I don't get the attempts to downplay 9/11. Sure, there gave been and will be worse events. The battle of the Somme, Berlin firestorms, atomic bombings, soviet winter offensives, major earthquakes in Pakistan, Iran, China, the Indian ocean tsunamis, the Japan tsunami, civil war in Rwanda, famine in Somalia, both in Sudan, the list goes on and will always go on.
But 9/11 was a spectacular event with insanely dramatic imagery. Its going to be as repeatedly broadcast as the moon landing because its just a major defining image of the modern era. That will never change.
Personally, there is one image that moves me more and that's the image of the young boy stranded on the Thai beach as the wave rolls in. He didn't even run. But that image is important because it reminds me that people, while being capable, never seem to cause as much devastation as nature can and does. I hope that serves as a warning and a comfort, in some strange way.
Death and tragedy make for powerful moments that everyone can sympathise with. We all know or fear what it is/would be like to lose someone dear to us. That's why all those events are remembered. Thus, 9/11 deserves to be remembered and always will be as an important tragedy in the context of the modern world.
The PROBLEM is not that we keep commemorating it, but rather we will keep making the same fucking mistakes time and time again.
No, I have not been drinking.
