Comments on An Unofficial Remember Me Site: Remember Me's Message - Remember the Fallen

As for being models, of working to rid the world o...

2011-06-03T18:11:28.196-04:00

As for being models, of working to rid the world of the evil thoughts and inclinations and deeds and to work to eliminate the admiration and emulation of the evil ones--it is not so easy. It is such a challenge to fight the evil and not become that which transgressed us. And yet, it is a challenge to find that right and good level of compassion and kindness so needed in the world, so lacking that the lack of it might lead people to damage and destroy, and yet to not be SO kind and understanding and patient that we leave room for more cruelty and other evil. We have a saying (I know, my people has a LOT of sayings and teachings!): those who are kind to the cruel end up being cruel to the kind. I am not totally sure that is always true, as I do believe some people DO evil but are not evil, and that if they were raised or educated differently they might change and turn from evil and do good, but on the other hand I do think it is true too too often. So it is dangerous tightrope walk, without a net. My only answer is kindness by default. But don't be stupid. And remember.

Jesse, there is so much more I feel yet cannot put...

2011-06-03T18:00:46.984-04:00

Jesse, there is so much more I feel yet cannot put into words yet. But that which I can put into words, I will try to write perhaps with more brevity.
I think I have told you before that my grandmother was the youngest of 15 and had come to US for a visit and ended up staying when she married my grandfather. Her 14 siblings and their children, and for some of them, grandchildren, were also slaughtered in one day in a forest outside their village/town, along with their neighbours, friends, students, etc. ONe nephew lived by 'playing dead' when he was shot into the pit and other bodies fell on top of him in the pit as they were shot; he waited until he heard the evil ones leave, and then crawled his way out to survive in the forest and eventually make his way to the land of Israel. My grandmother found out the fate of her family. She saved the photos and letters from them over the years, and from my nephew eventually. She and he were able to give life to those relatives I never saw and enrich my soul with their memories, the jokes, pranks, the kindesses, the habits and hobbies of those who otherwise would be but enrichment for the soil.
It is good that the NYT wrote whatever they did for obituaries for those slaughtered in the attacks, but I do hope there will be some project, perhaps at the sites of the attacks, where we can visit and see photos, perhaps even family videos, and read and/or hear the memories families and friends have of their slaughtered loved ones, that their lives will be more than just years of breaths and heartbeats that have left the earth, that their lives will be a blessing. I would read each of these stories. I would read what their everyday lives were like, their concerns, their plans, leading right up to the attacks, in the way we got to see that glimpse of Tyler's life.

I know this article will get very little exposure-...

2011-06-03T16:19:33.119-04:00

I know this article will get very little exposure--even though Kat does everything she can; thank you, Kat!--because it is a come-lately piece, because RM is being forgotten, and its day in the sun is over. I would like to respond now partly because I just love these comments. This site has always been blessed with really good, thoughtful comments.

Solas, Oh my your comments could make a fantastic post on their own. Your tradition is so rich in this area and I am humbled by all that you say. "Just call them the evil ones" seems perfect. Let's do that. And Anne Frank. I'd wanted to bring her up in another article but we thought people would react badly, emphasizing the fact that Tyler is just fictional. But I thought of that spirited, wonderful journal-writer right away, even though Tyler's journal and circumstances were different.

Oh I love: "May his/her/their memory be for a blessing." And that you keep lists of names, interview survivors and so on. Perhaps someday there could be, for 9/11, a place where such things are collected as a tribute to the actual people. I don't know whether that has been talked about.

And your thoughts about us all becoming models, to make it our job to try to thwart evil at every turn, is so very important. As a person, I always wonder whether I'm doing enough of that. One needs to be brave sometimes for that, even for the small everyday evils in our worklives.

And Rum, your lovely words of appreciation make me blush. I just try to write as I feel and think it. I'm sorry that even now, on some message boards, viewers new to RM still call the 'ending' shameful, still have no idea what it's about, and poor Will needs defending again. The way so many watch, as well as read, shows that they have no attention span, that their feelings are as undeveloped as their thought processes. Too much 3-D, etc.?

This is a brilliant article Jessegirl, and I'm...

