In A Collective Spirit

Most of the remembrance and commentary revolving around the horrific events of September 11, 2001 make mention of the unspeakable tragedy with delicacy. They speak in detail of the horror universally shared - of those unreferenced, intent on killing themselves and taking with them as many innocent lives as possible in a fanatically-ideologically-driven theology-based fantasy of conquest, the deliberate forging - of the deaths of nearly three thousand.

The shared outrage and compassion are there. The stories of survivors, their accounts of their terrified, traumatized attempts to save themselves. The stories of those who were trapped in the Twin Towers, of their last messages home to their loved ones. The recounting of those who managed to escape, who witnessed others frantically wasting their opportunity to save themselves, intent on going in the wrong direction.

The stories of the first-responders, the police and the firemen, the paramedics, frantically attempting to respond, to assist, to recover people from certain death. Courageously placing themselves in harm's way as proudly responsible practitioners of their profession, facing death, and many meeting death.

In a collective spirit of remembrance and undying devotion to the memory of those lost loved ones, of celebrating the American spirit of defiance and recovery, sensibilities rise to the fore that hurt feelings must be avoided at all costs. No one must utter those savage words of blame: Muslim, Islamist, jihadist, terrorist - all expunged from the tragedy's vocabulary.