Traffic to this site has more than quadrupled since yesterday morning, and I suspect that this is part of a larger trend of folks looking to the independent web for alternative information, thoughts and viewpoints on the attacks in NYC and DC yesterday. As has been widely noted, during the hours immediately following the plane crashes mainstream news sites were almost impossible to access, presumably due to tremendous traffic, making smaller, indy websites both attractive and a necessity. These sites–especially weblogs–tend to feature very fresh updates that feature ideas from outside the box of mainstream “received wisdom,” regardless of specific viewpoint.
I hope and believe this is a positive trend, that perhaps it’s helping people cope with these tragedies by demonstrating that they’re not alone, that there are others who might share their feelings and viewpoints, even if they don’t get them reflected back by the mainstream media. The undending media reportage of these awful events and their aftermath can have a positive unifying affect, but I think can also be alienating to people who continue to hear talking heads and pundits parrot the same opinions and analysis over and over again, especially when they can’t or don’t agree with those analyses. There’s a wider world out there, and it does seem a bit easier now to find.
Myself, I’m still not sure how to process all that’s happened in the last two days. The shock may be wearing off, but it’s being replaced by more sadness. Probably the moment when it really broke me down yesterday is when I first heard the report that as many as 200 firefighters who had gone in to save lives after the blasts were likely killed by the collapse. I can’t comprehend the bravery and the tragedy. I also can’t comprehend all the talk of WAR that I keep hearing, from the President to Senators and journalists and pundits ad nauseum. I don’t care if these were acts of war, it takes a strong and integrous nation not to be suckered into fighting fire with fire, war with war. I don’t want to see more young American men die just to bring about revenge or vengeance. I’d like to think that we can rise above as a nation and gov’t and somehow find a way to pursue JUSTICE. Let me be clear, war is not justice, and justice will not be had by war.
I know I’m not alone in this feeling, I know this because of the ‘net and because of people in my own community. I joined more than 100 of them last night at our IMC, and from the calls that streamed in today to the Center, I know there are many more who couldn’t make it. I hope that some of you from all over are reading this right now. I am sad and I am angry, but I do not want rage to become the emotion that marks the senseless passing of all these people. I hope that these deaths somehow can spark a little sanity, a little effort to reduce the killing. Because I cannot doubt, if the US goes on a rampage to bring about vengeance, there will only be vengeance in return, and the blood will only continue to flow.
Sorry, this post isn’t all about media–somehow the media by itself doesn’t seem so important to me today. But, still, I am concerned with what we can do with the media.
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