Poll: What are your plans for the anniversary of September 11th?

I will probably watch one or two of the tasteful tv specials, particularly ones involving the rolling requiem. That sounds interesting.

But I have felt compelled to do something personal. In the last couple of weeks, I sent sparkly and spangly pendants to a couple of my Easternly situated fruhead friends. I hope that they will be able to wear the red, white, and blue sparklies SOON if not today.

The idea was that they could wear them this week, but who know what the post office is doing. I've been wearing my handmade spangly sparkly necklace for the past few days.

I had some friends in the rolling requiem... I don't knnow whats going on with me, but I feel droopy. I feel disenchanted with the idea of the US being some kind of innocent wounded entity. there is war. there is violence. there are injusteses happening every moment all over the world. I have mourned our loses, but no more than I mourned the loses of other countries going through harships, but do we hold candle light vigils for them? somhow it hurts more when its us? I don't know anymore.

I'm going to work, and i voted "work" but at work we're havign a little all-ameican cookout involivng wearing red white & blue (american), hot dogs (german?) and apple pie (dutch?). I made blinchiki for it (russian ;) and most of us arent americans (most of my department).

but it's cool anyway - i think that's what today should be about. i'd rather it not be the *all american day* because not only america was hurt last year - the whole world was hurt. Just as the holocaust pains me today, something well over 50 years ago, not in my country and not even to any of my relatives (that i know about - thankfully all my jewish relatives were in the US by then), other countries and their people take offense to crimes against humanity. We should take today to celebrate our differences and how they make us unique - and celebrate all the tolerance in the world. There isnt much, so appreciate what you can.

ok, well, this is the second Sept 11th memorial speech i've written today, and i've only been up for 20 minutes. i think it's shower time ;)

I can't believe a year has passed. And it affects me. But I don't feel the need to do anything. Reliving it in my mind is hard enough. I grieve for the losses but I don't want to watch the TV specials. I don't want to be in vigils. I don't know why, but it's just my way.

Today at work everyone was encouraged to wear red white and blue. I didn't. I have it in me to honor and remember those lost. I don't have it in me to profess patriotism that I don't really have. In truth, I am less patriotic today that I even was a year ago today. Too many scary things have happened from our leaders. I love this country but I think we have a tendency to shut ourselves in and cut out the world when we get in rah-rah America mode. It's a bit like Sheryl said. Other countries lost people, other countries were horrified...I think the more we make it only about us the more we alienate those who may wish to honor the losses by coming together.

And...I probably sound incredibly naive and stupid so I'll shush.

-AK

we'll be going to the concerts in one of the NYC parks - either Central Park or Prospect Park in Brooklyn.

A few days ago I went back to the "Fruheads Check-In" page and read the messages people left last year:

Fruheads Check-In


I am reminded that this community we've got here is really special.

I'm at work now. We gathered outside at 8:46 for a moment of silence. Our FM station broadcast the tolling of bells at 10:29. Otherwise its business as usual. I am leaving early to sing at a memorial gathering at the College though, and then that's about it. I know of a gathering tonight, but in truth I think I might be remembrance'd out. I'll light a candle, though.

I thought about going to Baltimore's Rolling Requiem performance at the Cathedral tonight. But I think I need to be with the people I love tonight, and since the people I love are all too far away, I'll be home glued to the phone, just like I was a year ago today.

Well, today at school there are all sorts of activities and memorialish things going on, although the day is a normal class day, with two moments of silence in the morning. I'm not at school though, I'm at my dad's, still sick after a full week. If I was at school I don't know if I would have gone to any of the special programs. As of right now the television is still off. I don't want to watch any of this stuff right now. I'm reliving it just fine on my own, thank you very much. As for all the red white and blue... well, to me it doesn't make sense. To me it doesn't feel like an American thing. Was it really an attack on America? I mean, most of America hates New York. Think about it... sure it' the financial center of the US... but New York is where all the immigrants are. It's where all the liberals are. And the Jews. And the gays. And the liberal immigrant Jewish gays. New York is the big scary center of sin sort of city where all the freaks come from. We were attacked last year and suddenly there's all this rallying and rah rah rah USA USA shit and take away our civil liberties please, we need to be protected... and for the most part the people IN NEW YORK are saying What? No! That doesn't make sense! But no one listens to us. New York wants the Twin Towers rebuilt *as they were.* But no one listens to us. Let the attack on the Pentagon be the patriotism-inspiring rallying point. With the attack on New York, it doesn't make sense. Because New York is not America.

