Never Forget
Someone sent me an email yesterday. The author meant well in every way, but used one particular word that can send me into convulsions.
Tomorrow is... well we all know what tomorrow is, and while I don't want to dwell on the tragedy, I also don't want to forget.Naturally, I responded, and with a slight bit of editing, this is what I said:
You're falling into Newspeak. It wasn't a "tragedy". A "tragedy" is defined by Webster:
a disastrous event"disaster":
a sudden calamitous event bringing great damage, loss, or destruction"calamity":
a state of deep distress or misery caused by major misfortune or loss"misfortune"
an event or conjunction of events that causes an unfortunate or distressing result : bad luckWhat occurred two years ago today wasn't a "tragedy", a "disaster", a "calamity", or "unfortunate". It certainly wasn't "bad luck". This was the intentional murder of 3,000 people and an attempt to intimidate all of Western Civilization. It was - and still is - terrorism. "Terror":
violence (as bombing) committed by groups in order to intimidate a population or government into granting their demandsThe really insidious part of terrorism is that it continues after the event, by implication that it may occur again if the population doesn't yield to the intimidation.
Of course, all this is semantics, which doesn't do justice to the truth of the matter. It was the purposeful butchery of innocents by despicable, evil men.
Don't let those who want to deny that evil exists reshape the language you use to diminish the atrocity of the crimes they are willing to overlook, and don't allow your friends, relatives, coworkers, and casual acquaintances to be dumbed down by the stupidity of the timid and the cowardly. Show them the faces of the dead - like the man pictured above, CDR Patrick S. Dunn, who I am proud to say shared some of the blood in my veins.
Never forget. Never let anyone forget.
Cox & Forkum's "The 184"
Pentagon Memorial
Flash Tribute
Tribute
Esquire: The Falling Man
Cox & Forkum: "That Day"
