9/11 + 7 = ?
There are not many who remember
They say a handful still survive,
To tell the world about
The way the lights went out,
And keep the memory alive.
— Billy Joel, Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)
Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama pledged to suspend their campaign advertising for one-day Thursday — a moratorium for mourning on the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — but neither stayed out of the way entirely.
McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican presidential nominee, and Obama, D-Ill., the Democratic nominee, visited the site in Lower Manhattan — forever referred to as Ground Zero — where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood, and both participated in a forum on public service at Columbia University in New York, Thursday night.
The lingering effects of Sept. 11 — the war on terror, the quasi-related war in Iraq, the color-coded system of national security, immigration reform, revised foreign policy, et. al. — will undoubtedly follow either McCain or Obama into the White House.
Three days after the attacks, President George W. Bush stood among the ruins of the World Trade Center, with a bullhorn in hand and rescue workers by his side, and famously declared: “I can here you! I can here you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
Two thousand, five hundred and fifty eight days later, the wars continue and the questions remain — burning longer than the superheated rubble, casting a shadow darker than the pall of soot that billowed from Manhattan and stretched to the suburbs.
Will the people responsible for the attacks, namely Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, ever be brought to justice?
What will become of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, the penitentiary for unindicted terror suspects, operated on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?
And, will we ever, in our lifetime or in that of our great grandchildren, be able to return to the pre-9/11 world of peace and prosperity — or is that, too, gone forever?
There are questions too about what role the federal government might have in the preservation of Sept. 11 — the incorporation of the attack into the history curriculum of public schools; use of Congressional or Presidential prodding to jumpstart the interminably delayed construction of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum; and the eventual declaration of 9/11 as a national day of mourning — a day off from work, school and all other obligation to reflect.
Seven years later, Sept. 11 straddles between international significance and everyday irrelevance. Beyond the flickering candles and the apolitical gestures, and with the incorporation of new events that adulterate the meaning of the day, such as the Belgian-born Interdependence Day (the acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of the world), Sept. 11 is threatened to go the way of June 6 and Dec. 7 — D-Day and the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
“How long before 9/11 isn’t the lede story on 9/11?” a colleague asked Thursday.
Seven years later, it wasn’t the lede story on ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson. The anchor’s exclusive interview with McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, took precedent.
So much for the apolitical tone established by McCain and Obama earlier in the day. (Obama granted an interview to Bill O’Reilly on Fox News Channel last Thursday to take some attention away from McCain, who was accepting the Republican nomination at the party’s convention in St. Paul, Minn. Was Palin trying to take some attention away from the seven-year anniversary of the worst day in American history, from the two-thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-eight people who died on Sept. 11?)
The future of Sept. 11 lies with President McCain or President Obama and how they handle Sept. 11 eight, nine and ten years later. Will they revere it as a day of reverence — a more solemn Independence Day — or a political tool? A means to memoriam or a means to an end?
The Bush administration has cited Sept. 11 as justification for the war in Iraq, the infringement of civil liberties through the U.S.A. Patriot Act and the use of warrant-less wiretapping by government intelligence groups.
Last October, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., criticized former Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani, the mayor of New York at the time of the attacks, for relying too much on Sept. 11 in his campaign speeches and debate appearances.
“There's only three things he mentions in a sentence,” Biden said. “A noun, a verb, and 9/11.”
How will the Obama administration cite Sept. 11? How will the McCain administration cite Sept. 11? How will the Obama administration preserve it? How will McCain’s?
The future of Sept. 11 is in their hands.
They say a handful still survive,
To tell the world about
The way the lights went out,
And keep the memory alive.
— Billy Joel, Miami 2017 (Seen the Lights Go Out on Broadway)
Sens. John McCain and Barack Obama pledged to suspend their campaign advertising for one-day Thursday — a moratorium for mourning on the seventh anniversary of the Sept. 11, 2001 terrorist attacks — but neither stayed out of the way entirely.
