My 9/11 Tribute
390 words.
As you know, today is the anniversary of William Wallace’s defeat of the English at Stirling Bridge. Let’s all take a moment to remember where we were on that fateful day.
But seriously, let’s remember just some of the people who wish they had a country-wide memorial anniversary filled with absurd media attention, endless docu-dramas, and ethically-questionable political posturing, but don’t, simply because there wasn’t a live broadcast of their respective tragedies running on the Today show at the time:
The families of the 63 people killed in the April 18, 1983 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Beirut.
The families of the 241 servicemen killed in the October 23, 1983 bombing of the marine barracks in Beirut.
The families of the 22 people killed in the 1984 bombing of the U.S. Embassy in Awkar, Lebanon.
The family of Navy diver Robert Stethem who was beaten, tortured, and killed on June 15, 1985 during the TWA Flight 847 hijacking. (Incidentally, his murderer was inexplicably paroled and released by German officials in December 2005.)
The family of Leon Klinghoffer, shot and killed by the hijackers of the Achille Lauro passenger liner on October 8, 1985.
The families of the five people (including one infant) killed after the mid-air bombing of TWA Flight 840 on April 2, 1986.
The families of the 270 people killed as a result of the mid-air bombing of Pan Am Flight 103 over Lockerbie, Scotland.
The families of the 6 people killed in the first World Trade Center bombing, February 26, 1993.
The families of the 168 people killed in the April 19, 1995 Oklahoma City bombing.
The families of the 20 people killed in the bombing of the Khobar Towers in Saudi Arabia on June 25, 1996.
The family of the woman killed in the July 27, 1996 bombing of the summer Olympic games in Atlanta.
The families of the 257 people killed in the August 7, 1998 bombings of the U.S. Embassies in Tanzania and Kenya.
The families of the 17 sailors killed in the October 12, 2000 bombing of the USS Cole in Yemen.
The families of the five random people killed in the as-yet-unsolved 2001 anthrax mail attacks.
And, most importantly, the families of the many, many, many other anonymous people killed by mistake accident, neglect, or design every day around the world.
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