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General Discussion / Re: 9/11 thread
« on: September 11, 2015, 11:04:44 pm »Why can't this just be a memorial?Not replying or not, the question's been bugging for a bit. Largely, I think I've figured out an answer. Probably not the only one, or the best, but one.
It can't just be a memorial because we have a memorial. And it's in New York. Where it should be. Grief, respect and appreciation for sacrifice -- these are things that have to be felt, processed, and then let go, to be addressed and remembered later when needed, not like clockwork. You build your monuments, you observe your ceremonies, you express your grief and rage and so on as needed and appropriately (and we failed miserably on the appropriately part, but that's neither here nor there). And then you move on. You don't obsess on it for over a decade.
What we as a nation have been doing since a few short years after the event have not been memorials, have not been remembrances. It's been a national neurosis, played upon and viciously exploited by politicians and ideologues, at the expense and further exploitation of those that died during the attacks, the thousands of americans that died after because of our retaliations, and the hundreds of thousands of non-americans that have died because of our actions. For various reasons, but you can damn sure better believe few to none of them have been doing it for those lost, their families, and those that worked in the aftermath.
It's about more than a memorial because more than that is what much of the country is using it as, because it's unhealthy as hell, and because it's bloody close to impossible to call something "just" a memorial when it's ultimately drenched in a body count that's estimated to be over a million and rising.
... I'd actually agree that it'd be about as good as it could get if today had become just been a memorial, just a moment of respect for those that died and those that worked towards recovery. Would still consider it damnably strange to be observed on a national level, but that would still be better than what we've been doing. That it's not is part of the reason the unending reminder gets under my skin just about every time it comes up. It'd be damned desirable if this day stopped being politicized. And that's not going to happen until the dead are left to lay instead of dug up yet again. Or most of us that actually remember the attack finally die, I guess.
), it's pretty rare that you have a sacred troop that astral will help survivability more than water would (with both fitting in a broadly similar defensive niche, and ignoring the other benefits of a water bless), which is mostly why you don't see it mentioned very often. Something with a lingering effect like a poison could be one of the rare things that might actually be able to get equal/more use out of astral. 