Anniversary

I feel as if I should write something about the 5th anniversary of the attacks on the World Trade Center and Pentagon. It is not easy - the problem is that I cannot separate the attacks from the things that have happened because of the attacks. But it is important to separate them. What happened, in all its evil immediacy, deserves to be remembered, the dead mourned, the survivors celebrated. It is important to keep politics out of it - at least at a distance from it. The infamy should not be erased, and politics tends to do that.

I still don't have much to say about the attacks. We probably don't need to say much. The anniversary should be marked - lower flags, take that moment of silence (as suggested in the otherwise rather embarrassing proclamation of today as "Patriot Day" [there's so much wrong with this - the name - can't they even come up with a name that's not taken?]) - mourn the dead, celebrate the survivors. And then get back to whatever we were doing. The attacks were devastating - but humans get over devastation. We adjust to beams falling; we adjust to beams not falling. That's less comfort than it should be while things are bad - but it is important to remember it. We - human beings, as individuals, communities, as all of us - absorb damage and move on.

Unfortunately, we also make political hay out of suffering. But I'll wait until tomorrow to get too far into that...