Document text
- Subscribe - Contact Us - Rate Card - Place an Ad Valley&State Backpage O&E Sports Archives Classifieds Faith&Beliefs Obituaries Revels September 11, 2004 Something to remember It's been three years since the infamous, searing morning of Sept. 11, 2001. The shock has worn off for most of us. The incredible bond we shared from coast to coast has eroded into an intensely bitter, partisan election. The unity of finding Osama bin Laden and crushing al-Qaida has been replaced with terrific division over making Saddam Hussein the target, and the loss of 1,000 more American lives. We can't forget those immediate days following that Autumn tragedy. We can't forget the heroism of that day. Our editor, Andrew Scot Bolsinger, then working just 90 minutes or so from the Pentagon, wrote about the event saying: "Soon, a name will be given to a single day so shocking that, for now at least, it defies naming. World Trade Center Attack? No, that was just the opening chapter. Airline Terrorism? Does nothing to describe the heart-wrenching deaths of New York firefighters coming to the rescue of others. Throughout the day, news anchors compared Tuesday's horror - played out live before a nation's astonished eyes - to Pearl Harbor as perhaps the greatest attack on American soil. The very scope of it all - four hijacked commercial airplanes crashing throughout the East Coast, dive-bombing the Pentagon, destroying both towers of the World Trade Center, crashing into the country's heartland - defies a name. Evil does that. It transcends our capacity to imagine, much less name. Fifty years from now we will remember where we were and what we saw when this disaster took place. By then, whatever name sticks to label this American nightmare will be remote history to the next generation. It will be in the history books. Other generations won't grasp the terror, because by then, evil will probably find even more horrible ways to display itself. But I doubt we will forget. We won't forget the surreal images of towering infernos with no sign of the absolute horror taking place inside and on the streets below. We won't forget the empty feeling in our stomachs, as we struggled to comprehend the staggering reality of the thousands of lives struck down. The evil of this day has seared a nation's soul. But history also teaches us that it will not crush our resolve. For a day, one tragic horrible day, America was brought to a standstill. In the days to come, Americans everywhere will unite with a resolve to thwart this evil and others in the world like it. This event will soon be named. When it is, let's hope it stands for the country at its best in the times of tragedy. Three years later much has changed. The name, simply "9/11," is now a part of our collective vocabulary. But our national resolve has faded into muddled missions of war around the world. The worst of times brought out the best in Americans. What we have done in the three years since that time is less than heroic. 9/11 isn't a cheap stage for political gain. It isn't a call to dominate the world with American might. It isn't a thing to instill fear and blind submission to our leadership. 9/11 was a tragedy, the seriousness of which should never be cheapened. Defending the truth of that day is far more important than ever using it to achieve one's political goals. DailyTidings.com Home Page Valley&State | Backpage | O&E | Sports | Archives | Weather | Classifieds Columnists | Faith&Beliefs | Obituaries | Revels | Subscribe | Contact Us Copyright 2004 Ashland Daily Tidings and Ottaway Newspapers All Rights Reserved Click Here Site Search: .:Advertisements:. RESOURCES - Mail Tribune News - ODOT Road Cams