Accurate 9/11 memory will compel us to act

Accurate 9/11 memory will compel us to act

Why did Sunday's ceremony for the tenth anniversary of 9/11 ban police, firefighters and clergy from the program?

Some parts of the ceremony were well done.

The physical memorial itself — two waterfalls, shaped like the square footprints of the two towers — were visually powerful.

And the rebuilding of one tower — still not done after ten years — is a sign of hope.

Reading the names of the murder victims was a touching moment for their families and friends.

But it is not enough merely to remember the dead and to grieve. We must remember why these men and women were killed; why it was so profoundly evil that they were; why we cannot let this stand, and what we are going to do about it.

The central characteristic of the 9/11 attacks was not the loss of life. It was that the loss of life was the result of human purpose.

It was not a tragic accident or a natural disaster.

Nor was it just a crime. It was a horrendous act of terror motivated by evil ideas. Remembering that means we have to do something about it. Namely: Fighting against our terrorist enemies until we win and they lose.

Instead of calling for victory, though, the official memorial aimed for a tone of closure. New York's mayor Michael Bloomberg said people should no longer even say the words Ground Zero, because that is in the past.

Erasing from the public narrative any trace of the war on terror would be like holding a ceremony at Pearl Harbor, a year later, in December of 1942, and remembering the dead and their families — but not talking about that infamous attack, not calling for courage in the fight ahead, not promising that the dead will be avenged and that freedom and peace will be won on our terms — and not naming imperial Japan.

It would be like Winston Churchill touring London during the blitz, and comforting the victims but not calling for courage and victory.

To this day, hundreds of thousands of Americans and tens of thousands of Canadians continue to fight with marvelous courage and ingenuity to defeat al-Qaida, the Taliban and their other terrorist allies. And we Canadians have been a clear voice against terrorism and its apologists at the United Nations.

But there are other ways that we must fight, too — not just to honour the memory of those murdered on 9/11, but to protect ourselves and our families and communities, and our freedom that is under attack.

The first way for those of us not in uniform to fight back is to fight for a control over the language of 9/11. The anniversaries of 9/11 ought not to be a day of service and volunteerism — the official purpose of both the U.S. and Canadian days. Volunteerism is a noble thing, but it is not what 9/11 was about.

We must make sure it is a day of proper and accurate memory.

An accurate memory of what happened that day compels us to take action until we win, until 9/11 becomes a day to mark the beginning of our successful counterattack on to victory.

But we're not done yet. We haven't won yet. The other side knows that. And we ought to as well.

EZRA LEVANT, QMI AGENCY