09/11/09
Eight years after the attacks of September 11, and so far, there are only a few articles / blogs on the anniversary of the worst attack on American soil.
Since then, we have been committed by two Presidents to two ongoing military operations that have no end in sight. More importantly, this conflict has been a contributing cause to the increase of suicides of our men and women who serve our country in uniform.
The simple fact that the news / political writers, editors and publishers of this country would rather use its collective energy to investigate a Congressman from South Carolina who was invisible before he went off on Obama Wednesday shows how far we have fallen as a profession.
Get a grip! Focus on reality instead of the shadows. We should spend at least one day to reflect and remember on what connects us as Americans… seems like this would be a good day to do so.
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7 Responses to “09/11/09”
For some reason 9-11 always makes me think of Dick Cheney.
[...] Tony Campbell at The Moderate Voice: Eight years after the attacks of September 11, and so far, there are only a few articles / blogs on the anniversary of the worst attack on American soil. [...]
To some extent, I think people struggle to find something original and appropriate to say today.
Of course there are also plenty of examples of people for whom propriety isn't an issue.
Maybe you just have a thing
for Dick Cheney.
The lack of something original or suitably appropriate to say may just reflect the natural process we all go through when dealing with death. Eight years ago. we all had fresh and horrible images burned into our brains. The shock was numbing yet all consuming. We collectively experienced a grief we usually experience only with the personal loss of a loved one.
A good friend had her son collapse and die at football practice 9 years ago. I met Becky 2 1/2 years after the fact, but she still was practically non-functional; she had even attempted suicide the year before. Her life was abject sadness punctuated by horrific recollections. She and I would have essentially the same conversation whenever we saw each other, and for my small part, I always tried to help her find anything that helped her get through the day, the week, or the next holiday.
I saw Becky yesterday, and her life has healed if not entirely, it has healed to where she now can work, enjoy her Grandchildren, and even mention Bradly without tearing up as she once did. It's not she's over anything, who could be? It's that she's compensated for a loss that will never go away by using her son's death to find motivation and purpose again in daily life by loving those grand-kids and telling them of their uncle they will never meet.
I know I'm butchering this, but the point I am trying to make is simple. We no longer have the shock nor horror we shared that day. As this piece asks, Have we learned how to integrate this common tragedy into some kind of positive shared purpose? I'm not sure we have, there are plenty who would like to keep the hate and moral indignation 9/11 engendered. The problem with that response is that it does no honor to 9/11s victims or all of us left here to make sense out of tragedy.
For me, it is just a reminder, to honor our veterans (and soldiers) and our first responders. This doesn't mean supportive bumper stickers and speeches, and then turning around and voting against their interests. It means helping out the widows and children of soldiers who are dying in these wars. It means pulling over when an ambulance or fire truck needs to get by. It means helping out the families of fallen officers and fire fighters in our own communities. These things have nothing to do with politics.