September 11th

With all the times it has been hammered into us in the past four years that we have to remember it, along with all the terrible things that have been justified using it as an excuse, it's almost difficult to separate the tragedy that occured from all those things and remember it for what it really was. However, with all the suffering and pointless death wehave seen in the last couple of weeks following the hurricane, it does seem to bring it back into its proper perspective. And I hope with the hurricane, we can try to learn from the mistakes that were made following September 11th and not repeat them, and maybe take another look at all the things that we have done since then in the name of security and truly evaluate whether they have made us more secure. The most important thing I think we should remember is that even if we can all agree that something horrible happened, it doesn't mean we have to shut up and accept any response that invokes the tragedy as its justification in the name of unity. We were all united after September 11th, and look where that has gotten us. We are at war with the wrong country, with no end in sight, and if the hurricane has shown us anything, it's that we're not any safer at home because of, and we might actually be worse off.

Anyway, I'm not really good at finding words to commemorate events or anything like that, but since this is the first anniversary of September 11th that I have had an outlet for my thoughts, I didn't want to let it pass without something to mark it. And as we use today to remember the people who died needlessly on that day, let's also make sure we don't use it as an excuse for more needless death in the future.