A belated response

This past Sunday several of the bloggers/journalers I read posted moving commemorative tributes to the events of September 11th, 2001.  A few others made note of the day and wondered aloud how the day had managed to pass them by without the impact of previous years.  One of those was Ralphie of The Kerckhoff Coffee House.

After making the difficult admission that he didn't really know what the proper way to mark the day might be, Ralphie asked an honest question:

"Did anyone out there make an effort to do something relevant?"

As I browsed around the blogosphere on Sunday and Monday, I noticed a growing number of people who had simply rehashed their personal recollections of the attack... or who were wrestling with their own frustration at not having made more of an effort to mark the day properly.

I'll admit that I came away from every one of these well-written posts feeling troubled... but it took me several days to figure out why. 

Now I know. 

The real question jumped out at me during my drive home last night:

Why are we making such an effort to single out the events of 9/11 for national commemoration? 

Don't get me wrong, having watched the events of that day unfold from my mid-town Manhattan office.  I was/am as horrified as anyone by the viciousness of the attack and the horrific loss of life.   

But still... why have we chosen that specific event? 

One could argue that we do so because it was the opening salvo in the current war.  However, not only would that be incorrect... but most people still refuse to openly admit (even to themselves) that there is a World War underway.

It might be that some people see 9/11 as the first big event of the current conflict to take place on American soil.  OK, that's fair...  but so what?  Does that mean that the Marines who died in Lebanon and Saudi Arabia... the U.S. Embassy workers who have been targeted for death in various locations around the globe... the passengers on various airliners that were blown out of the air... a certain wheelchair-bound cruise ship passenger who was murdered and tossed overboard, aren't also casualties of this same war? 

I could go on and on... but the question remains:  Why do we insist on narrowing the focus of our national attention rather than widening it? 

If we were to have a single day on which we remembered all victims of the current war against Militant Islam, complete with a long list of names, dates, locations, etc.... I think it would go much further towards finally waking people out of their complacent idea that 9/11 was horrible a fluke... or a one-off attack carried out by a handful of dedicated fanatics.

With all respect to those who died on September 11th, 2001, as well as those who lost loved ones in that horrible attack... I think we are doing them, and ourselves a grave disservice by glancing sadly back through self-imposed tunnel vision at the events of that single day.

America has had rallying cries in the past such as "Remember the Maine" and "Remember Pearl Harbor" which helped focus the nation on the deeds perpetrated by those we sought to defeat on the battlefield.    But we immortalized and commemorated those attacks specifically because they were clear casus belli - events that required us to respond with declarations of war. 

Continuing to commemorate 9/11 as an isolated event, divorced from any larger conflict and without a formal declaration of war on Militant Islam, does nothing for those who died... and actually perpetuates a growing danger for those of us left alive.