A name for the day of infamy

VFW Magazine, Oct, 2002

A recent USA Today commentary by Samuel G. Freedman, associate dean of the Columbia University School of Journalism, contained some astute observations on Sept. 11, 2001:

"Our ubiquitous name for the mass murder, `9/11,' is devoid of both history and poetry," he wrote. "It dishonors the spirits of the dead and averts the eyes of the living from what truly happened on that crystalline Indian-summer morning.

"In pathetic contrast (to other descriptive tragedies), `9/11' tells us nothing about what happened, why it happened, and who did it.

"But, wish as we might for our naive former lives, our confrontation with Islamic terrorism will not conveniently vanish, and finding the name for tragedy and the language of memory will be essential to bearing the battle for decades ahead."