2011-06-03T06:17:29.062-04:00

This is a brilliant article Jessegirl, and I'm so glad to see you back writing and sharing. (Kat, thanks for posting it, I've missed the updates on this lovely blog so much!!)
Jesse I love how you wrapped everything in such a concise, clear, crisp and elegant way. You have this gift for opening our eyes again and again. What better homage to the fallen could there be? I love the idea that the murderer's name should be forgotten but not the names of the many fallen, although the bitter irony is that we often don't know them. But I had thought, like Solas did, about the example of Anne Frank, one name of a victim agains the name of a mass murderer, although of course Anne is real and Tyler is fictional. It's an interesting parallel.
I love how you showed once more so clearly the real purpose of Fetter's story, which was so badly misunderstood by negligent and lazy critics or moviegoers.
Thanks for mentioning that book by Abigail, I think it will interest many people.
Thanks again for your beautiful, brilliant, tireless work of showing and explaining what the movie's true message is, and for touching our hearts with your crystal-clear words.

Part 2--We are a people with memories, and when pe...

2011-06-02T20:11:28.569-04:00

Part 2--We are a people with memories, and when people pass on, whether 'in their time' or tragically taken before they have lived full lives, we say, when mentioning their name, 'May his/her/their memory be for a blessing.'
What a difference from saying about evil ones-'may their name and memory of them be erased!'
But as long as people continue the thoughts, inclinations, and deeds of the evil ones, as long as people honour them and rationalize or even G-d forbid praise their attitudes and deeds, their name and memory cannot be erased.
So I say it is our job, all of us, to stop, to thwart, the thoughts, inclinations and deeds of evil ones, to teach a better way, to model a better way, so that the names and memories of the evil ones are indeed erased, and so that the names of those they took away from us before their time, and memories of THEM, be a blessing.
Will Fetters showed a way, started a way to do just that. It is a pity that so very many did not understand or appreciate him and his work, and Alan Coulter's and Rob's interpretation of that work into film. How wonderful of you, Jesse, to dedicate so much time and effort to try to get this across. I only wish many many more could read what you have written and view the movie again. And again. And remember that each of the 3000 murdered was a person to be remembered for a blessing, and the evil ones and their actions are to be wiped away.

Jesse, I think this newest work of yours has stimu...

2011-06-02T20:10:15.030-04:00

Jesse, I think this newest work of yours has stimulated more thoughts and ponderings within me than anything previous you have posted. I need to post as 2 comments; my thoughts are not concise enough yet.
One major attribute and mandate of my people is to remember. 'Remember how you were treated; don't treat strangers that way.' 'Remember the Sabbath day.' 'Remember what Amalek did to you when he happened upon you.' We remember and we carry our memories around with us like backpacks sometimes filled with sweet cakes and sometimes with heavy stones. Yet, we are also told to erase certain memories sometimes; we are to erase the memory of that same Amalek whose ACTIONS we are to remember. It was a contradiction and quandary I wondered about as a child: We are to erase the name and memory of a certain evil nation, a certain evil person, and yet we keep mentioning the name! I came to understand that we are supposed to work on the world, with the world, for a better world, in such a way that the names of the evil ones are blotted out, that their names have no honour or tribute or respect, that their actions and their ways of thinking and behaving are wiped away from humanity.
One way we do this is to honour, respect, pay tribute to, remember, those who fell at the hands of the evil ones, and to not even mention the names of the evil ones--just call them--the evil ones whenever we can, whenever we need to refer to them yet know people will know about whom we speak. We keep lists of the names of those who perished and light candles and lights on the anniversaries of their slaughter; we interview survivors and keep records of them, we obtain mementos such as passports, photos, letters, and keep them safe and leave them in view for all to see and witness, even if not firsthand.
One of the most enduring mementos of one of the more recent almost-annihilations of my people is the Diary of Anne Frank, where readers do get to know Anne, her family, her thoughts and observations, her fears and hopes, and then are left at the end hanging, only finding out through history what actually happened. If the evil one was mentioned at all, it wasn't much; her story was HER story, certainly drastically tragically irrevocably affected by the evil ones, but still it was a story of HER life, not of the evil ones.
By writing Memoirs/Remember Me, Will Fetters gave us a twist on Anne Frank's diary. Tyler is fictional after all, and we do get to see his life and his angst and his love and his anger, but not affected slowly and daily as was Anne's at that time, yet his life, too, was still drastically, tragically, irrevocably affected by evil ones.