As we make our slow crawl towards September 11, 2003 and the second anniversary of that day, I can't help but notice that the media has decided to move on.
With the second anniversary of the Sept. 11 attacks only three weeks away, TV networks have planned nearly no special programming to commemorate the horrible events of that day.In New York, many of the Sept. 11-related events will be private and attended only by the families of the victims.
Instead of breaking into regular programming, the major broadcasters will cover the day in their regular newscasts.
I felt a small fist of fury take hold of my heart when I read that. The fury is mingled with sadness and fear and that strong voice that has resided in my head for almost two years now keeps repeating: We Must Not Forget.
We do not need another slo-motion replay of those enormous blades of steel crashing into the World Trade Center, for that image is surely burned on the retinas of every single person who was witness, whether physically or through the television.
We do not have to play a repeat of that day's events in order to commemerate the lives lost and the lives ruined. There are so many other things that could be said and most important of those things is how we are rebuilding; our lives, our spirits, America. We can do nothing worse than to make our enemies think that 9/11 has become an afterthought and two years later we are complacent and forgetful and perhaps we need another wake up call.
No, we should be showing progress while still paying tribute to those left behind. The coverage of 9/11/03 should show the babies of the widows of 9/11, carrying on the spirit and personalities of their fathers. It should show the plans for the rebirth of the site of the World Trade Center, the gardens that will spring to life there, the entries for the memorial design contest.
There should be investigative pieces on how far we've come in the War on Terror, all the terrorists who had their hands in that day who have been captured, all the cells that have been broken up. There should be a big reminder flashing across the screen at one point that there have been no terrorist attacks on American soil since that day.
Article comments
1 - Eric Olsen
Thanks Michele, very powerful and important. I think your tone and emphasis are about exactly right. "It Ain't Over 'Til It's Over" and for all the reasons you mentioned, it isn't over.
2 - Al Barger
Very well written, Michele.
I might suggest another way of looking at the 9/11 anniversary, though. We shouldn't forget- indeed, I'd like to have a DVD with all the strongest graphic footage, particularly the people jumping from the towers. That's the most horrifying video I've ever seen, and it might be good to steel people's nerves, and keep these images in mind when they are hearing about our continuing war casualties.
However, it might also be seen as a sign of our strength that we're not continuing to dwell on it obsessively. The economy is rebounding, and people are mostly just going about business- which now unfortunately now has to include knocking down a couple of nasty dictatorships.
We are not that traumatized, that terrorized. They hit us with their best, and two years later it's not that big a deal to us. We continue to knock down terrorists and their supporters, but otherwise are largely unaffected.