It Isn't a Holiday, Afterall ...

  Today, as anyone with functioning sensory organs knows, is September 11, 2012. The eleventh anniversary of the scariest day most of us here in America can remember in our lifetimes.  A day when every American looked at our fellow countrymen a little differently. We seemed, on that day, to put aside our differences and divisions and instead took our neighbors by their hand, looked into their eyes, and asked (sincerely for once) if there was anything we could do for them. Tragedy really brings us together in ways that we typically never allow.

  In the years that have followed that tragic day we Americans have endured a fallout that has spread its influence outward, encompassing so many aspects of our lives. Whether it is because we lost a loved one in the attacks, or overseas afterwards serving in the military as our troops wage war on this abstract idea "terror." Fire-fighters and policemen have seen their own jobs' stress-levels increased as they are prepared to charge once more into the fray as first-responders should the forces of evil attack us again; only now with the terrible memory of brothers and sisters lost the first time around. This increased stress has destroyed marriages, decayed parental bonds with children, and driven some to the comforts of the bottle or other numbing agents. Those attacks caused ripples.

  Every year around this time, the media go out of their way to provide reminders. News-casters in somber tones relate to us the stories of those lost. They play the footage like a loop on the TV, first one plane violently smashes into the World Trade Center, then, just a few minutes later the second plane explodes through the next building's facade, punching a flaming hole in the sky.  They never fail to include the footage of the buildings tumbling to the ground like a house of cards, or the grotesque, heartbreaking images of the people trapped in the building choosing the painless way out by plunging to their deaths out the window. They usually don't fail to remind us of the sounds those people's bodies made as they hit the ground.

  All of these images and sounds the media play every September 11th instantly transport us back to that day. We each remember every detail of our experiences on that day. Many of us even remember exactly what we wore or ate that day. If we try to eat the same thing or be in the same place, the experience can be truly surreal. It can be overwhelming from an emotional stand-point. I know there is a stretch of highway near my home in Indianapolis that gives me chills if I drive by on a cool, bright morning. It's like I'm 21 again, and afraid for my mother, who was working at a law office in the tallest building in the city.

  I in no way am suggesting that memorials shouldn't be conducted on this day every year. For those who lost loved ones, memorials can be quite cathartic. We all benefit from remembering our lost loved ones. In a way, we keep them alive with us in this way. I do think, however, perhaps we should encourage through a letter-writing campaign, or email petitions, that the major news outlets and TV networks stop playing the footage from that morning in lower Manhattan.

  For those who lost loved ones in those attacks, it must be gut-wrenching to see that over and over again, every year, like clock-work. To put it in the terms that an individual can relate to, imagine you are one of JFK's kids, and once a year you were made to watch the Zapruder film over and over and have to listen to Walter Cronkite announce your father's death over and over. It has to be the same feeling for people with loved ones on one of those planes. It is a morbid exercise, and only serves to keep Americans angry. It does nothing to memorialize the dead.

 The point is this: September 11th is not a holiday. It is not a day that should be treated like a second Memorial Day. It is not Veterans' Day. Nothing good happened that day, and we continue to give those evil acts power by propping them up and highlighting them. It amounts to, if I may borrow a term from the TV show The Newsroom, Tragedy Porn. I know a few people who were in Manhattan and Washington DC on that day, and I don't believe they spend this day watching a tape loop of the day that changed their lives. I think they would rather go plant a flower in remembrance of the dead, or something equally beautiful and positive. This day is not a holiday, and it should stop being used to sell advertising revenue on The History Channel and NatGeo. So, if you agree, turn off your TV on this 11th day of September, and go create something. Go make something positive. Go make something beautiful, and do so in remembrance. Sure beats the hell out of watching TV with tears rolling down your face.

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