I had a thought this morning at work as I was preparing breakfast, that people shouldn't keep saying the term 9-11. There were a couple reasons I think for this. Firstly, it's a date, not a slogan. It's a tragic date, but I don't know the date when the bombs landed on Hiroshima and Nagasaki. We seem to be defining the whole of human history by this one date. It's not September 11th anymore, it's 9-11. It's stands for something now, and by keeping on referring to it in that way, it seems to me we can't let go of the past, we 're holding onto the hurt.
Also, the rest of the world doesn't necessarily write the date down month/day/year. 9-11 to me means the 9th of November. It's this USA-centric view of the world, which needs to change. Brad wrote about something similar on his blog. By continually referring to it in the way "we" do, we keep accepting or perpetuating the idea that the USA is the be all and end all. I think we've seen recently that the US isn't some unassailable paragon of power. And they're responsible for their own downfall.
Anyway, that's all I really had to say. Got to keep watching HSM3 now.
Hiroshima-August 6th
Nagasaki-August 9th
3 comments:
When I clicked this I thought I was going to Brad's blog because of the nature of the post.
In tassie there is a bottle shop called 9-11.
Eleventh of September?
oops.
Thanks Andy, corrected.
Post a Comment