as someone with a bachelor’s degree in english, i am inexpressibly tired of people telling me to get highly specific jobs that often require highly specific degrees. “just go write for a magazine!” you need a journalism degree for that. “just teach!” you need a teaching certificate, and also fuck you. “just go work at a tutoring place!” tutoring children with learning disabilities, which make up the majority of the clientele at those places, requires not only a teaching certificate but a specialized master’s degree. “just go work at a library!” you need a master’s degree in library science to be a librarian. it is actually a highly skilled and extremely competitive field. you don’t just “go work at a library,” you train for years in the vain hope that you will get one of handful of available jobs. “just go work at a library.” the nerve. the unmitigated gall. “just go work at a library.” ugh.
THE PART ABOUT LIBRARIES IS ESPECIALLY TRUE AND YOU SHOULD SAY IT THANK YOU OP.
For years my mother, who *does* have a degree in Library
Science and should therefore know better, kept sending me adverts for museum
conservator jobs, because I have a Fine Arts diploma.
I just opened my Instagram feed and was inundated with ashen firefighters and burning buildings. “Never forget” is tagged on each post.
I’m not sure I need to see those images again. I’m not sure they serve a purpose other than to make people sad or angry. I feel like we can honor those we lost without watching them die on repeat.
I don’t want to forget the sacrifices of the first responders. I don’t want to forget the tragic loss of life. But sometimes I think about how our attachment to this one event has had disastrous consequences. Maybe it’s time to let go of some of this national pain. Maybe it’s time to let go of our fear. Remembering every detail and reliving every emotion and forcing ourselves to feel this pain again does not seem healthy.
We’ve fought wars. We’ve spent over a trillion dollars fighting those wars. We’ve put in place “security theater” in all of our airports that seems mostly ineffectual. We’ve made racial profiling commonplace. We’ve become scared and intolerant of over a billion people for the actions and ideals of a few.
Maybe we should forget a little bit.
Today is hard for anyone who looks like they could be Muslim. Moreso than any other day. I’ve heard stories of people who call in sick to work and just stay in their homes. It’s hard for them to feel safe on this day. I had one Indian friend who told me of the glaring looks and under-the-breath comments he would receive going out into the world. And there were even a few comments made not under breath. Some folks see this as a consequence-free racism day. And their racism doesn’t even need to be accurate. If you’re brown I guess that’s good enough.
Maybe we should forget a little bit.
Terrorism is all about instilling fear. And I think that was probably the most successful aspect of this attack. People are now petrified of terrorism even though they are more likely to be struck by lightning while eaten by a shark. Yes, we should be vigilant. We should take precautions. We should enact common-sense ideas to help protect us from another tragedy. But we’ve allowed this one event to cancel our right to privacy. We gave into this fear and allowed the Patriot Act to be a law of our land.
Maybe we should forget a little bit.
Extremists are a plague on this world. Our global community should be trying to address this problem. But I don’t know if rampant, indiscriminate violence is working. Yes, sometimes we need to fight, but we need to be careful about how we approach that option. It should be rare and only when necessary. And we should be damn sure about who we are fighting. We kill civilians with drone strikes and call them “collateral damage” as if that somehow makes it okay. Our indifference is then used to radicalize and recruit more people.
Empathy could be so much more powerful. I think sometimes people forget that most victims of Muslim extremists are Muslims themselves. Rather than painting them all with the same brush, maybe we could reach out our hand and help those in dire circumstances. Instead, we turn away refugees and ban Muslims from even traveling here. Sorry, America is closed.
Maybe we should forget a little bit.
I think I will be taking the day off social media. Those images and events are burned into my mind. Being told to never forget isn’t necessary. I’m already there.
I will send my positive thoughts of first responders into the universe. I will think about the families who lost so much. And I will hope that people of color stay safe on this day.
i am sitting on the couch, i hear tapping on the door behind me, i turn around and see this
what do i do
he is here….
i still lose it every time i see this post because someone let a fucking goose into their house just because tumblr said to and if that doesn’t perfectly define all of our experiences on this shitty excuse for a website i dont know what does
theres no difference between exercise and black magic both of them hurt your body at first and drain you of energy but the more you dabble in it the more powerful you become
people that are 20+ and still in their “being an asshole is funney xD r u triggered?????” phase are wild to me. how are you a grown ass adult and still not aware there’s no pride in being the physical manifestation of a headache?
Mooncustafer 
