We. We. We. We. We. We. Will Never Forget. Those were the words on the screen at the end of 8:46, a 9/11 film shown this weekend at the GI Film Festival. You could hear audience members sniffing, digging in their purses for tissues, taking long shaggy breaths. Like me, they were probably remembering their own 9/11. Their own experiences of warfighting and deployment. Their own loss of friends, family members, brothers in arms. We will never forget.
“Oh yes, we will,” said a nagging voice inside my head. “We will forget. We are already forgetting.” Although we are good people who intend to remember 9/11 and Fallujah and Pearl Harbor and Bunker Hill every Memorial Day, we do forget. We are a nation of forgetters. Not because we are thoughtless, but because we are designed to forget.
Earlier this month, scientists from the Scripps Research Institute announced that they identified the mechanism that is an essential part of actively forgetting memories. Although we used to think that forgetting was something that passively occurred over time, their findings show that the act of forgetting is an active process that is probably regulated by the brain.
I am picturing this mechanism like a teacher with a giant eraser following behind me on the chalkboard, erasing everything I write that I won’t need for the test.
Which sounds like kind of a good idea. Like our brains are working for us, continually weighing memories, pitting them against each other, culling the most important. The scientists claim that the ability to actively forget is biologically efficient.
Yet the process of forgetting is hurtful in its efficiency when it comes to war. Watching the movie about 9/11, I was surprised how much I had let myself forget about the beginning of the war. I thought those memories were seared upon me. Realizing how our own memories–even our memories of the fallen–do fade is painful. It feels like we are letting them down. Which is probably why we use Memorial Day and Veterans Day and 9/11 to help us overcome the mechanism to forget things that hurt. These holidays become our counter-mechanism to remind.
We remind ourselves of the fallen. We remind ourselves of the battle scarred. We remind ourselves of the living who went forward for all of us. We. We. We. We. We. We. Will Always Remind.
Thank you Veterans and families for your service. Thank you for the lives you continue to lead. And know that we remind ourselves of you on this and every Memorial Day.
Check out Military.com’s Memorial Day 2012 website to see more about discounts, events, and the history of Memorial Day.
About Jacey Eckhart
Comments
I must say that I am guilty of sometimes getting caught up with my daily life that I forget more often than I would like to admit… thank you for holding us accountable. Thank you to all who have and still serve, especially to the families of those who have made the ultimate sacrifice.
I'm from England and i show my respect to the fallen retired or active duty . No one really cares anymore unless you have served or know some one that did . To most people its just another day to drink and BBQ or go shopping for the lucky ones that get the day off . As most people are made to work the day in retail . People im from a foreign country and show and pay more respect that you do . To my wife thank you for your 20 years of service
Every time I see a soldier in uniform and especially heard that they are deploying or just came back from deployment, my heart goes to them and cries inside for them. I thank God for my husband came back safe and sound from two deployments so far. As a military wife, grew up in Brooklyn NY, I constantly see soldiers around me, it just brings back memories of 9/11 for me all the time. There's always tears coming out of my eyes every time I hear/read/see the news about the many wars going on this world. Many thanks and prayers goes out to all the soldiers, fallen, active and retired and to their families for all their sacrifices.
How can we forget. Our lives have changed drasticlly since 9/11. I am constantly reminded of the acts of terrior which is put apon us almost daily since 9/11. The cost of war which we are currently fighting today. The men and women who are scared and killed every day over there. The threats here in our own Country. My friends and family I worry about who are over there fighting. And of course, what of the outcome? Have we ever heard the word Victory from our President? Nope.
Could the attacks on 9/11 have been prevented ?
if a dollar could buy a life and a penny could make a bullet then the ones that we leave behind
would be the ones to take and pull it –
Could the 9/11 attacks be prevented ?
Now that time has past what was done is done and to ask if it could
have been prevented would be the same question as "can we change the past" ? NO
But can we forget ??? Not me – However it almost seems that the worst trageties
take place when we forget and stop looking during peace time
we put our selves in a situation where "Social Comfort " becomes
the reality that we don't see what happens when we are not looking –
Can the 9/11 attacks be prevented ??? Only if we remember the last attack on 9/11
then just may be in can be prevented from happening again this year lest we forget
and stop looking at what is important to us as a people and what matters to us
the most as adults would be the only crime againts us that would lead us to
victory would most likely be the end of us all – So – " yes , the nine eleven attacks
could be prevented from happening to us when we leave the next generations
with the fear that It could happen again to us if we forget the last time it happened to us
then we put our selves in a situation where people as a whole become
so dosile as to accualy belive that the Dollar any value without the threat of fear –
Il keep my cash and il keep my guns
so that when the treat of fear is here
i can belive that what happens to me is
reality and for me , what happens to
another is not for me but can only be reality
to the one experiencing what has happened
to us as a people — " without fear there can be no control " has no
purpose outside of the terror of reality
when one is so self relient on beliveing
that any one could accualy know for sure what goes on
around us when we are no longer aware that the Dollar
is not mine and is not yours but is ours as a people
to relate on what matters most to us and life passes
them by we never die in the face of fear
but we fade when the terror goes away
then we are put in a state of forgetfullness
that what i do affects everything around me
yet the world does not revolve around me
if i remember the terror i have seen where we
have been then maybee i would say
"DON'T CRY OVER SPILT MILK BABY KILLER FOR I DIE
FOR MY MISTAKE AND I LIVE FOR YOURS "
OH YEA " IM A KILER " E-xo3 911 – 10-1-40- 80840 -90 guess who spook :) FBI KID –
Potts arms be blazoned two bars over the end of the left _thats me we let binladen FREE :) 808-40 ??? BYE :)
SEE YA LATER ALIGATOR :) i will never forget ____
yes all could have been prevented, had clinton done something when the WTC was attacked in the 90's, yes if the democrats wouldn't have insisted on the smoking gun theory, yes if the politicans would butt out of military decisions, cause the only battle they've seen is who get laid first and who pays for the drinks, yes, if when we attacked afganistan we closed off the retreat routes to pakistan first, but in the long run, if it wasn't the WTC it would have been someone or something else because an idealism as fanatical as the muslim is, they will not give up killing anyone who does not see life their way even their own people as we see on a daily basis. And there are the blind who think they will change and insist on dropping our guard.