9/11 minute's silence

[HelenPolly]

Hi,

Just wondered what other people felt about this. I work for a huge well known investment bank on their trading floor in the city and they didn't observe the minute's silence today. They always have in previous years with announcements notifying people, perhaps they feel it's time to move on or that people would prefer to observe privately? Lots of my colleagues lost friends and colleagues etc. and they were all fairly angry nothing was done, I think it was an extremely bad decision by management here, and it must have been a decision as I can't see somehow that they simply "forgot".

Kind regards,
Helen

[alanS]

No one mentioned it here. I think it would have been a good idea.

[pachinkofan]

Tesco's did, my work [American company] hasn't {so far}

:|

G>

[Fen]

Why?

Do we have a minutes silence for all the dead from all the IRA bombs?

Surely (as Jeremy Vine was saying this morning of Radio 2) we're just giving the terrorists more publicity.

(playing devils advocate here)

[alanS]

Ref. The IRA - we have in the past haven’t we?

I personally think that it would have been appropriate and acceptable.

[mjc7uk]

I agree with you there Fenris.

I would have perfer for the television to curb the tranmission about the 9/11 too.

[TheFatControlleR]

Admittedly, I'm possibly one of the least mawkish people on the planet, but why?

What makes the lives of those lost during 9/11 more memorable than any other victim of terror/war/violence in recent history! Where's their minutes silence, etc!

A remembrance held locally, I can understand. Personal tribute, definitely. But international...

[HelenPolly]

I think it's all about just honouring and remembering those people who died, which is what any minute's silence is all about surely?

[alanS]

Perhaps in my innocence I believe that if we are reminded of past acts of terrorism, war or catastrophe and the human costs we are less likely to repeat past follies, as a species. I don’t see any problem with showing respect for the dead or empathy with those who suffered loss. Personally I wouldn’t mind if we had marked this anniversary with a minute’s silence. A little thought and reflection wouldn’t hurt either. The fact that we are not marking the dead of WW2 or any other conflict today doesn’t enter into it for me. It’s five years since 9/11 and I wouldn’t have had a problem with marking that fact.

[HelenPolly]

I thankfully didn't know anyone who died but looking at some of my colleagues who did, I could see they were upset by not having that minute's silence and obviously felt the need for it, that's why I posted the question to see what other people think.

[BennyBoy]

I think it's time to move on, if every heinous act ever committed was commemorated with silence we wouldn't get much done.

[geoid]

I am a little worried that every day in the calendar will one day be given over to rememberence of atrocities.

The press love these "dates", and I think it's the press who pretend to guide public opinion, or indeed fabricate it.

However tragic these events ( and they all are), the press have ruined them with spin, ( as labour has) and drama. It's partly propogandist to justify the wars currently being fought I believe.

On that point, no one would have guessed that Diana died all those years ago, she is still hounded in the press to this day....the reason? Well apart form her becoming an unsolved x-file, I think it's Possibly $$$£££!!!

R.I.P obviously doesn't mean what it used to mean.

[Knockmore]

Time to move on I think. Doesn't mean what happened to these people has been forgotten. It just doesn't need to be publicly commemorated.

Mark

[HelenPolly]

One thing I am glad to see though is that the 2 minute silences that started to become the norm a couple of years back (thanks to the media) have gone back to just the 1.

[TheFatControlleR]

I think it's time to move on, if every heinous act ever committed was commemorated with silence we wouldn't get much done.

Exactly...

We could start with these dates, all of which happened in our own back yard;

9th February
20th March
10th April
24th April
15th August
12th October
8th November

Or don't these dead, injured, traumatised and bereaved warrant the same 'remembrance' purely because of scale & numbers.

[TheFatControlleR]

... The press love these "dates", and I think it's the press who pretend to guide public opinion, or indeed fabricate it.

However tragic these events ( and they all are), the press have ruined them with spin, ( as labour has) and drama. It's partly propagandist to justify the wars currently being fought I believe...

Surely not!

D'you mean to say that this headline (todays issue) is propagandist...

Mobile phone grab-shot.

I might add that the article is equally sensationalist and full of supposition and prime bullsh*t.

[T_Sargeant]

A remembrance held locally, I can understand. Personal tribute, definitely. But international...

Have to agree with the TFC, it's a bit much after this much time has past. Sure, allow people who feel they should observe it to do so. But compulsory silences... especially when there have been so many other terrorist acts that we forget about (or at least, don't actively remember).

9/11 was a symbol, the States finally got hit with terrorism that had been felt through the world for a long time. However the States were supposed to be invincible, hence the shock.

[PeterLanky]

Well, call my thoughts unpopular but what the hell. Personally I am sick of silences for just about anything these days. I am sick of self indulgent media people boosting their own egos by telling me who I should remember, when I should remember it and how I remember it. These silences achieve nothing other than reminding the terrorists just how successful they have been.

For years, we managed with one silence, once a year and were happy with it, though I didn't indulge myself. Now, we have them it seems every week, with the only criteria being that it made big news. Lots of people die tragically without making the news, and they deserve just as much respect, but in private.

OK, I've said it now.

[TH-Photos]

9/11 was a wake up call to the Americans. Bush et al need to remind themselves that their policies caused the crashes. The only country where the 1 min silence should be observed is the USA.

7/7 was not a wake up call to Blair et al about his policy of supporting Bush. All the protesters with "Not in my name" banners did this. 7/7 was a reminder that he needs to get out of the american bed. It is right that we should mark this to remind the government of their complicity.

[Sparks]

The terrorists are not targeting Britain because we are allies with America but because we are a Christian Nation which has a democracy and they don't like that, their policy is "First the Saturday people then the Sunday people" we are stuck with it.

Coming from Northern Ireland I have known nothing else but terrorism on a different scale I might add but none the less tragic and that is the state of the world and it happens so often we are familiar with it, which is sad, but forgetting is not the answer either, we wouldn't be able to forget if it was our own.