USADaily -
Remembering and honoring tragedy and sacrifice is a good thing.
And it’s possibly also a healthy thing for those who may be still grieving a terrible loss.
But every year around this time, when images of the Twin Towers aflame flash across my TV screen, I wonder how many years it will take until we stop reliving that awful day rather than simply honoring it?
Honoring a tragedy involves wreathes and speeches. Reliving a tragedy is when you incessantly post video of thousands of people about to die, or in the act of dying, on TV screen across the country.
NEW YORK CITY, NY – SEP 2: Light beams are lit at the site in memory of World Trade Center destroyed on September 11. September 11, 2010 in Manhattan, New York City. Songquan Deng / Shutterstock.com
Now, a big part of my problem with the annual national convulsion over 9/11 is that the wound is still fresh for me. I was living in Washington, DC on September 11, and that day freaked me out for life. I don’t need any help remembering it, I need help putting it out of my mind.
All of which makes me wonder what it was like after other tragedies — Pearl Harbor comes to mind. Were Americans forced to watch US troops slaughtered in Hawaii every year in early December? Did it bother anyone at that time — Hawaiians in particular — the way it bothers me now?
And to be clear, I’m not talking about some philosophical opposition to honoring the day. I tend to be patriotic to a fault. I’m talking about the way we honor it — by being forced to re-watch the brutal images over and over.
At some point, we ought to acknowledge that a lot of people who were freaked out that day still haven’t fully gotten over it. And I worry that the way these remembrances are crafted, for some of us at least, cause more harm than good.
Please support our independent journalism with a generous donation. Help us defeat Donald Trump in November.
Follow me on Twitter & Facebook:
Source
