tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7334205599297722121.post876487422087559777..comments2023-12-06T14:43:06.715-08:00Comments on Transwoman Times: Acting Like It's 9/10Justine Valinottihttp://www.blogger.com/profile/10852069587181432102noreply@blogger.comBlogger2125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7334205599297722121.post-12108703083433363172010-09-12T09:07:57.015-07:002010-09-12T09:07:57.015-07:00Thank you, Miss Kitty. Check the end of my post: ...Thank you, Miss Kitty. Check the end of my post: I added it just after the putting up the original post, but I didn't revise the post until now.<br /><br />I am so sorry to hear about your father and uncle: That's such an awful way to die. And you can indeed die with the survivors in that sense: The deaths of their and your loved ones were senseless.<br /><br />Mind you, I have experienced the deaths of relatives and friends. Fourteen friends and friendly acquaintances of mine (including my first two AA sponsors) have died of AIDS-related illnesses. On that level, I can identify with the 9/11 victims' families. But there is still an aspect of it that I cannot truly identify with: On 9/11, people were killed when they were simply going about their daily business.<br /><br />I think of what Albert Camus wrote in La Peste (The Plague): "La mort vient du ciel claire." (Death came out of the clear blue sky.)Justine Valinottihttps://www.blogger.com/profile/10852069587181432102noreply@blogger.comtag:blogger.com,1999:blog-7334205599297722121.post-67966115133387006172010-09-12T05:51:08.416-07:002010-09-12T05:51:08.416-07:00Justine, this is SO well written. You've said ...Justine, this is SO well written. You've said my thoughts so much better than I've ever been able to articulate them. <br /><br />The whole "Patriot Day" thing on 9/11 has always disturbed me, mostly because of the religion-turned-racism theme, and the jingoistic rah-rah element. What a lot of people don't get is that it's just one day for them to "honor" and "remember" those killed on September 11, 2001...but those people are remembered and honored and loved the OTHER 364 days of the year, too, by the loved ones left behind. A single day of abstract speeches and American flags doesn't amount to a hill of beans. <br /><br />I say all this having myself lost a loved to murder by a "crazy person." My father was killed by his brother in a murder-suicide in 1997. When I saw the towers fall, I knew a little bit of what those people's relatives were going through; I also knew that the road ahead would be very hard for survivors and family, because I had been in a personal OMG-WTF-is-going-on-here? catastrophe of my own. <br /><br />I think of my dad every single day. If I went to his grave, waved flags, and made silly speeches on Veterans' Day, or October 5 (his birthday) or January 16 (when he died), it would be so fake and dumb. He's always "nearby," so to speak, 365 days a year.Miss Kittyhttps://www.blogger.com/profile/13210249894351503887noreply@blogger.com