Assailed as we are today by commemorations, reminiscences, memorials, etc. of the 3,263 murdered by terrorist psychotics on September 11th of last year, I have come to the conclusion that the most appropriate way to mark this day is NOT by specifically commemorating those killed by Al Quaeda terrorists a year ago today. Murder is murder, and sheer quantity of simultaneous deaths should not be what determines whether and how we react to the tragedy. Why do the victims of 9/11 deserve this massive international commemoration any more than any of the individuals murdered on a daily basis throughout the history of the human race? If we are going to go about commemorating victims of fatal acts of intentional violence, we should commemorate ALL of them. But who can honestly say he gives even a passing thought to the hundreds - thousands - of murder victims that are killed daily in the U.S.? Let alone devoting an entire day of international mourning to them (not to mention all the build up to this day, or, indeed, the continual stream of media reminders over the past year).
I do not mean to say we should forget or trivialise or minimize our remembrances and tributes to the victims of 9/11/01. What I am saying is that we should ALSO grant equal consideration - memories, tributes, and prayers - to the victims of ALL OTHER MURDERS throughout human history. To do otherwise is, in a twisted way, to reward Al Quaeda for affecting us in a way that other equally tragic acts of murder by other equally reprehensible psychopaths do not.
Finally, I think we should all reflect on exactly why that is so. Why are we so easily inured to the daily tragedies around us that it takes a tragedy on the scale of 9/11/01 to finally "wake us up"? The shattering impact of the murder of a single child or father or mother or friend on his or her loved ones is no less powerful and enduring and excrutiating - and no less worthy of memorialisation - than the equally shattering impacts of the murders of the victims of 9/11.
Let us remember ALL victims of murder in our reflections and prayers today, and every day. This is the ONLY appropriate way to remember 9/11, IMO.
Karen Mercedes http://www.radix.net/~dalila/index.html ________________________________ I want to know God's thoughts... the rest are details. - Albert Einstein
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