McCain, R-Ariz., the Republican presidential nominee, and Obama, D-Ill., the Democratic nominee, visited the site in Lower Manhattan — forever referred to as Ground Zero — where the Twin Towers of the World Trade Center stood, and both participated in a forum on public service at Columbia University in New York, Thursday night.
The lingering effects of Sept. 11 — the war on terror, the quasi-related war in Iraq, the color-coded system of national security, immigration reform, revised foreign policy, et. al. — will undoubtedly follow either McCain or Obama into the White House.
Three days after the attacks, President George W. Bush stood among the ruins of the World Trade Center, with a bullhorn in hand and rescue workers by his side, and famously declared: “I can here you! I can here you! The rest of the world hears you! And the people -- and the people who knocked these buildings down will hear all of us soon!”
Two thousand, five hundred and fifty eight days later, the wars continue and the questions remain — burning longer than the superheated rubble, casting a shadow darker than the pall of soot that billowed from Manhattan and stretched to the suburbs.
Will the people responsible for the attacks, namely Al Qaeda leader Osama Bin Laden, ever be brought to justice?
What will become of the Guantanamo Bay Detention Camp, the penitentiary for unindicted terror suspects, operated on the grounds of the U.S. Naval Base at Guantanamo Bay, Cuba?
And, will we ever, in our lifetime or in that of our great grandchildren, be able to return to the pre-9/11 world of peace and prosperity — or is that, too, gone forever?
There are questions too about what role the federal government might have in the preservation of Sept. 11 — the incorporation of the attack into the history curriculum of public schools; use of Congressional or Presidential prodding to jumpstart the interminably delayed construction of the National September 11 Memorial & Museum; and the eventual declaration of 9/11 as a national day of mourning — a day off from work, school and all other obligation to reflect.
Seven years later, Sept. 11 straddles between international significance and everyday irrelevance. Beyond the flickering candles and the apolitical gestures, and with the incorporation of new events that adulterate the meaning of the day, such as the Belgian-born Interdependence Day (the acknowledgment of the interconnectedness of the world), Sept. 11 is threatened to go the way of June 6 and Dec. 7 — D-Day and the day the Japanese attacked Pearl Harbor.
“How long before 9/11 isn’t the lede story on 9/11?” a colleague asked Thursday.
Seven years later, it wasn’t the lede story on ABC’s World News with Charles Gibson. The anchor’s exclusive interview with McCain’s running mate, Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin, took precedent.
So much for the apolitical tone established by McCain and Obama earlier in the day. (Obama granted an interview to Bill O’Reilly on Fox News Channel last Thursday to take some attention away from McCain, who was accepting the Republican nomination at the party’s convention in St. Paul, Minn. Was Palin trying to take some attention away from the seven-year anniversary of the worst day in American history, from the two-thousand, nine-hundred and ninety-eight people who died on Sept. 11?)
The future of Sept. 11 lies with President McCain or President Obama and how they handle Sept. 11 eight, nine and ten years later. Will they revere it as a day of reverence — a more solemn Independence Day — or a political tool? A means to memoriam or a means to an end?
The Bush administration has cited Sept. 11 as justification for the war in Iraq, the infringement of civil liberties through the U.S.A. Patriot Act and the use of warrant-less wiretapping by government intelligence groups.
Last October, Obama’s running mate, Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., criticized former Republican presidential candidate Rudolph Giuliani, the mayor of New York at the time of the attacks, for relying too much on Sept. 11 in his campaign speeches and debate appearances.
“There's only three things he mentions in a sentence,” Biden said. “A noun, a verb, and 9/11.”
How will the Obama administration cite Sept. 11? How will the McCain administration cite Sept. 11? How will the Obama administration preserve it? How will McCain’s?
The future of Sept. 11 is in their hands.
posted by Michael Sisak at
1:08 AM 
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