How well do we remember and honor Pearl Harbor? What about the Oklahoma City bombing, an act of terrorism, the 2nd worst in the world, committed by one of our own citizens?
The mistake is how we responded to the 9/11 attack. The terrorists wanted to undermine our economy when they attacked the twin towers. Their attack didn't do it but our foolish actions over the next 6 years did it.
The mistake here is making such a grandstand of it, for we give credit to those who committed the action in the first place, a successful terrorist act honoring successful terrorists.
Nobody, "rose out of the ashes," they died. Emergency personnel and volunteers, the people on flight 93, they all died trying to make a difference and for that we should honor them, not the act itself.
The person sitting in his/her office, staring at a monitor when the plane crashed into their building. They were victims of a terrorist act, not heroes. Human beings lost in an attack that should not have brought our guard down from our own government's corruption.
We were awakened by the attack to our own government's Machiavellian nature when our lust for revenge was exploited, driven to attack two nations and spend trillions in a war effort that should have instead been a surgical strike team.
Unfortunately we were exploited, and the entire nation fell victim to a greater tragedy --- the wars in Afghanistan and Iraq --- which have resulted in the loss of 5000+ U.S. sons & daughters (soldiers), the physical crippling of +30,000 and the mental scarring of hundreds of thousands of our family members, as they participated in a dirty war that has caused the death of over 100,000 civilian casualties --- men, women, elderly and children --- in a foreign nation.
It was our mistake, as a people. We turn on the television these past few days and are struck by the video of the towers being destroyed yet again. The actions of that day were tragic, no doubt. But let us not continue to play out the events of that day.
Why subject those of us who were "struck" by this event, each and every year? It serves no great honor to torture those of us who lost friends or family. It certainly doesn't bring solace to those who lost their sons and daughters in this senseless war we were all duped into supporting.
There are things you remember and honor, and then there are people you remember and honor. What happened on 9/11 was tragic, of this there is no doubt. But it is a mistake to repeat this event, on television and otherwise, as a show of remembrance. It doesn't honor the victims, it rewards the victors.
