Remembering the Horror 10 Years Later

 PEACE ON EARTH -U2
This song was played frequently after the disasters of 9-11. It was as appropriate then as it is today.




There are a few moments in one's life that are so profound and incredulous that we can't help but have certain images forever ingrained in our memories. I have a few more than the average person but we all have personal ones as well as the ones we share with humanity.


It is the media who tells us and reminds us that we will forever remember where we were when we heard about or saw:
- John Fitzgerald Kennedy was assassination in Dallas
- The first lunar landing and steps on the moon and hearing those infamous words "One Small Step..."
- The Challenger exploding moments after take off
- Hearing that Elvis, John Lennon, Michael Jackson died (I think you have to be a fan for that one)
- and of course 9/11


It is something I wouldn't mind forgetting actually. The terror of the actions targeting so many innocent people touched me in ways nothing else ever has. If it could happen there it could happen anywhere :( It was harder because it was a work day and all I wanted was to be with my children...to hold them....to say I love you. I went out for lunch and every radio station on the band was talking and speculating. Nobody really had any answers or explanations, nobody could offer assurance that there wasn't more to come. Living in a large metropolis like the Toronto area, it was even more eerie because there were no planes flying back and forth in the skies. We get so used to hearing them sometimes minutes apart that we barely take notice until its' gone. Umm...that hit a nerve. Just like family and friends sometimes?


Today everyone is remembering. TV stations were offering up live coverage of commemorative ceremonies at Ground Zero. But the one thing that kept running through my mind was that just days prior there was news reports that New York City had recieved credible threats to security to take place on the 10th anniversary. And then I saw a comment by one New Yorker who said he had been interviewed by a news station and asked if he would ever feel safe. His response (which was unluckily to be aired) was that he would feel safer if the media would stop giving the terrorists the attention that they want and to stop telling people that they should be afraid. How profound! The media does do a very good job of working people up into a frenzy of fear. Near celebrities are made of the scum that seeks to harm. Just off the top of my head...Mark David Chapman, Timothy McVeigh, The Pig Farmer, Paul Bernardo. But can you recall the names of the victims as quickly as you recall the crimes perpetrated?


And the point is this. Each year of September 11 the names of those killed in these cowardly acts is read out for all to hear. I don't have a problem with that, but what of all the similarly innocent servicemen and woman who were killed in the ensuing pissing contest that occurred.  Consider please that 52 Canadians died in the terror attacks, but at least 152 died overseas. Although the 1:3 ratio may not be the same for our American neighbours, I would suggest that the death toll in combat missions is higher than that of 9/11. And this is the part that I find disturbing. Where the lives of those who offered to put their lives on the line in the protection of other of lesser value?


Back in my younger years, we remembered the fallen soldier and the injured soldiers with solemn reverence and deep national pride. In Thunder Bay, where I grew up, Remembrance Day on November 11 was often quite chilly. We just bundled up warmly because we knew it was our duty to stand there in the blistering cold wind and say privately and publicly "Thank you for giving me freedom." This country, Canada, that we called home was a great place we didn't want to make it into our old country...it was great the way it was. But I digress...that is fodder for a blog another day :)


I don't want the ceremonies dedicated to September 11 to stop or change (unless there is talk once again of not allowing Emergency Service Personnel to attend in favour of the bags of wind called politicians). What I want is that we do more not to forget the many who die just as needlessly in countries far from the shores of Canada.