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Last year on this day, I wrote:

There will sadly be many who try and use today as a platform to push their own agenda, pro-this, anti-that, red, blue, etc. Take special note of such people. Remember that on a day for the thousands who still mourn, they could not wait for Sept. 12 to try and sell their wares. They could not simply keep quiet in the face of such “opportunity.”

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On September 10th, 2001, Al Qaeda had a home base. From there they could easily communicate with their peers around the world, make plans for future operations, train new recruits, and in general, operate freely without interference from the government of the country in which they were based.

It’s now seven years later. And Al Qaeda has a home base. From there they can easily communicate with their peers around the world, make plans for future operations, train new recruits, and in general, operate freely without interference from the government of the country in which they are based. In fact, the intelligence service of the country in which they are now based has been shown to conspire with them.

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9/11/2001. 9/11/2002. 9/11/2003. 9/11/2004. 9/11/2005. 9/11/2006.

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One year after 9/11, I wrote what was a very difficult article for me, “‘I’m OK, I’m with the firemen’: In Memory of Bill Biggart.” I’ve never claimed to be any kind of masterful writer, but of all the things I’ve put up on this site over the past decade, it’s one of the works of which I’m proudest. I wrote it from the heart. About a man I never met. But the story of his death that day rocked me to my core in ways I still can’t explain.

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Five years ago, we weren’t thinking about the political implications of the day. Five years ago, we had not yet fully divided ourselves into red and blue. Five years ago, we had no conception such a day could be turned into a “docu-drama.”

Five years ago today, the only thing we felt was the pain of loss. For that day, even if only for a minute, millions of us felt that we might just have easily been one of the thousands of families suffering a loss … just because a loved one went to work. Just because a loved one got on the wrong plane. It was a most basic commonality, a shared empathy that far outweighed any of the usual petty divisions among us.

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One year on, I told you, “You shouldn’t be here today.” Two Years On I wrote A Day of Remembrance and Mad At The Messenger. Then there was Three Years On, and The Children of 9-11. Now it’s four years. And I don’t know what to tell you.

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Sixty years ago today, the United States was shocked by a vicious surprise attack that killed thousands. About three years and three months ago, it happened again. So perhaps it is a proper fate that an agreement on the intelligence reform bill might have been reached on Dec. 7, 2004.

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How can a child ever understand things that totally befuddle the adults around them? They are the least prepared among us, yet the most affected.

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The raw hole from 9/11/2001 still gaped on 9/11/2002, both the real one in lower Manhattan, and the psychic one that marked so many of us. Two years later, three years removed from the tragedy itself, we are not so raw.

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...here we finally have the report nearly 3 years after the event, and our leaders are still failing “to grasp the gravity” of their inaction. Their plans for taking up these recommendations are “so feeble” they mostly begin in January, 2005. Oh, and have you heard we’ll likely be attacked long before then?

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I think in some ways it’s a bit counterproductive to nitpick every single piece of public testimony, before the 9/11 Commission can weave it all together in their final report. Not that it hasn’t become a National Pasttime. However, the arrogance of John Ashcroft’s testimony really struck a nerve with me.

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From “The Falling Man,” by Tom Junod: “Do you remember this photograph? In the United States, people have taken pains to banish it from the record of September 11, 2001. The story behind it, though, and the search for the man pictured in it, are our most intimate connection to the horror of that day.”

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Just like two years ago, I was up until nearly 3am on the morning of September 11, doing web work. But today, I set the alarm and set aside the morning to reflect and remember.

I watched the reading of the names of victims at the site of the World Trade Center. Each time a child would reach the end of their list and close by saying the name of their parent, grandparent, uncle, or whichever loved one they lost on 9/11, my heart would try to escape through my throat. Hundreds of times, it brought home the deeply human loss of that day, in very individual terms. And hundreds of times this morning, that fragile emotional state many of us suffered two years ago returned, in empathy with a child’s loss.

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Two Years On – (this is the text of the special home page from 9/11/03, archived here) A year ago on this day, I wrote “You shouldn’t be here today. I didn’t lose a loved one on September 11, 2001. None of my relatives gave their life in military service to their country in Afghanistan. I was just another shell shocked American watching from a safe distance wrapped in the comfort and safety of their home.”

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Another Voice – (inspired by Michele’s Project, Voices) When the first plane hit, I was still wrapped in slumber in the comfort of my bed, and I watched the second plane hit from the safety of my living room. So I don’t have a heart wrenching story about what happened to me the morning of 9/11, or maybe even a point. I’m just another person who will never forget where they were on that morning. And what they witnessed, even from afar.

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Those calendar conscious boys are back, with their semi-regular rant about our imminent demise at their hands: “ ‘....Devour the Americans just like the lions devour their prey. Bury them in the Iraqi graveyard,’ said the voice attributed to al-Zawahri.”

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compASSion HOLES, Revisited – (revisited from a year ago) As the second anniversary of September 11 approaches, we find ourselves a lot less united than we were 23 months ago. Even on the issue of what’s appropriate for that day.

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You shouldn’t be here today. I didn’t lose a loved one on September 11, 2001. None of my relatives gave their life in military service to their country in Afghanistan. I was just another shell shocked American watching from a safe distance wrapped in the comfort and safety of their home.

Yes, I had things to say that day, and in the days after. A month ago, I said as much as I need to say about the year that has passed, in response to Michele, someone much closer to the wounds than I. And yesterday, I offered the best tribute I have in me.

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