A few thoughts on the 8th anniversary of 9/11

[jvowles]

Everyone's musing about their reaction, two presidential terms later, to the events of that bright September day way back in 2001. But amidst all the "never forget!" and varying degrees of worn-on-your-sleeve sentiment, I worry that we'll forget the lessons we SHOULD have learned...and in many cases have not

Comments

[dallendoug]

I think that some people are remembering what it means to be an American and fight for freedoms and beliefs. Or we wouldn't have had the movement and election that we had in the past year or two.

And, I think it may actually be growing. Or at least I hope that it is. I'd pretty much given up hope on "My Fellow American" about four years ago, and have been pleasantly surprised in the last one. We'll see if it continues.

[raithnor]

Thank you.

[jblum]

elsaf linked to this brilliant essay which talks about how the lesson that has been forgotten is how much we didn't panic during the disaster, and how many ordinary people did concrete, constructive things in coping with disaster -- not vague comments about "heroism", but practical dealing with a crisis. We didn't panic. We didn't lose ourselves to fear.

That came later.

More than just a general sense of national service, I'd love to see the day dedicated specifically towards doing our part for disaster preparedness. Not just vaguely-defined enemy action, but so we're ready for the next Katrina, the next San Francisco earthquake, the next time we need to help our fellow man.

[lacousteau]

I woke Allan up early to come and see the news. We sat and talked about what we were seeing from our point of view...medicine. "There won't be enough blood, we're in crisis now." "Who's closest? Is that St.Vincent's?" "They don't have the space or the staff, now with the budget cuts." "They'll have to job out to every hospital in Manhattan. Do you think that they will ship the non-essentials out to us

[alycewilson]

Sadly, this sort of division is nothing new, as evidenced from a sign I found in Old City Philadelphia this week: http://alycewilson.livejournal.com/230144.html