Perhaps it is time to forget. If not forget, then perhaps perspective could be given. Putatively to avenge for 9/11, we have entered two wars. From Afghanistan we have seen 1,279 of our troops killed, and from Iraq we have seen 3,495 of our troops killed. 2,819 died on 9/11. At this point, the odds of suffering another terrorist attack on the scale of 9/11 are non-trivial. As for the peoples of the countries we’ve attacked, their dead number at least 100,000. There has been a lot of blood spilled, and there doesn’t seem to be a whole lot to show for it.
While people talk about a Muslim community center near the World Trade Center, an office building is rising on the 9/11 site itself. It will be 1776 feet high. It will display the names of the dead on the outside. There will be some sort of museum to commemorate the dead. But in the end the site will go back to its former purpose, the conduct of business. Apparently the business of high finance is not too profane, but having a prayer room two blocks away is profane.
As time has removed me from 9/11, I increasingly recognize that it does not really define me. Certainly it defines my generation and it is a part of the larger national imagery. But at the same time, I wonder what the average Bostonian felt when he received news of what happened at the Alamo. I imagine, he would have shared my own feeling: it was a terrible thing that happened to them. I can’t use the word us.
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