An interesting article in today's NY Times about the upcoming anniversary of 9/11. What is the right way to remember that day, the reporter wonders and asks a few people. One person thinks the ceremonies of reading the names is overdone and says he finds the grief exhausting. A woman who lost her firefighter brother in the attacks says that six years since the event has ben a 'blink of an eye' for her and her family. I can sympathize with both people. The event has become smaller for people and the politics surrounding it has only diminished the event. Some see it as a reason for getting the country into a misguided and mismanaged war. Some even share theories that the attacks were known about in high circles if not planned from the Oval Office. (That this is the same administration that couldn't send ice or water to New Orleans two years ago escapes these eager theorists).
My company lost 16 people on that day. Last year, I was frankly surprised that there was no mention from the managers in New York whatsoever about the day and the people we had lost. We did hear about a moment of silence at the London office but nothing from the managers in New York. Odd, even a bit chilling but I can understand -- for the two senior managers at the time, the events of that day were too close.
Maybe I'll donate money to honor those who were lost. Perhaps I'll have the guts to thank the policemen and women for protecting me and my commuters in Grand Central every morning. I do know I won't forget that day. Even now, when I see a perfectly blue sky on a day of wonderful weather, I still think about that morning when three thousand Americans died in 90 minutes. That will be my tribute always.
