From the very moment of their occurrence there was no question that the events of 11 September 2001 were of historic magnitude. But at a remove of ten years it is clear that a decade has been an insufficient span of time to consign them to history. Those acts of violent spectacle have echoed, in the intervening years, through every imaginable sphere of our lives. The two wars which fill our newspapers and television screens are but the most visible extremities of an incalculable iceberg.
Much of the extensive coverage over the last week has taken up the task of summation – dollars spent, lives lost – with, in each case, the implication of an invisible asterisk denoting the toll’s incompleteness. But beyond even the things upon which a number can be placed, there extends a legacy of uncountable losses and distortions to what was briefly thought of as millennial normality.
It is quite amazing that an event could possess the symbolic power to so extensively pervade everyday lives and consciousnesses ten years after its occurrence. On that morning in New York the impact of two airplanes introduced energy enough to collapse the World Trade Centre towers in on themselves. In the decade that has followed the repercussions of that day have not stopped travelling, and it remains a constant task to guard against their propensity to darken and warp. The cost in lives is tragic. The cost in dollars exorbitant. We can ill afford the additional cost to our minds and hearts should we allow those acts of hatred to touch them too.
This has been a day of international remembrance, of paying respects, and taking measure. Looking back has great value, even if meaning remains elusive. But it is of even greater importance that we can look ahead, and that we are able to see a future in which violence has not cowed us nor hatred seduced us. For the remainder of our lives we will each carry the memory, but we also hold the power to decide what it means.
