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Q Cubed
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t3h y3ll0w p3ril
Apr 1999 time: 23:22
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what is there to say? really?
i didn't turn on the tv yesterday. i didn't turn on the radio yesterday. i pretty much stayed off the internet.
i just sat still, thinking, for those hours in the early morning, doing nothing.
and i still can't figure out what to say, what to think...
i know this much, though. we should remember they day, but i don't want it to become a holiday.
over fifty years ago, we americans dropped a bomb over two japanese cities hiroshima and nagasaki. morality questions aside, those two bombs left a gigantic scar on the japanese living at the time, much like how the world trade center attacks have left a mark on our psyches. fast forward fifty years in japan, and now you have 6 august, celebrated as a holiday. a holiday, with balloons, sweets, parades, and noisy festivals, all alongside somber speeches and reflective monuments. it's not so much a remembrance of the event there these days, but more of a day off of school and work to have fun. it's not just a japanese thing, either. our veteran's day and memorial day, once somber days out of respect to our national heroes who perished defending america have turned into flag-waving, outdoor-grilling, three-day sale weekends in which very little thought or reflection is given to the actual meaning of the holiday.
contrast that with 7 december 1941, another day living in infamy. it's not a holiday, and so when people speak of it, they do so with respect, with sadness, with memory. 6 may 1944, normandy, also gets off without the obscene faux patriotism and sales. even those two events haven't been kept pure, their memories sullied by blatantly capitalist movies--but at least they remain cleaner, more respectful days, than memorial day and veteran's day.
i really think we would do the victims a favor if we didn't 11 september a federal holiday. we'd prevent blind flag-waving, one-day-only sales, balloons and parades. we'd let this day be a tragic reminder, one in which people across the country stop and pray, or cry, or just think... holidays never keep their meaning for long. i don't want 11 september to lose its meaning fifty years from now, when i'm old and senile, with my grandkids running around with balloons and smiling and laughing at the clown in some parade "in honor" of the dead.
maybe, hopefully, i'm wrong. maybe things won't end up like that. but what i've saw on tv this morning, about a parade somewhere in middle america, just doesn't give me much hope.
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