Pick Your Poison: Wednesday 9-11-13

I don’t mean to bring everybody down, but if you look at the date or check the news, you’re sure to be reminded that today is the 12th anniversary of the 9/11 attack. It’s not something that I really like talking about, yet I struggled to come up with something more fitting on a day like today. While it truly was a tragic day for the United States, I wonder if we’ll ever get to the point where it becomes “just another day” again. I don’t mean to trivialize what happened, or even throw out the memories of lost loved ones, but my thinking is to eliminate what the date symbolizes. That doesn’t mean forgetting the lessons we learned on that fateful day either. It’s about reclaiming what was taken from us, which was largely our sense of security. A group of terrorists achieved their goal and terrorized a nation. While most, if not all of those terrorists are now dead or in prison, the mark that they made will be felt for the foreseeable future, and perhaps all time. It will appear in history books and live on through memorials in New York. In a sense we can celebrate because we are a stronger and more vigilant nation today than we were 12 years ago, but we had to pay a hefty price to get there. I guess what I really want is something great to happen on a 9/11 in the future to help balance things out, you know? So we can say, “Yeah, on this day in 2001 we were attacked, but then on the same day in 2015 we achieved world peace.” Being able to neutralize a hallmark of tragedy, like the eventual fade of our own scars, changes our character but also has a remarkable restorative power. I’ll be so happy if we can eventually get to that point. Anyways, let’s have a “just another day” edition of Pick Your Poison. Don’t miss tracks from Astrid Swan, Blair Crimmins & The Hookers, GoNorthToGoSouth, The Herms, Miguel, Otonana Trio and The Wyld. In the Soundcloud section after the jump, stream songs from Blitzen Trapper, Cate Le Bon, Cut Copy, The Dismemberment Plan and Young Galaxy. Blood Diamonds remixing Chvrches is pretty great too.