hey, i saw the post you reblogged about 9/11 and just wanted to say: it's definitely true that 9/11 has been used on a national level to justify some really egregious shit, but. it's also true that my mother was working on wall street when the planes hit, and was traumatized by the experience in ways that forever affected our entire family. like, your bio says you're from iowa, so i get that something which happened in NYC decades ago probably feels pretty abstract, but... (1/2)
(2/2) locals who did in fact live through it can see your reblog, you know? and it's possible, and important, to refuse to accept the weird ways 9/11 has been used to justify american jingoism without characterizing real people's suffering and death (ongoing in the case of first responders) as "funny" -- ironic that the OP complains about the government's 'sociopathic disregard for human life' in a post that opens with such remarkable callousness! anyway, thanks for hearing me out on this.
This ask is in response to this post.
hey thanks for your thoughts! Obviously 9/11 is an immensely fraught topic, for everyone but especially for those in New York and the families of those from all over the country who were on the planes.
First of all, I apologize for having inadvertently brought up the topic out of the blue on you. I know it's not in line with the overall tone of my blog, which is why I did try to tag with a bunch of the tags I use for more serious content, like "us politics" as well as the "9/11" tag.
Now for my perspective on the issue at hand: I don't remember 9/11. I was just barely old enough to, but my mom deliberately kept me away from the news broadcasts. The date happens to be her birthday, in fact. I grew up with the hard-to-reconcile dichotomy of celebrating her birthday on September 11th and the reality that everyone older than me talked about "Nine Eleven" in the grimmest tones.
Contrast this with the pandemic. I work in healthcare, I have been exposed to the virus multiple times, I deal with covid deniers at work daily, while on the personal side friends and family members of mine have died of it, one just recently. I've witnessed the federal, and state, and local governments mismanage this crisis so egregiously that many more people have died than ever should have.
As many people as died on 9/11 are dying of covid in this country every day and have been for months, and my state governor quite obviously does not give a shit. Nor have there been meaningful memorials for those we’ve lost so far. In fact, when I tell people to wear masks, I often get a look like “what are you on about? that’s all over now, we’ve moved on!” So OP's post resonated with me more than a little bit.
That being said, if I'd been writing it I would probably have phrased some things differently, starting with not calling 9/11 funny. I don't think anything about it is funny, particularly. More weird, hypocritical in the worst way, tragedy twisted into a dark form of patriotism that's gone sour.
But for those who were directly affected? All these metaphorical representations of the event that the rest of us are dealing with don't apply to you, because for you it's a personal tragedy first.
thanks for sending me your thoughts! I hope this goes some way towards addressing them.
