The nation’s media seems to have forgotten that one cannot inflict memory on others. Morbid images and hero worship will reach their inevitable peak tomorrow, but to what end? A year’s time has not opened us to new and important perspectives on 9/11. We are still as befuddled about its meaning as we were in the days that followed the attacks.

It is the silent acts of rememberance, the foolish and forbidden thoughts, the laughter in the midst of it all, that will heal us once more. The media can only offer empty metaphors.