In Memoriam September 11

As I did last year, I am spending some time today thinking about what happened now three years ago in New York and at the Pentagon just outside Washington. Looking at those horrible pictures (which I think appropriate to link to only today of all days) is still emotionally devastating for me. I will take to my grave the mental images of my students—some of them as young as 10 or 11—asking me if their parents (who work at the White House, the Capitol, the Pentagon, everywhere in Washington) are dead.

REQUIESCANT IN PACE. WE WILL NOT FORGET YOU.

Pentagon employees and airplane passengers who died in the attack on the Pentagon, September 11, 2001
Please consider making a contribution to the Memorial for the Pentagon victims, which will cost about $12 million in private funds, with no money coming from the government. Contributions can be sent by mail to:

Pentagon Memorial Fund, Inc.
P.O. Box 6285
Arlington, VA 22206

One note. While I still think it is necessary to remember the attacks and for our country to take appropriate action against those who perpetrated them, I am dismayed that President Bush and his administration could have used the memory of the victims of these attacks to embroider what has now been revealed as a mostly fallacious justification for attacking Iraq. This blog is not about politics (see the Ionarts motto in the upper right corner), so we will return to our normal content tomorrow.