Remembrance

On this grim anniversary, there will be those sanctimonious fools who will warn us sternly to remember... as if we could ever forget. As if we shall ever forget that awful morning: it has seared itself into our memories. Five years on and the images still move me to tears, and they still startle me, though I know them by heart.

No... today is not a day to remember the loss, but to remember what was lost. Remember the 2,973 men and women whose lives stopped forever that day. Remember the courage of the firefighters and policemen, and of the passengers on United flight 93. Remember how proud the towers once stood on the New York City skyline. Remember who we were, as a people and a nation, in the brighter days before we were wrenched into this brave new era.

At a memorial service, one does not dwell upon the death. One celebrates the life.