Letter: 9/11 remembrances are healing

Reading George Will's column, "Salve for our 9/11 wounds" [Opinion, Sept. 11], I was struck not only by his cynicism about the commemoration of Sept. 11, but also by his condescending attitude toward those who commemorate this anniversary.

We are a nation struggling and in need of vision and hope. At one point Will states: "For mostly oblivious civilians, the only recurring and most visible reminder of the post-9/11 world is shoeless participation in the security theater at airports. It thus seems wildly incongruous that some Americans rushed to proclaim that 9/11 'changed everything.' "

It is insulting for him to assume that he understands what is in the hearts of citizens and to belittle and denigrate sincere efforts to come to terms with an increasingly uncertain world. His reference to Pearl Harbor only serves to underline his cynicism.

Ask anyone who has visited the Sept. 11 memorial if he or she was not moved to tears. The world of 1951, 10 years after Pearl Harbor, was a very different world from today, not only in terms of media capabilities to cover and disseminate information, but particularly because we are also more aware of the psychological trauma that acts of war perpetrate on human beings. If commemoration helps us to make more sense of our changing world, then what harm can it do?

Anne Sanderson, Greenlawn