My daughter-in-law (in less than a year!) posted a courageous blog article about 9/11. You can read it here: Make Us Instruments of Your Peace. She reminds us that while 9/11 is a terrible tragedy, there are tragedies that occur worldwide, some of which our country is responsible for, and we should not focus only upon our own sorrow.
I flinch whenever I see the day called “Patriot Day”. It was not patriotic to be burned alive, crushed to death, mangled under tons of rubble. It is evil to usurp the horror of this day, to elbow past the grief of the families who lost loved ones, to twist their tragedy into a day of chest beating in favor of political ideology.
We remember and respect all who died on that day. It was a terrible day. But for me, a more terrible day happened a little over a year later. No one gives speeches on October 3. No one flies flags. No one dedicates parks and statues. But October 3, 2002 was a worse day for me.
Tragedy is not measurable by numbers of dead or by method of death. If we are to set September 11 on a pedestal, let us set it as a day of remembrance for all who have died, in all wars and in no wars, in large numbers and in small. Let us call it Remembrance Day, for death is no respecter of nation or ideology.
Ariyawen 