Keeping the TV Off

The big event this week is that it's the week of the anniversary of September 11, 2001. Notice that I said "the week of the anniversary." All the media have already begun their "coverage" of the anniversary, which seems to me to be more of a media event than a moment for us to think of what happened last year, who we are now, and where we're going. My theory is that the networks are hoping people will stay glued to their televisions because they want to recoup the advertising income that they lost last year.

Now, some people have done some very good writing and photographic work about the events of the past year, but for my part, I don't want more than a taste of it. If there's something that is a new way of looking at what has happened and where we are going now, that would be worthwhile. I am skeptical -- from what I have seen so far -- that we can hope for much of that, and I don't want to subject myself to the general coverage in hope of finding something unique and insightful. I don't need help remembering last September. I could recount the moments from when I woke up on September 11th jolted awake by what struck me as a bizarre news report on NPR through the events of the next several days. I do want to pause for a moment or two to think about those who died. I do not want to pause for a week to have the same few moments played over again. Marvin Kitman's Newsday column on the media coverage fit pretty well with what I've been thinking.

I am not criticizing those who want to spend time with what the media have prepared, who find that that is a fitting way to deal with their memories and thoughts about the last year. I am saying only that that way does not fit me.