By Carrie Sheffield
Last week, I happened to be in New York City for a journalism conference over the Sept. 11th holiday. On Saturday, I visited Ground Zero for my first time. What was once the site of a major global commercial center is now a gaping, black hole enclosed by bleak, chain link fences.
While at the site, the images I saw touched me. Thousands of people were there: crying, praying, lighting candles and setting up makeshift shrines dedicated to family members killed in the attacks. I joined a crowd gathered around people reading aloud biographies of the 2,749 victims who died there. It was poignant to see the family and friends of victims who had journeyed to the site. They came to commemorate the lives of their loved ones and to continue the process of healing from their pain. Many expressed spiritual messages to convey their thoughts.
Earlier that day, I was dismayed to hear of angry protestors who shattered the tranquility in the air. They carried signs and banners blaming President Bush for the 9-11 deaths (and the rest of America?s woes). I thought their shouts, chants and slogans were distasteful and completely out of place, and I wasn?t alone. People opposed to the protestors got angry and ended up brawling with the protestors. One of my fellow student journalists, an innocent bystander, got punched during the scuffle.
While I admire the determination and dedication these protestors showed (and the nation which allows them freedom to voice their concerns), their tactics soured their message. It was obvious they were capitalizing off the anniversary of a tragic historical event to further their politicking. The repugnance of their timing and strategies had the opposite effect on their message, at least for me.
I like to think of myself as an open-minded person. I?m an ?independent? when it comes to politics. I?ve tried to listen to both sides of the terrorism dialogue, but what happened at Ground Zero last week was a screaming inconsistency. Rather than respecting the victims and their loved ones, these shrill naysayers battered the moment by assigning speculative, hindsight blame. Couldn?t they lay aside their campaigning for one day? I admit these protestors were a small, vocal minority of people who share their political views; however, their extreme actions and their lack of empathy have yet to be criticized by their more mainstream, like-minded pundits.
For me, visiting Ground Zero on Saturday was an awakening on several levels. It reaffirmed firsthand for me that Sept. 11 should be a day of remembrance and reflection, not only for victims and their families, but also for the entire nation. It?s not a day for division and strife; that?s what the perpetrators wanted.