Macrolog
A Two Minute Silence
We had a two minute silence at work today, at 1.46pm. I was in the security office at the time, babysitting a shoplifter, while one of the loss prevention officers was scanning the store via the joystick-controlled CCTV cameras.
All the music in the store was stopped just beforehand, and in the office we could see everyone standing silently, solemnly still on all three floors.
Everyone except for a group of kids in the basement, most likely Spanish or Italian judging by their tans and the way they wore their rucksacks. And some monkey-suited pencil-pusher going through the DVDs on the first floor. The kids I can forgive - I mean, kids do stupid things. As for Mister Businessman with the DVDs? What a fucking asshole.
Speaking to my colleagues afterwards, it turns out that there were a few similar assholes on the ground floor too. Are people that stuck for time that they can’t stop and bow their heads for two measly minutes?
So what if you didn’t know anyone who died this day last year. One should at least pay some sort of respect. Two minutes isn’t much to ask.
All this being said, however, personally I take exception to the overblown nature of the day that’s in it. It all started really with the whole 9/11 thing - wasn’t it so convenient that it happened on a date that shared its digits with the US emergency phone number? It reduced everything down to a simple catch-all buzzword. But when we use a word too much, it begins to lose its meaning. No matter, here’s a handy remedy - lets fill the press and the news on TV with apocalyptic visions of huge burning fires and crumbling buildings, just to make sure that John Q. Public doesn’t forget. That’s the mourning part sorted. As for closure - you just gotta have closure - well we can’t find Osama, and we can’t so anything to the Saudis (‘cause they’re friends of the US military, natch), but isn’t that Saddam fellow still around? He’ll do for a good kicking.
I guess what I’m trying to say is that I’ll pay respect where respect is due, but I don’t like being emotionally manipulated. A two minute silence is respectful. A newspaper pull-out of the burning towers and endless TV coverage of people you don’t know grieving for their loved ones is crass manipulation.
I hesitate to seem cold, given the date, but isn’t it about time to accept, learn and move on? There’s no such thing as closure. It would be dangerous if there was.
Appendix: further to what I’ve discussed here, these are the words of a smart person.
Wed 11 Sep 2002 at 21:56 ·
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This is the personal website of MacDara Conroy, a twenty-something journalist, editor and all-round creative type living in Dublin, Ireland.
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You are reading A Two Minute Silence, a Macrolog entry by MacDara Conroy. It is filed under Journal, and was published in September 2002.
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