Is It Over Yet?

[posted by Callimachus]

Look, maybe this is crappy, and maybe it's just me being an ass, but now that it's passed, I'll say it: I really could live without the five year "big anniversary" 9/11 retrospectives.

I understand personal memorial services, for those who feel the yearning for them. If you lost someone personally, yes, by all means. But the politicians, the media, the rest of us, what are we doing?

I was so grateful that an accident of scheduling made Sept. 11 my day off this year, so I could stay out of the newsroom, shut off the media river, and just live, and think. Except the wife and I made the mistake of going to a bookstore after dinner, and it was amateur poetry night, and all they were doing was reading their wretched bathetic 911 poetry and arguing about conspiracy theories and Arabs and whatall else. I couldn't get out of there fast enough.

I've rarely felt a higher flame of impotent rage, and choking sorrow, in my chest than I did that day. Why do I want to recapture that, via the magic of network coverage?

I don't want to relive it. I lived it once. That was enough. I suspect that will be enough for the rest of my natural life.