As I was very young on September 11, 2001, my memory is not able to recall much from that day.
It was, then, surprised to find at how vividly Mr. Updike's article creates the atmosphere. The horror to have witnessed a thousand lives snuffed out like a candle, what used to be a fast, safe, and easy mode of transportation used as a missile of our doom, the naivete of what seems to be an afterthought gone in a moment.
Mr. Updike also emphasized that people needed to move on from the events of the day. I am well-inclined to go along with said emphasis. I believe that a tragedy has, of course, to be mourned, such a death of a friend or family member that you were particularly close to. But there has to be an end to the mourning eventually. Moving on past grief is one of the first steps to accepting grief.
However, one must still have that mourning period. I feel like reality should have to set in once the shock has mostly wore off, but I also feel like Ms. Sontag was a teetering on the edge of insensitivity. She distanced herself from the emotion that would have followed 9/11 and instead just took the statements that were probably spoken from the tongues of scared, angry, and shocked men and women. We had been attacked on our own soil, our wall of seeming inexorable comfort had been obliterated. It's natural for us to feel like we need to reveal our emotions, not our logic.
Greetings Saul,
ReplyDeleteIt seems to me the that the subject that you identified most with after reading the articles was the need for a grieving period. I agree with you mourning is necessary to psychological healing, but do you think that mourning needs to occur immediately after a tragedy? In times of crisis, do you think that mourning sometimes has to be put on hold, lest emotions too greatly affect the response to the crisis? If anger and grief are allowed to dictate our actions, doesn’t the door open to revenge killings and unjust retaliation? In the case that logic and reason are not allowed to take center stage, I believe that makes us no better than those who attack us in anger and grief. If a nation is to move forward effectively after a tragedy, elected leaders need to be the among the first to step up to the plate and recognize that mourning needs to be reserved to another time after immediate threats and conflicts have been dealt with.