Blogosphere fills with memories

PARIS – Five years to the day from the September 11 attacks, the international blogosphere filled yesterday with a litany of poignant memories, personal tributes, political harangues and pleas for peace.

In the US, hundreds of bloggers signed up to the ‘2996 project’ in which Internet diarists are matched with individuals who died in the four suicide hijackings and pay homage to their memory. “In the days following September 11 2001, I was one of the millions of Americans who pledged to ‘never forget’,” writes DC Roe, who instigated the idea.”But …I didn’t keep my promise.Though I didn’t forget the victims, I also never took the time to know them.2 996 is, in a sense, my self-imposed penance, my mea culpa,” he writes, ahead of a tribute to Candace Lee Williams, a passenger in the first plane to hit the twin towers.Thousands of bloggers recount near-identical tales of where they were, what they felt and what they did when the first news of the calamity broke from a Tuesday morning in New York.”No words can express the utter disbelief that I felt then, five years ago to the day, glued to my TV screen, my eyes blurred by the tears in my eyes.No words can relate that tragedy,” writes Niko from Paris.”I can remember the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched those massive structures crumple like tissue paper and realised in that single instant, everything had changed,” writes a contributor on the US Faith in Action blog network.’Amazon’ writes in French: “If I have decided to make this article, it is merely because I am thinking of the thousands who died that day.Every time I see these images, a shudder of horror and disgust chills my blood.”Many take an overtly political line – some commending President George W Bush for his ‘war on terrorism’, others doubtful about his contribution to securing America’s future.”What I feel most …is anger,” writes Cloudwatcher from the US.”Mostly, and overwhelmingly, anger at the scum who use the deaths of those precious people to advance and justify their twisted political agendas.””What 9-11 changed for me was abstract politics,” writes Lucid from New York city.”I always was confronted with issues of poverty in the city – homelessness, desperation.But what 9-11 changed for me is the reality of America.It made me realise that chickens come home to roost, that what you do comes back to you.”Among widely-read blog contributors, America’s Arianna Huffington writes of how the aftermath of September 11 brought out the best in the US – and cast a much-needed perspective over the petty problems of ordinary life.”In many ways the period following 9/11 was the best of times amidst the worst of times.It would be a nice tribute to those whose lives didn’t continue past that day to say that the change lasted, but sadly, it didn’t….Our commitment to altruism and perspective turned out to have a limited shelf-life,” she writes.According to Andrew Stuttaford of New York: “It was never going to be a day when ‘everything’ changed.Those days don’t exist.What did change, and changed most profoundly, was Americans’ idea that they could, if they so chose, somehow keep themselves at arm’s length from the rest of the world.”That’s gone – and it’s gone for good.”Nampa-AFP”In the days following September 11 2001, I was one of the millions of Americans who pledged to ‘never forget’,” writes DC Roe, who instigated the idea.”But …I didn’t keep my promise.Though I didn’t forget the victims, I also never took the time to know them.2 996 is, in a sense, my self-imposed penance, my mea culpa,” he writes, ahead of a tribute to Candace Lee Williams, a passenger in the first plane to hit the twin towers.Thousands of bloggers recount near-identical tales of where they were, what they felt and what they did when the first news of the calamity broke from a Tuesday morning in New York.”No words can express the utter disbelief that I felt then, five years ago to the day, glued to my TV screen, my eyes blurred by the tears in my eyes.No words can relate that tragedy,” writes Niko from Paris.”I can remember the sick feeling in the pit of my stomach as I watched those massive structures crumple like tissue paper and realised in that single instant, everything had changed,” writes a contributor on the US Faith in Action blog network.’Amazon’ writes in French: “If I have decided to make this article, it is merely because I am thinking of the thousands who died that day.Every time I see these images, a shudder of horror and disgust chills my blood.”Many take an overtly political line – some commending President George W Bush for his ‘war on terrorism’, others doubtful about his contribution to securing America’s future.”What I feel most …is anger,” writes Cloudwatcher from the US.”Mostly, and overwhelmingly, anger at the scum who use the deaths of those precious people to advance and justify their twisted political agendas.””What 9-11 changed for me was abstract politics,” writes Lucid from New York city.”I always was confronted with issues of poverty in the city – homelessness, desperation.But what 9-11 changed for me is the reality of America.It made me realise that chickens come home to roost, that what you do comes back to you.”Among widely-read blog contributors, America’s Arianna Huffington writes of how the aftermath of September 11 brought out the best in the US – and cast a much-needed perspective over the petty problems of ordinary life.”In many ways the period following 9/11 was the best of times amidst the worst of times.It would be a nice tribute to those whose lives didn’t continue past that day to say that the change lasted, but sadly, it didn’t….Our commitment to altruism and perspective turned out to have a limited shelf-life,” she writes.According to Andrew Stuttaford of New York: “It was never going to be a day when ‘everything’ changed.Those days don’t exist.What did change, and changed most profoundly, was Americans’ idea that they could, if they so chose, somehow keep themselves at arm’s length from the rest of the world.”That’s gone – and it’s gone for good.”Nampa-AFP