A reporter called and asked to interview members to see if we mind that this year’s commemoration will not get the same attention as last year’s. Here is our response:
We greatly appreciate the tremendous support over the years to our families. Our actual concern is not that such support will wane, but that there does not seem to be adequate attention to those who are continuing to be harmed as a repercussion of both the 9/11 attacks and of responses to the attacks. Recent tragic hate crimes in Wisconsin, Missouri, and Colorado reflect irrational cycles of violence and division, which dishonor our loved ones’ memories. More U.S. soldiers have died than our loved ones on 9/11 while hundreds of thousands of Iraqi and Afghani civilians perish due to the wars. The trials of Guantanamo detainees will begin again in a few weeks, yet despite having languished for over a decade without a guilty verdict and some subject to torture, there is little coverage to ensure the trials proceed protecting not only Americans but most importantly our system of justice. And the world is poised for more violence – still believing that it could possibly solve problems that will only be solved through unity and actions as a common humanity.
Yet there is also hope. A growing movement of those who simply see that forging bonds among one another is possible. We hope that this year’s commemoration will see such connections grow one by one, people joining the world over to attain peaceful tomorrows.
