As someone who lived in Manhattan for many years, witnessed 9/11, lost several dear friends and actually came to SD partly to escape the constant nagging feeling that we’d forever be living in fear and paranoia of another event like that, I see both sides. I think that the media coverage can feel like hype, causing all the special personal details of each person lost (and all those who died or were forever changed in the tragic wars that followed) to be brushed over and forgotten. And then there’s also the (valid) criticism about what’s the big deal, why not focus as much attention on, for example, those who’ve died from the famine in Somalia or countless other tragedies or wars?
But for me, after I try to take my personal experience out of the equation, I think the reason it’s such a significant event and one that our country can’t help but obsess over every year around the anniversary, is that it was the dividing line between a time of blissful ignorance and a real loss of innocence. And I think for most, the fact that this even happened is still a shock and almost surreal, as if, 10 years later, we’re still trying to process it. Who the hell ever thought that people would fly airplanes into buildings to kill people, and not just any people, but U.S. citizens?! Crazy.
Personally and very selfishly, I’d be much more comfortable not dredging up the intense sorrow I feel every year thinking about that day and those that closely followed, but on the other hand, I think it’s inevitable and probably necessary.
