September 11th

I start to get anxious every year, as it gets closer to September 11th. By the time the 10th comes around, a feeling of numbness has usually set it, as it did yesterday. I know many people have much worse stories from that day, but for me still, it does not seem like it happened 8 years ago, it seems like it happened last year. I remember many details of the day extremely well, wandering the streets of Washington D.C., seeing the smoke from the Pentagon, hearing rumors of other explosions.

Last year, it was hard to be in Iceland for September 11th, there was no real acknowledgement of the event here, of the humiliating blow the United States suffered on that day.

For the residents of New York, the impact of the devastation that occurred on September 11th is even greater, because it drastically changed the landscape of Lower Manhattan, and the view of Manhattan from all the boroughs. New York has struggled to find a way to both remember the incident and allow for rebirth.

From my own weird perspective then, I am finding some comfort in the fact that people in Reykjavik are having to deal with an issue at least somewhat similar to the urban planning struggle of Manhattanites. Today is the final day for comments on a proposal to rather drastically change the central square in downtown Reykjavik, including tearing down several buildings and moving some others, all to make way for a 5 story hotel.

Icelanders are upset about it, they want this heart of the city to be respected, they want it to be cared for, they want it improved without being ruined, they want history and memory acknowledged, they do not want financial concerns to override everything, including common sense.

And so this year, September 11th in Iceland does not seem so very, very far away from September 11th in the United States.

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