9/11 - Remembering Forever
It was eight years ago, and it was yesterday, and it is today, and it will be tomorrow.
The planet has turned once more on the sky-blue day of horror, the day everything changed. So we stop in recognition of that which we remember quietly every day, that which we will go on remembering.
For remembering is our forever unfinished business.
First, there are the people. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, family and friends. And many strangers with whom we are bonded, whose names ring in love and fury, whose names make the printed page a field of tombstones.
They are murder victims, almost 3,000 strong, killed by 19 foot soldiers of evil, dispatched by fanatics who burned with the desire to attack America. And burn to come again.
Our business in that regard, too, is unfinished.
That Osama Bin Laden remains at large is an affront. We take comfort in faith that he will get his.
So, also, we can only await the end of his Al Qaeda henchmen imprisoned at Guantanamo, most notably 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. It is appalling that the U.S. has failed to punish this grotesquely defiant, mass-murdering enemy.
Far beyond imagining, far beyond sense, far beyond decency, we have vested Muhammed with legal rights extraordinaire while savaging the characters of the American agents who doused him on the waterboard.
Meanwhile, his stay at Gitmo has worked wonders for his health. He looks positively scholarly, complete with flowing beard, in a photograph sent to his family by the Red Cross.
How thoughtful of the angels of mercy to distribute a jihadists' recruiting poster while U.S. troops in Afghanistan fight the very forces that would attack again with glee. These valiant Americans have taken up the cause of protecting these shores. More of our unfinished business.
Do not be fooled by the calm. There have been plots to topple the Brooklyn Bridge, implode Hudson River tunnels and bomb Herald Square subways. It is our good fortune that the NYPD and U.S. authorities have thwarted fresh mass mayhem.
The peace has been wonderful and its aura lulling. But on this day there is focused attention.
There will be 8:46 a.m.
There will be 9:03 a.m.
There will be stock-taking at Ground Zero, site of shamefully slow progress toward a memorial.
There will be praise for thousands of rescue and recovery workers who were sickened and whose needs have never been properly addressed.
And there will be the names, the heart-breaking names, called out over the sacred plot.
Someday we will accomplish the temporal tasks that challenge us. The heart of Ground Zero will beat in fitting recollection. The forgotten victims of 9/11 will have health care, a milestone supported by President Obama in a special piece written for today's Daily News. And our enemies will be defeated as much by the power of American ideals as by the power of American might.
Even then we will remember. For remembering is our forever unfinished business.
SOURCE
For remembering is our forever unfinished business.
First, there are the people. Mothers, fathers, sons, daughters, brothers, sisters, family and friends. And many strangers with whom we are bonded, whose names ring in love and fury, whose names make the printed page a field of tombstones.
They are murder victims, almost 3,000 strong, killed by 19 foot soldiers of evil, dispatched by fanatics who burned with the desire to attack America. And burn to come again.
Our business in that regard, too, is unfinished.
That Osama Bin Laden remains at large is an affront. We take comfort in faith that he will get his.
So, also, we can only await the end of his Al Qaeda henchmen imprisoned at Guantanamo, most notably 9/11 mastermind Khalid Shaikh Mohammad. It is appalling that the U.S. has failed to punish this grotesquely defiant, mass-murdering enemy.
Far beyond imagining, far beyond sense, far beyond decency, we have vested Muhammed with legal rights extraordinaire while savaging the characters of the American agents who doused him on the waterboard.
Meanwhile, his stay at Gitmo has worked wonders for his health. He looks positively scholarly, complete with flowing beard, in a photograph sent to his family by the Red Cross.
How thoughtful of the angels of mercy to distribute a jihadists' recruiting poster while U.S. troops in Afghanistan fight the very forces that would attack again with glee. These valiant Americans have taken up the cause of protecting these shores. More of our unfinished business.
Do not be fooled by the calm. There have been plots to topple the Brooklyn Bridge, implode Hudson River tunnels and bomb Herald Square subways. It is our good fortune that the NYPD and U.S. authorities have thwarted fresh mass mayhem.
The peace has been wonderful and its aura lulling. But on this day there is focused attention.
There will be 8:46 a.m.
There will be 9:03 a.m.
There will be stock-taking at Ground Zero, site of shamefully slow progress toward a memorial.
There will be praise for thousands of rescue and recovery workers who were sickened and whose needs have never been properly addressed.
And there will be the names, the heart-breaking names, called out over the sacred plot.
Someday we will accomplish the temporal tasks that challenge us. The heart of Ground Zero will beat in fitting recollection. The forgotten victims of 9/11 will have health care, a milestone supported by President Obama in a special piece written for today's Daily News. And our enemies will be defeated as much by the power of American ideals as by the power of American might.
Even then we will remember. For remembering is our forever unfinished business.
SOURCE
Comments