Maybe I shouldn't have written that. Sorry.

But New York *is* America. The story of America is one of people starting out marginalized and eventually working their way into society. Where is the better illustrated than in New York City?

And just who do you think you are? You're so opressed, you're so different, no one gets you. Well, congratulations on walling yourself in. Congratulations on examplifying everything "the rest of America" hates about New Yorkers.

Yes. New York *is* America. New York is America more than most of America is. THAT was my point. That is what much of America doesn't like about New York. New York is what America doesn't live up to. That was my point. And I didn't make it very well.

As for who I think I am... I'm a girl from Brooklyn who, yes, is oppressed. Yes, is different. But people *do* get me, I am *not* walled in. I am another person in New York who loves Freedom and loves her country for what it could be, can be, and largely *is* here in New York. I am a person who cries when Canadians talk about how awful and evil and oppressive and racist freedom-squashing and hawkish the USA is, and knowing that there are more Jews in New York than there are in all of Canada. I am someone who reads people from Idaho talking about the war on terrorism and how them dang A-rabs oughta be all blown to hell cause that there Allah they worship gotta be the devil, people from Kansas sending in ideas for a new design for the site of The Towers in the shape of a cross in honor of all the people who died, apparently not knowing that not everyone in America is Christian. I am someone who sees these things and is upset, and sometimes makes the horrible evil mistake of writing something about it.

You love New York. I get it. But what I don't understand is why you think the rest of the country should be the same as New York. And just what specific parts of New York should we try to emulate? The rudeness? The Disneyfied Times Square? The crime rate? The lack of parking?

Are there xenophobic, ignorant nutjobs in Idaho? Yup. But I hate to break it to you, they're in New York, too. And Canada. And everywhere.

You claiming that the rest of the country is a failure because we're not New York is pretentious and every bit as self-centered as the suggestion of the cross-shaped building. The fact that they're your sacred cows does not make them any less dogmatic or wrong-headed.

I am probably going to regret getting in to this and honestly mean no offense, but I think you are misinterpreting what Gella is trying to say... and well, kinda flying off the handle in a way that is really about your own issues and not hers.

Yes, what I'm saying is being misinterpreted. No biggie, it always happens. Frankly, I don't feel well enough to write a point-by-point defense of what I've written. Just do whatever makes you feel good. Or bad. Or anyway that feels right for you to feel. That's what this day and this poll are about. Talking about it, sharing your feelings... or not.

A couple of points:

1. If you are always misinterpreted, perhaps it has more to do with you than your audience.

2. If you can't take the time to defend your statements, why on Earth did you make them in the first place?

1. yes, i always consider and reconsider that possibility. It never leaves me, thank you very much for assuming that I'm an idiot.

2. because when I wrote the first thing I wrote I didn't have a 102 degree fever. And now I do. So go ahead and continue to tear me to pieces. I really can't care anymore.

I only have your words to go by. I call 'em like I see 'em.

David Letterman's *abridged top ten* reasons of when not to post something on a sensitive subject. 10.blah blah blah 9.blah blah blah 8.blah blah blah 7.blah blah blah 6.blah blah blah 5.blah blah blah 4.blah blah blah 3.blah blah blah 2.blah blah blah 1. When you are delirious from a fever and cant defend your poorly thoughtout statements

You say this as if this subject was not sensitive to me. As if I had no connection to what's going on, to what happened a year ago, to what's being said here. Do you have anything of substance to say in response to me or are you just here to throw around heartless insults?

okay. fine. you insist on picking a fight, fine. i hope you enjoy this, because I don't.

"what I don't understand is why you think the rest of the country should be the same as New York"

i never said that the rest of the country should be the same as New York. what I was saying was that the rest of the country could learn a lot from New York and it's diversity and acceptance of the differences between its people... ethnic, cultural, religious, intellectual, etc.

