Comments on 9/11

Some have proposed making 9/11 a holiday. It was indeed one we will all remember, but does it deserve to be set aside as another holiday in our stable of already too many special days throughout our year. I tend to differentiate between holidays and days of personal significance. I feel 9/11 is a day of personal significance for fewere than we may think.

"9/11," as it is almost universally called, was an event that happened two years ago. A large number of people died; the act of terrorism was deplorable and the people and countries and organizations behind it or funding it or substantially supporting it should be hunted down and appropriately tried and appropriately punished.

That being said, 9/11 is a day of emotion and irrationality, and continues as an irrationality in the way the media, officials and many citizens approach it. We lose thousands to drunken driving, careless fires, industrial accidents and so forth every day. The difference, they all die in different locations. How does that make one tragedy more or less important? It doesn't.

We certainly do not need to make 9/11 a holiday. First, there is nothing worth celebrating, or even commemorating, since we have death and tragedy every day in this country. Will we commemorate them all? I certainly hope not.

Death of individuals is to be observed privately, by family and friends. Honestly, I didn't know anyone who was killed on this date two years ago. I was, however, attending a memorial service for my Dad that date. That was the significant event in my life, and I don't expect anyone else to share that with me, wouldn't want anyone to.

Let's leave 9/11 where it belongs, in the history books, as an event we can learn from, and one that needs no special day of commemoration.