September 11, 2006

On this day of remembrance for those murdered five years ago I think of my own losses. How else can I relate to an event of such enormous consequence? The television was my view of what happened to those poor souls that we all mourn. I watched with millions their deaths. I felt detached, as only Americans can, transfixed by what I was seeing.

This reminded me of the first national TV event I saw, the killing and funeral of John F. Kennedy. The medium of broadcast has shaped the feelings we all share.

I can only feel the sudden loss and hurt that happened to me when my wife was killed in an auto accident. Her death was just as sudden and wrong. She was killed, not by a terrorist, but rather by a greedy American. My anger goes not to the faceless foreigners who highjacked those planes but to those who failed to repair their truck and keep it safe. My wife paid with her life because of their greed. There was no National mourning or war on greed. There was no Commission to look into truck safty. There was no support group for my son or myself.

Like millions of Americans I greive for those lost. I also greive for those who have died without the national spotlight on them.