as time has passed.
Yes, this.
This story brought tears to my eyes. Thank you so much.