Anil Dash (09/08): It's striking to hear you...

Seven is Angry, Sadly

on Anil Dash from 16 weeks ago

It's striking to hear you say that Georgia, as your family is among the gentlest people I know. And for what it's worth, I think in the days after the attacks I was *also* ready to fight. But I think very quickly, I realized that everyone directly responsible for the attacks was already dead, and it may be as few as a dozen others who'd really made the attacks happen. I was certain we'd be able to track them down within weeks.

Foolish optimism aside, I do think the stories of kindness and generosity go without the acclaim that they deserve. We rightfully repeat the stories of heroism that day, but there were literally millions of people across New York who gave their friends (or even strangers!) a place to stay for the night, or a change of clothes for a suit shredded and dusty after the attacks, or the guy who said "keep it" when he loaned a working cell phone to someone who couldn't call home.

I appreciate your perspective, because it makes it clearer to me that even a phrase as simple as "Never Forget" is perhaps powerful because its meaning is so ambiguous. I think, frankly, your interpretation of it as a call for revenge is the more common one, and I was just too idealistic or wishful to realize that until much later. Part of it is that we all live within the isolation of our context of friends and family, and so many of the people I am close to were in the city as well, or at least knew what I remembered most about the day.

I try not to spend much time thinking about it anymore; The whole topic has become so fraught and sad. But I'm glad I took a little bit of time to write again this year -- I learned a lot from what all the commenters here wrote.