Recordatio Postremum
If you're interested in reading my recollections of where I was and what I did on 9/11, written on its five-year anniversary, I encourage you to do so--and to comment on that entry even now if you wish.
People never seemed to rush to do so, even though I posted followups in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. For whatever reason(s), I just never got much of a conversation going in that regard.
Back in 2006, I asked a number of questions, including:What do you hope the world will be like on September 11, 2011? Is that the same as what you expect the world will be like then? If not, what are the differences?
Disturbingly enough, there are a number of good things I feel the world wouldn't have had in the five years since I wrote that without the original impetus of 9/11 happening. I'm not sure there would've been an Arab Spring without it, for example, and I'm very sure there wouldn't be a President Obama without it. The historical forces at work which brought about those events started from that source, just as it caused many negative events (unnecessary wars, the erosion of civil rights) to occur.
Does that mean that 9/11 was, in some ways, "worth it?" I'm very reluctant to say that, as I still feel that the negatives outweigh the positives.
What I am also sure of, on a personal level, is that this is the last anniversary I'll spend revisiting the source itself on this blog. I've arrived at the date envisioned when I wrote that original entry, and although I know I'll be just as morbid and pensive about this date and these issues for many years to come--and the issues, at least, will definitely come up from time to time--the moment has come to bring a measure of closure to this particular thread.
The dialogue, of course, can always be continued or reopened. That part is up to you.
People never seemed to rush to do so, even though I posted followups in 2007, 2008, 2009, and 2010. For whatever reason(s), I just never got much of a conversation going in that regard.
Back in 2006, I asked a number of questions, including:What do you hope the world will be like on September 11, 2011? Is that the same as what you expect the world will be like then? If not, what are the differences?
Disturbingly enough, there are a number of good things I feel the world wouldn't have had in the five years since I wrote that without the original impetus of 9/11 happening. I'm not sure there would've been an Arab Spring without it, for example, and I'm very sure there wouldn't be a President Obama without it. The historical forces at work which brought about those events started from that source, just as it caused many negative events (unnecessary wars, the erosion of civil rights) to occur.
Does that mean that 9/11 was, in some ways, "worth it?" I'm very reluctant to say that, as I still feel that the negatives outweigh the positives.
What I am also sure of, on a personal level, is that this is the last anniversary I'll spend revisiting the source itself on this blog. I've arrived at the date envisioned when I wrote that original entry, and although I know I'll be just as morbid and pensive about this date and these issues for many years to come--and the issues, at least, will definitely come up from time to time--the moment has come to bring a measure of closure to this particular thread.
The dialogue, of course, can always be continued or reopened. That part is up to you.