As the tenth anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon approaches, hundreds of journalists, commentators, writers and artists are telling us how to mark this occasion. On my left, Noam Chomsky is there to remind us of what he always knows before any events have to happen: that U.S. imperialism is responsible for everything evil that happens in the world. On my right, John Yoo is there to remind us that the terrorist attacks are evidence that the United States is justified in doing anything whatsoever to destroy those who might possibly be its enemies - even if we destroy our political values in the process. The commemoration of the awful killings is being used by those with political agendas to advance their various causes. That's what happens with public memory.
There are others who will argue that we still must get the facts straight about the factors that led up to the events of September 11, 2001. They want more research about the causes of the rage that fueled the Al Qaeda operatives, and a deeper understanding of the intelligence failures that made Americans vulnerable to suicidal terrorists. On this 9/11 anniversary, they want to make sure what really happened before and after the planes pierced those crystal clear skies on that awful morning.
As I argue in Memory, Trauma and History: Essays on Living With the Past (coming out this fall), these are two of the important ways that we connect to the past - how we try to turn memory into history. The first is pragmatic: let's use the events in the past (even awful, traumatic ones) to learn lessons for the future. We can make sense of the painful past by making it a useable past. The second connection to the past is empirical: let's make sure we have an accurate representation of what really happened. The first attitude gives us agendas; the second gives us research task forces.
There is a third way of relating to the past that makes no particular claims for the future. I've called this "piety," an acknowledgement of the existence of the painful past, and of the capacity of what-has-been to make a claim on us. By using the word "piety" I do not mean to evoke some necessarily transcendent or religious aspect to one's connection to the past. I do mean to evoke recognition that we sometimes strive to relate to our memories and histories in ways that are not reducible to a quest for using them well or getting them right. We connect to our memories just because they deserve our caring attention. Piety doesn't have to do anything; it is an attitude of respect and care, even of reverence.
As the anniversary of the attacks of 9/11 nears, I think back to my shock and horror as I watched the television news. I feel my way back to the concerns that I had for my family, my students, my country. I wanted to gather with my community to simply be together as we absorbed the shocking loss of life and the experience of horrific vulnerability. Yet, even moments after the planes hit, some began making political speeches about how to confront or support our public officials. It was time, they said, to engage in political or military battle. And even in those moments some were calling for research into what really happened. Conspiracy theorists were off and running.
As we commemorate the trauma of those days, as we remember the loss of life, the heroism of so many on the scene, and the solidarity of sorrow and anger that welled up across the country, let us remember -- but not only in the register of the pragmatic and the empirical. Sure, there are political and military issues that still demand our attention and struggle. Sure, there are still open historical questions about the facts and their interrelationship. We will continue to engage in those pragmatic and empirical dimensions.
But on this 10th anniversary of 9/11 let us also simply acknowledge the claim that our painful memories still have on us. Let us recognize with piety that we still carry the traces of those traumatic events with us, and that we acknowledge their importance to us without trying to use them.
Let us commemorate, if only for a few moments, without agenda.
Rev. Chuck Currie: Holding on to Hope 10 Years After 9/11
Life involves suffering. Suffering can be reduced and eliminated by managing attachment. Detached observance of the present. Of course we may still love but we must recognize that life and the physical world around us is impermenant.
Practicing the eight fold path is the challenge of the moment. Right-thinking, right speaking, right acting as one observes and manages the self is the focus. Ego too often coulds observation and judgement.
We should commemorate the loss without agenda.
My point was clear. I found it condescending that the writer felt the need to instruct people on how to feel where no instruction is needed. People know how to grieve.
Just a poem I wrote that night.
http://galadrial.xanga.com/732748149/the-stars-above-me/
They used our planes, they use our media, and now they use those that want have commercialized this tragic event to sell tickets to memorial ceremonies, etc. They don't need the latest technology, they use ours and further, they don't need to commit another terrorist act, we are forced to relive this one time and time again.
This in itself is perverse. Why can;t we re-asses if warfare is the best solution? How is that unpatriotic when the same or a better outcome might develop from a different approach?
Instead of endless occupations and waging war, how about improved international police efforts and using resources to protect our borders only. Has war ended the factors and risk?
You make a very good point. The events of 9/11 were horrific and will never be forgotten, but we speak of them so often that it must give the bad guys out there a strong incentive to do it again. Nineteen people on the airplanes and others behind the scenes have, unfortunately, changed America for the foreseeable future.
Fanned.
I was blessed not to have been born to live through D-Day. I also was not here during the horrific bombing of Pearl Harbor, and I have not been forced to relive either on a repetitive basis. I know that all Americans are no less grateful, and certainly have not and never will forget the thousands who lost their lives.
Thanks phal14875.
In any event, to me the present is so entangled in the past and so emotionally complex that I find Roth's comments a bit glib. And try as I might I can't get away from the fact that he has used this moment to advertise his book.
The agenda should be to say, 'Never again!' http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=csa459eSZr8
You witnessed the events of 9/11 in a way that most of us did not. I'm not sure, though, that constantly thinking about a bad event leads to healing. Sometimes it is wiser and more effective to concentrate on preventing a repeat of the tragedy, rather than going over it again and again in one's mind.