EDITORIAL: Remembering 9/11 (09/17/06)

EDITORIAL

Remembering 9/11

"Five years ago, this date - September the 11th - was seared into America's memory. Nineteen men attacked us with a barbarity unequaled in our history. They murdered people of all colors, creeds and nationalities - and made war upon the entire world. ..."

- President George W. Bush, addressing the nation from the Oval Office.

Remembering 9/11

This week our country marked the fifth anniversary of the terrorist attacks of September 11, 2001. It was a day that changed everything, so much so that history in this country is now divided into pre-9/11 and post-9/11. It also changed the way the U.S. looks at the world - and the way the world looks at the U.S.

On September 11, 2006, Americans - all of us - stopped to remember. We thought back to where we were on that date five years earlier; we reflected on what we saw on our television screens on that beautiful sunny day that became filled with horror; we prayed for all those we lost and for their families.

The toll was enormous. In one day we lost 2,973 people - 2,749 at the World Trade Center, 184 at the Pentagon and 40 in Shanksville, Pa. They were passengers on regular commercial flights and people at their jobs. They were innocents going about their daily lives. In the process, many of them became heroes: the passengers of United Airlines Flight 93 who seized control of the plane and crashed it into a field in Pennsylvania so that it would do the least possible harm, the firefighters, police officers, military personnel, the regular folks who tried to help others escape the Twin Towers' inferno.

On this fifth anniversary, there were countless memorial events across the U.S. Particularly moving was the memorial at ground zero, where the names of all the deceased were read, revealing, once again, the diversity of the victims.

September 11, 2006, was primarily a day to remember, not an occasion to politicize a national and international tragedy. At times, however, there was a thin line between the two. Thus, while President George W. Bush began his remarks to the nation by focusing on a date "seared into America's memory," when "our nation saw the face of evil," he went on to present a case for his controversial policies in Iraq. It was an ill-advised detour. And politics surfaced also in Washington, where members of Congress argued over the wording of a resolution about 9/11.

President Bush concluded his televised address by pointing out that, five years ago, "Americans united in prayer, came to the aid of neighbors in need, and resolved that our enemies would not have the last word. The spirit of our people is the source of America's strength. ..."

Indeed, on that horrible, fateful day five years ago, we were all together - no matter where we were born, or in what church we worshipped. As we remember September 11, 2001, we hope its memory can unite our country once again in these trying and divisive times.

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