remembering 9/11 in a time of covid-19
idk - the 20th anniversary of 9/11...it seems so weird to me to have all these podcasts and documentaries and displays and whatnot coming up right now
and i’m not even getting into the imperialism, racism, and nationalism of the post-9/11 years
it’s just that i remember those days and weeks after 9/11 - town vigils, memorials popping up everywhere, people putting flags or signs in their window, black draped store windows, half mast flags, lots and lots of Enya (apparently she did *not* authorize those remixes with the 9/11 sound bites) - grieving over the almost 3,000 people who died
and there’s such a strange disconnect for me to see these 9/11 memorials in the middle of the ongoing global pandemic
where are the covid-19 vigils? the candle lighting ceremonies? the tribute songs? conservatively 650,000 American deaths alone by 9/11/21 (or possibly more like 1,000,000) 4.5 million deaths globally (or possibly waaaaay more) - and we’re casting back our memories to those *almost* 3,000 deaths from 20 years ago.
it’s not that i think those deaths are meaningless or shouldn’t be remembered (again, not even touching on the nationalism part of it) - but the way we’re doing it among the current hundreds of thousands of deaths that seem to be going completely unremarked in comparison - it’s just such a strange disconnect to me
remembering the dead among the dying - isn’t that the way of it