Forget September?

2012

Around the first anniversary of 9/11 in 2002, I wrote a guitar instrumental titled Forget September. My feeling at the time was that we needed closure--not more media coverage; We needed to begin to "forget" it--meaning we needed to move on, for at least the general public. (I called it "normalcy by denial" in one of the entries). It was already one year into the invasion of Afghanistan, so the idea of closure or normalcy was a fantasy. Music was an anodyne.

I used to frequently have conversations with an aunt who had memories of both world wars, the Great Depression, Pearl Harbor, and the Korean War. I now realize more profoundly how many young people have no direct memory of 9/11. I also realized that there have always been lots of young people that have no memory of major events. I don't have a memory of the Kennedy assassination. Not many people are living that have a good memory of Pearl Harbor, and the various annual commemorations that followed; They were all children then.

I kept a diary for almost 15 years and have an entry for most of the 9/11 anniversaries. (There are no entries for 2007 or 2008, as I believe the event became more "routine" by that time, ironically during the Iraq occupation. This blog probably has an entry for each year since 2005).

In retrospect, the narrative seems consistent for the current state of our nation, and that remembering (and revisiting--two different things) are hugely important.

There are more people that don't remember anything. For those with a memory, you never forget.