I guess most, if not all, calendars do this now.
But I recently noticed, on the calendar that hangs on the wall in my kitchen, that today is designated as "Patriot Day."
I didn't need that to remind me that September 11 is an important anniversary in America. And it is being observed in many ways in many places.
For one thing, I have no doubt that, on tonight's evening news programs, we will see footage of the two major party presidential nominees appearing together today at "Ground Zero," where the twin towers of the World Trade Center once stood.
The spirit of bipartisanship could be more effective if, as Elizabeth Moore writes in Newsday, the joint appearance by John McCain and Barack Obama did not come "at the crescendo of a nasty week of partisan mudslinging."
Unfortunately, if we were going to wait for a lull in the mudslinging, we probably would have to put off the commemoration until well after the election.
The New York Times offers a dozen security-related questions it feels the presidential candidates must answer — preferably while they're in New York to mark the anniversary.
The newspaper acknowledges that "both (candidates) are for change, that they are patriotic and that they are cautious. But we hope they will not be too cautious to give us clear answers, even when these might alienate some voters."
McCain and Obama are "extraordinarily capable and their campaigns ... reflect that fact," says the Times. "And yet with respect to national security, neither campaign has articulated the fundamental points of view that will allow people to make an informed choice in November."
Editorial pages haven't overlooked the anniversary. Here's but a sampling:
- New York Post: "Given that America has suffered not a single additional attack on its soil since 9/11, Americans may believe terrorism is no longer an issue. They couldn't be more wrong."
- The New York Times laments the fact that, seven years after the attacks, there is no "enduring memorial at ground zero."
The Times states, "It is time to give the authority hard deadlines, especially for the memorial, as Mayor Bloomberg did this week. On Sept. 11, 2011, the memorial should be ready for the public to remember the 10th anniversary of the attacks." - The Washington Post observes that the Pentagon Memorial's dedication today marks the first of the major memorials to 9/11.
"Finding the most appropriate way to honor the dead is never easy," writes the Post. "Paying homage to those who lost their lives in a moment of searing national pain can be almost impossible. Just look at the bickering and delays that have bedeviled the Ground Zero site in New York City." - The Boston Herald remembers how "the vows of doing better and being better" in the immediate aftermath of the tragedy faded.
"On this day we should remember the sense of sorrow and of loss and then just for a while longer couldn’t we be a little kinder, a little more patient and a lot more loving," writes the Herald, "as we were on that day seven years ago and for so many days that followed."
Information and inspiration, however, are not always the same thing.
I think the documentary that I found to be the most informative was aired on the National Geographic Channel in 2005. The two-part, four-hour documentary was called "Inside 9/11," and it followed events in chronological order starting in the 1980s.
Subsequent showings of the documentary were updated to include new information about terrorist activities.
I don't know if that program is being aired again in the near future — I haven't seen any listings for it, either today or in the coming days — but The History Channel will present a documentary tonight called "102 Minutes That Changed America."
David Hinckley reports, in the New York Daily News, that "Assembled from more than 100 professional and amateur tapes, '102 Minutes' re-creates the morning in real time, starting with the crash of the first plane.
"There's no narration, no voice-over, no printed on-screen explanations, just an occasional clock to record the passage of time from 8:46 until the collapse of the second tower."
The program airs at 8 p.m. (Central).
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