I woke up this morning and avoided watching the news or reading the (online) paper. I knew what today was and, to be quite frank, didn’t want to deal with the media coverage of September 11, 2009 – eight years after the day we know we will never forget.
The problem with unemployment and my interest in media generally proved that avoiding this would be next to impossible. As soon as I signed onto twitter – yes, I am one of those people – I noticed that the trending topics were “Sept 11” and “New York.”
Sasha Frere-Jones, one of my favorite writers at The New Yorker, spoke of gloomy memories and thoughts that still haunt:
While none of this is surprising and while we most certainly should not forget what happened, where we were, and the individuals we know who were impacted directly (if not ourselves), it’s hard to also not be saddened by the outcry based in brute force.
Maybe it’s because we now have a new president that is considered rational, but this anniversary of September 11 is making me feel more and more icky than any that have come before.
When I went to the gym, Fox News was blasting headlines such as, “Eight Years Later: Are We Safer Today?” None of this is helpful, just as it wasn’t helpful when we as a people lived through this. It’s based in the rhetoric of fear that landed us several wars and a troubling administration that contributed to our current budget disaster.
The same rhetoric is present with a multitude of other issues, some based in reality and others not. Someone sent me a clip from an Oprah show way back when (Y’all know how much I seriously love Oprah), which discussed Satanic Ritual Abuse within the United States.
Throughout the 1980s and some of the 1990s, reports of Satanic cults, rituals, and dead babies began popping up all over the United States. Books were written, instructing parents what to say if their children were involved in bizarre, sexual, satanic experiments.
While this is clearly a completely different matter than the actual trauma suffered by the country as a whole eight years ago, it still is relevant in that it was an issue addressed for quite some time. It, like September 11, shows us how we react in certain situations. Sometimes, you cannot control knee-jerk reactions to horrible situations. However, if memories of that day and my own personal life experiences have taught me anything – it’s to take a step back and breathe.
Many of us are now living in a space where we – even with color-coded terrorist alerts – feel predominately safe. This is despite the fact that many of us simultaneously feel as if we are drowning due to financial woes. Our professional lives, directly correlating with how we feel in our personal lives, have been left in ruins.
Having employment problems has become mainstream. We know it’s not our fault and many of us find solace in that fact.
While most of the country has gotten used to our recession-style state, we must remember that people are continually being laid-off. And it’s not easy. For the people who are currently being inducted into a life that no one wants, don’t panic.
We now know what panicking can do.
