Yanno, I am really getting to be anti 9/11 - not the actual date but all the fuss with an incident that happened on that date. There were thousands of people lost, yes. BUT somehow life around you is so concentrated into this that all else stops. The news media are making this into a huge non-stop coverage every single year. One can't watch TV, even a football game without being consistently reminded of it. Frankly I wish they spent this much time on more important things.
What you say? Well, people died this week. People married this week. People were born this week. But instead every single time you turn on the TV, try to listen to a radio, or open a newspaper or read a magazine - all you hear about is 9/11. It's depressing. It isn't a memorial anymore but a continuous reporting of what happened one day on September 11th, 2001. To me the commemerations going on nullify anything else that happens that day. How do you think a child feels that happened to have the luck of being born on this day? How do you think a parent feels about losing a child on that same day?I lost a child on September 11, 1987. Have I shoved this info down your throat even though it meant a lot to me? No, I have not. Imagine how parents now have to explain the constant bombardment of news on this subject to children born before or after this date. Is it fair?
No, but it reminds me of how we view death now. Every time I drive down a road, there are markers, balloons, flowers, etc, marking the site where a car accident happened or someone died. Why do we feel the need to do this? I don't have an answer. I haven't. I have never forgotten Scott but I also don't dwell on his death either. I rejoice I had 9 months of holding and feeling him in utero and 3 months of seeing his eyes, hair, and caring for him. Scott was a gorgeous baby. So where did we go wrong in how we view death and incidents that have happened?
What about........
.....the thousands of people killed in this 'war' we have going on?
.....the thousands of people who are STILL MIA after the Vietnam War? No wonder veterans think we forget about what they do.
Who are the heroes in today's world? Not those who lost their lives fighting for our rights but those who happened to be in the wrong place at the wrong time. Yes, I feel for them and their families but I feel for those who have fought for us and their families more. They are the ones that deserve all the attention.
Now for those of you doubters, yes I have feelings. I am a nurse. I was a 1st responder when Flight 232 went down in Chicago, IL on May 25, 1979. I had a friend who was on the American Eagle Flight 4184 went down in Indiana on October 31, 1994. My sister-in-law was supposed to flying that exact flight but was grounded because of a cold. My cousin was supposed to be a flight attendant on one of the flights that went into the Trade Centers. I worked for years with the Vietnam Vets at Hines. Men without legs. Men without arms. Those men were left without people who care for them. I still have 15 MIA bracelets of men who are presumed deceased. Their remains were never found. My father-in-law is out of his mind with PTSD and has to medicated so he doesn't kill his wife or anyone else because of what he went through in World War I when he was 1 of 8 surviving in the Battle of Anzio.
I realize what happened that day is very traumatic. But I also realize that people need to move on. But we can't. The media won't let us. I have smelled charred flesh. I have ridden ambulances when we had to use the shovel - bet no one knew an ambulance carries a shovel on it. But every single EMT knows why it is there.
But where and when do we commemorate those other things? What of the families who lost people this week? Doesn't anyone realize how depressing it all is? Why is this the ONLY story that ever is told over and over and over?
I know death. I have seen death. I have been there with the charred remains of Flight 232. I worked putting bodies in bags. It traumatized me forever and is forever burned in my brain. I had loved ones die in 9-11 also. I have seen people I know who were responders die here in my Chicago burb from what happened there. No one is ever the same whether it was there or any other traumatic event. But this type of coverage without the other is just not right. I have lost 2 children. I know death.
If the news media gave the same attention to any one of the planes that land every single day with caskets covered in flags, or gave the same attention to those people who are fighting for us right now on foreign soil but because they are part of the Reserves, they aren't considered a real part of the active military service with the same rights, or printed the names of those wounded sitting in nursing homes or hospitals or just walking the streets because they can't hold a job, I would change my tune in a heartbeat. However, I know too many guys my own age and my children's age and my parent's age that are never ever thought of. Their names are not on any wall. Their names are never in any newspaper. They are the forgotten. Those are the ones I commemorate.
Just for you sceptics who think this was the absolute worst disaster America has faced have never looked at these statistics:
# people who died in the Vietnam War (1965-1973) 58,177 American Deaths
# people who died in the Korean War (1950-1953) 36,568 American Deaths
# people who died in WWII (1941-1945) 405,399 American Deaths
# people who died in the Civil War (1861-1865) 618,222 American Deaths
# people who died in the Revolutionary War (1775-1783) 32,324 American Deaths
# casualties in the Iraq War (2003-Oct 2010) 4426 American Deaths
# people who died in WWI (1917-1918) 116,516 American Deaths
But let's not stop there..............what about these:
# people who die from the flu or pneumonia each year? 65,313
# people who died in the crash of American Airlines Flight 191: 273
# people who died on American Airlines Flight 587: 265
# people who died in American Eagle Flight 4184: 68
# people who die from heart disease each year: 936,923
# people who die from cancer each year: 553,091
# people who die from diabetes mellitus: 69,301
# people who die from firearms: 28,663
# people who die from motor vehicle accidents 43,354
# people who die from renal failure 36,471
# people who die from septicemia 31,224
# people who die with AIDS in 2009: 1.8 million
# people who die from chronic lower respiratory disease 122,009
# people who died from the Galveston Hurricane of 1900: 12,000
# people who died from 1906 San Francisco Earthquake: 6000
Now the # people who died in 9-11? 2,973
Kinda makes it seem small in relationship to those other numbers? Why aren't there commemorations? Why isn't the media all over those numbers?
I commemorate the above picture. I applaud every single soldier currently fighting or serving our country and those who have before them. That is what we should be reading about. Not about one blip on the big screen of life.
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