In a message dated Mon, 17 Sep 2001 9:57:04 PM Eastern Daylight Time,
[EMAIL PROTECTED] writes:
> Kate and everyone,
> Grieving is appropriate for about as long as they are still digging out the
> bodies, but soon you and I, we all, must snap out of it, raise the flags to
> full-staff and get on with our lives.
> If we let the terrorists affect us permanently; if we let them change the
> way we live; if we let them thrust us into a deep wallow of misery and grief,
> then we let them win.
> I, for one, do not intend to let them win. I hope that the rest of you will
> not continue to wallow for much longer. The sooner we return to our way of
> life; the sooner we show that we cannot be driven down so easily, the better.
> Soon it will be time to find something to smile about. Start getting ready.
>
> Paul I
My first reaction to this is that it must be a joke. Surely nobody could be *already*
saying that it's time to get over it! My second reaction is that my question has been
answered. I wondered how long it would take before the first person said "snap out of
it". I figured it would take a year, or more. Maybe some ill-advised person would
say it after a month. It took one week plus a few hours.
So this is how we honor the dead - by forgetting them as quickly as possible? In
terms of letting terrorists win, I would think that the best way to let them win is to
essentially agree with them that the lives they took had no meaning. That's what I
think we're doing if we go on with our lives as if nothing happened.
Mary
