Opinion

From the editor: Using calendar as language

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Today is September 11.

It is awkward to realize, because for the last year Sept. 11 has been a day in the past. I cannot remember any other event that has so peculiarly been attached to the date on which it occurred. The most common analogy made last fall, the attacks on Pearl Harbor, became eternally linked with the location of the Hawaiian military base where Japanese bombers surprised American troops in 1941. For some reason, “the terrorist strikes at the World Trade Center and the Pentagon” became simply “the events of Sept. 11” and finally just “9/11.” Whereas some cannot remember on what December Sunday Pearl Harbor took place, this more recent date is so imprinted on our collective consciousness that to get it wrong hardly seems possible, let alone proper.

But how proper is it to compress the loss of thousands of lives, the geopolitical, ideological and historical implications, or the revelation about human capacity for deed, into a few numbers that used to represent a square on the calendar? And what to do with today and all the 9/11s to come? Of course it is totally probable that, several years from now, we may speak more specifically of 9/11/2001 or find an entirely other way to refer to that psychologically pricking pinpoint in time. But for now, we have “9/11,” and today we have another Sept. 11.

People often use anniversaries, happy as well as tragic, to remind themselves of the idiosyncrasies of life they supposedly fail to appreciate all the other days of the year. Almost as often, this is called putting things “into perspective.” To intertwine the political and humanist issues stirred to the forefront by last Sept. 11 into a single date, numeral, word or symbol is the instinct of language. The habit enables us to speak meaningfully of such complex ideas — and not speaking about such things would be irresponsible — but it does not keep the breadth of perspective in view, so to say. Without meaning, “If 9/11 taught us anything …” I will say it is important to realize the dangers of lumping diverse realities and intentions into a singular understanding.

Splitting the constellation of meanings we intend when we invoke “9/11” in conversation will help make the discussion more valuable, and it will help today’s date and others like it have meaning on their own merit.

Sincerely,

Lars Russell
Editor in Chief