After a great tragedy a brief period of mourning is always needed and always appropriate. But what would we think of a person who continued to be emotionally obsessed with a tragic event years later, and who, year after year, sent out emails to people reminding them of the anniversary of their loss? We would probably say that it was long past time for that person to move on. What then should we think of the continued wallowing in grief of our politicians, the media, and many of our citizens, over the events of 9-11?
I think we’ve overdone it, too much, for too long. I also think that the terrorists are winning yet another victory when every anniversary of 9-11 finds us still in public mourning. It’s time to grow up and move on. It’s time to stop advertising a terrorist act. It’s time to recognize and remember that our emotional over-reaction to 9-11 led to the death of 100,000 innocent Iraqis whom we do not pause to mourn for even a second. It’s time to get our emotions under control so that we can no longer be manipulated into doing stupid things.
There’s nothing wrong with America that a little maturity wouldn’t go a long way toward fixing.