"And just what specific parts of New York should we try to emulate? The rudeness? The Disneyfied Times Square? The crime rate? The lack of parking?"

when was the last time you were in New York? If you ask any New Yorker on the street or in the subway for directions or for help, 9 out of 10 times they will be polite and helpful. they won't even make fun of you to your face for being a tourist. New Yorkers don't like the Disneyfied Times Square. It is a tourist trap. New York is one of the safest cities in America. And New Yorkers, for the most part, do not drive. With this you are just being nasty and dumping on my city which is COMPLETELY UNCALLED FOR!

"Are there xenophobic, ignorant nutjobs in Idaho? Yup. But I hate to break it to you, they're in New York, too. And Canada. And everywhere."

thank you captain obvious. What exactly is your point? That New York isn't perfect? did i say that it was? do you actually care what i said? are you just ranting because you enjoy it?

"You claiming that the rest of the country is a failure because we're not New York is pretentious and every bit as self-centered as the suggestion of the cross-shaped building."

Again, I didn't say that the rest of the country is a failure because it's not New York. I don't think the rest of the country is a failure any more than i think New York is a failure. there are failures everywhere in our country. failures in the legislature, failure in the courts, there is failure everytime a black man is taken out and beaten. or a woman is raped. or a transexual murdered. or a peaceful protest is broken up or a kid expelled from school for wearing a tee shirt. those are failures and they happen everywhere. hell, i gew up next to crown heights at the time of the race riots. i know that we have those failures here too. those failures do not add up to overall failure, but each is a step backward. i don't even know why i'm responding to this point, as i didn't say anything to illicit it in the first place.

"The fact that they're your sacred cows does not make them any less dogmatic or wrong-headed."

I don't even know what you mean by this.

i don't know why you want to continue this, michael. I have no issue with you, and i didn't write my original post or any subsequent post in order to start a fight, just to talk about what i'm doing today, why, and how i feel about it, just like everyone else. Can we please just drop it now?

I overreacted and handled this thread poorly. I assumed you were insulting the rest of the United States when you didn't intend any insult. I immediately went on the offensive when a better tack would have been to ask what your opinions are to clarify before I painting with a broad brush.

I didn't mean to imply that you're an idiot. I meant to imply that perhaps your intended message was not getting across.

I interpreted your constant harping on people in Idaho, etc. as a statement that that's what you believe all non-New Yorkers are like.

I didn't mean to dump on New York City. I love the city, and plan to visit it on numerous occasions in the future. But I loathe the attitude I've experienced in a lot of New Yorkers--that New York is the center of the universe and that everything else in this country is "flyover country." I'm sorry if I projected this belief onto you. All I can say in my defense is it seemed at the time that that was the view you were promoting.

I know this is none of my business and I'm a snarky beotch for butting in like this. But sometimes things strike me in a certain way that makes my fingers and brain rebel against my common sense and type a response anyway. I'm not a citizen of New York or even America, and I haven't lived the events in the way Gella has, so I don't feel I have the right to defend or oppose her political opinion. I am, however, a citizen of FHDC, so I have the right to voice my opinion on comments made here. I'm not trying to speak for Gella, she doesn't need me to do that. I'm simply speaking for myself.

I agree with Melinda in that I believe Gella may have been misinterpreted in what she was trying to say. And I don't believe people should be criticized as a person based on their point of view. For example, I'm a liberal but I have many conservative friends I wouldn't criticize based on their political opinion. And I think we also must consider here that Gella knows her bagel from her donut here, considering the way she's experienced these events. This will be all.

wow this thread is scary.

I love you gella.

I loves you mr foof.

i have no ride to school for the anniversary. so, it's stay home and laze for the day. i have trouble mourning something that happened a year ago, when right now my beloved grandmother is fighting the devestating effects of congestive heart failure. which will kill her eventually. and most likely cause her to lose one, if not both , of her legs. personal grief is taking precedence over national. on the other hand, the thought of another attack killing us all instantly is a sobering realisation. i feel close to my family today.

i performed in a rolling requiem here in new hampshire this morning. i hope that it touched others as much as it touched me, regardless of the actual musicality of a hastily-prepared performance.

there are tv specials about rolling req? please frum me with details!!!

Umm...maybe I'm dumb, but what's a rolling requiem?

Jaci... my friend dominique was playing the timpany in the Seattle rolling requiem today...she was thrilled to be involved, and I can't wait to ask her about it tomorrow! ~J~