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Independent Voices

The best way to commemorate 9-11 is to get over it. Sept. 11 was a terrible tragedy, but it doesn’t define America, this generation or me.

It has been used as an excuse to start two wars, to give a boost to Halliburton and the defense industry and for that fascist John Ashcroft to use the Constitution as toilet paper.

The best thing I can think of is to remember what makes America great: our commitment to individual liberties. We need to repeal the Patriot Act and stop making librarians government informants. Long into the future this should not be remembered as the era when Americans lost their rights.



September 11 should be a National Day of Remembrance. The names of those lost should be read at the New York memorial site. Businesses and government facilities should close.

We each should remember past and present loved ones in our own way, perhaps by calling or visiting to express our love and appreciation of those we care for, and reaching out to at least one person we do not know with a random act of kindness.



I think the answer to that is a two-part answer.

First, some type of memorial at the site that lists the names of the lost and gives some brief information about the event would be necessary.

The second part would be to ensure that our history books portray, and continue to portray, the accurate events that led up to the event, the actual event, and the subsequent action of our country. An accurate portrayal throughout history that our children and the future generations will learn at school is the best honor and memorial we can give those whose lives were snuffed out.

I am reminded of a recent conundrum faced by linguists assigned the task of labeling the site of underground nuclear waste storage so that inhabitants of the area 10,000 years hence would understand its dangers. What the linguists’ superiors didn’t consider was that the best way to reduce the dangers of nuclear waste is to stop producing it. The best way for our nation to honor lives lost on 9-11 is to examine and modify a national lifestyle and foreign policy that promote aggression and the fruits of paranoia.

Sometimes it feels like not a day goes by that we aren’t commemorating something, some good, some bad, some spiritual, some sad – I wonder if there are enough days in the year. But we must add 9-11.

The absolute horror and premeditated slaughter of thousands of innocent people, at 8:46 a.m. on that day, has forever changed the complexion of our comfort. We should have a moment of silence to reflect on that moment in our history, when our comfort was shattered.

A moment of silence – simple, private … sometimes less is more.


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