Overwhelming 9/11 Anniversary

While I mean no disrespect to all whose lives were profoundly impacted by the September 11 terrorist attack, I feel numbed by, and even somewhat resentful of, the deluge of media coverage of the 10-year anniversary of this historic tragedy.

For instance, NPR’s All Things Considered ran 11 related segments totaling over 67 minutes on the six days before the official day of 9/11 commemoration. Conversely, although the War on Terror has already taken the lives of 8,351 US soldiers and contractors (Costs of War) – nearly 3 times as many as the direct victims of the attacks – program archives show only 4 remembrance segments (10½ minutes) in the 6 days leading up to Memorial Day.

Similarly, on September 11, 2011, the Columbus Dispatch published a special 16-page September II section in addition to 7 articles about 9/11 in Section A. Even our local Habitat for Humanity affiliate asked volunteers to dedicate their efforts on the 10 days surrounding the anniversary in memory of the 9/11 victims.

After initially feeling overwhelmed, I’m now asking myself, “Is this is a sacred remembrance? Or is it a crass exploitation?”

While I agree that we should honor the victims, support the survivors, and reflect on the meaning of a catastrophic event in our nation’s history, the extreme level of attention showered on this one event feels unhealthy. After ten years, our resilient country is moving forward and trying to deal with myriad big issues of today. Rather than reflecting an outpouring of our citizens’ deep feelings, the disproportionate anniversary coverage seems to result from politicians trying to divert us away from the unpleasant economic outlook and their unproductive partisan bickering, amplified by a media machine eager to exploit a tragic event to further its own need to be seen and heard.

In 2001, terrorist attacks by 19 suicide hijackers claimed the lives of at least 2,981 victims (9/11 Commission Report). In that same year, homicide in America ended the lives of 20,308 people, including 11,348 attributable to firearms (CDC – National Center for Injury Prevention and Control).

Ten years later, publications and airwaves abound with 10th anniversary remembrances for the tragic 9/11 losses. However, we hear no memorials for six times as many other homicide victims, despite the fact that such losses continue to mount year after year, totaling over 125,000 between 2002 and 2008.

Do we believe that the 2,981 victims of 9/11 are somehow more tragic than the other 125,000 homicide victims who have died since then? Hopefully we do not, despite the relentless anniversary coverage that brings the pain of that tragedy into the forefront of our consciousness day after day. We all hear the interviews, “Where were you on 9/11?” or even “Where were you the day before 9/11?” Do we hear anyone asking the mother of the 18-year old whose innocent life was snuffed out by a drive-by shooting in 2002 about her pain? Or about the changes it has caused in the lives of their family?

There are natural reasons for our preoccupation with the singular 9/11 event. We suffered an unprecedented violation of our national sovereignty, our physical borders were penetrated by a foreign terror organization, and we were horrified by the terrible loss of life in mere hours. But are these enough to explain the disproportionate outpouring of national attention for the 2,981 victims of homicide on 9/11 compared to the dearth of attention for the 125,611 other homicide victims who have died since then?

Clearly those other homicides had less national impact because they were spread out across the country and over nearly a decade, making them easy to miss – or easy to dismiss. But isn’t it precisely the power of the politicians and the media to help us choose what to notice, what to forget, and where to focus?

Looking backward, we remember and gain perspective. Looking forward, we set our course and make plans. Our politicians and media have led the nation into an entire week of replaying a 10-year old tragedy, taking our collective eye off of the important balls being pitched at us in these turbulent times such as harsh economic realities, our nation’s failure to graduate nearly 30% of youth from High School (Data360), a rapidly changing world order that finds our nation’s influence decreasing relative to the burgeoning Chinese economy, the tragic ongoing losses of over 20,000 Americans to homicide and 10,000 to alcohol-impaired driving fatalities every year, and so many more.

Our wars to avenge the 9/11 attack have already cost over 225,000 lives and nearly 4 trillion dollars (Costs of War). But, as Thomas Friedman said in a September 6, 2011 interview on NPR, “We thought the Cold War was a victory and we could put our feet up. In fact, we had just unleashed a world of two billion people just like us – people with our same aspirations, same capabilities. And just when we needed to be lacing up our shoes and running faster, we put our feet up. We compounded it then, I would add, with a decade, unfortunately tragically after 9/11, where we ended up chasing the losers from globalization for 10 years, al-Qaida, rather than the winners.” Host Robert Siegel responded, “We were preoccupied, you would say, with the wrong rivals.”

Yes, we do need to remember, mourn, honor and learn from the tragedy of 9/11, but we also are a people who move on. It’s time for the politicians and media to help us reflect on the issues of today and tomorrow, rather than deluging us with overblown remembrances of the past.