9/11

Once again, it is September 11th, and once again the nation will stop to take note of what happened seven years go. Like you, I can remember exactly where I was when I first heard of a plane hitting the World Trade Center, just as I can recall where I was when I heard that John F. Kennedy had been shot.

Much as the attacks on that day still affect us, it is time to let them begin to recede into history.

Look at it this way: If you were Osama bin Laden, wouldn't your heart gladden at the thought that the United States is stopping in its tracks to remember what your followers did on September 11th? Would you not rejoice in the knowledge that you have gotten so deep under America's skin?

Almost certainly, you remember what day Pearl Harbor was attacked--in part, at least, because you've heard recordings of FDR repeating the date in his "day of infamy" speech the next day. But do you remember the dates of Antietam or Gettysburg? Of Midway? Or when the flag was planted atop Mt. Suribachi, on Iwo Jima?

Perhaps it is good that we seem to remember our defeats more clearly than our victories, but there comes a time when we should move ahead.

(Note: FDR did not use the term "day of infamy." Walter Lord did, in his book about Pearl Harbor, and he was probably not the first; I haven't bothered to check this. What FDR said, was "a date that will live in infamy.")