Mourning Sept. 11: Enough already!

WASHINGTON (Tribune Media Services) -- Talk about overkill. One more time this week, we were treated to another long day of gushing, weeping and wailing over September 11.

The date was Thursday, May 30. The occasion was the completion of cleanup efforts at Ground Zero. A day worth noting, if only to thank all of those who worked around the clock, starting on the morning of September 11, to rescue victims, search for bodies and clean up and cart away debris. They deserved an expression of heartfelt thanks.

Instead, what we experienced was still one more round of endless speeches by politicians and 24 more hours of tasteless television coverage. CNN even gave it a special banner headline: "Ground Zero. The Last Day."

Every five minutes, on videotape, the towers fell again. In great detail, we were told the number killed, the number still missing and the number of body parts found. One more time, survivors and family members of victims repeated their sad stories. And, once again, we were reminded that we're now at war against terror and our lives will never be the same.

Now, I don't mean to be disrespectful, but: enough already! It's time to stop wallowing in self-pity and move on with our lives.

How many times do we have to suffer through the platitudes of Rudy Giuliani, George Pataki and Michael Bloomberg? Isn't it obvious? Those weekly, if not daily, 9/11 extravaganzas only help two forces: the politicians and the networks. Both are trying to exploit September 11 for their own purposes — the networks, to get the ratings; the politicians, to trick us into focusing on the tragedies of the past so we won't notice their misdeeds of the moment.

Don't get me wrong. I'm not saying we should forget about September 11. We will never forget September 11, anymore than we could forget the Holocaust, Pearl Harbor or Oklahoma City. September 11 was a horrific day. Thousands of innocent people lost their lives in the worst acts of mass murder in American history. We're still angry. And we're determined to find and punish those responsible, first in Afghanistan, then in any other country that harbors terrorism.

My point is: There's not one American who doesn't know that. Not one American who isn't sorry for what happened. Not one American who isn't ready to get even. We don't have to be beaten over the head with that message in ceremony after ceremony after ceremony.

It seems to me that we could learn a lesson from our friends abroad. After all, we are not the first people to be victims of terrorism. No one has suffered more often than the people of Israel. Terrorist bombings occur there on a daily basis. But the Israelis don't spend all their time wringing their hands. They mourn and bury their dead, retaliate, and then resume life as normal.

Visit France or England. Both countries have experienced countless terrorist attacks, but the French and British don't sit around feeling sorry for themselves.

Perhaps they remember the heroic example of Winston Churchill. During the darkest days of World War II, with German bombs raining down daily on London, he encouraged Brits to keep a "stiff upper lip" — and go out for tea!

Or, more recently, they may remember the defiant Maggie Thatcher. When IRA terrorists exploded a bomb in a seaside hotel the morning she was about to convene an international gathering there, England's first woman Prime Minister was not cowed. She called a news conference to announce the meeting would go forward that same day, in the same hotel — terrorists be damned!

What we should learn from the Israelis, French, English and others is that we live in a world where terrorist attacks can happen. And when they do, we should deal with them — but then stop beating our breasts and go forward.

It's like when you lose a friend or family member you love dearly. Of course, you weep, mourn and regret your loss. But at some point, you just have to get over it and move on.

For Americans, it's important to move on from September 11. No more memorial services. No more ceremonies at Ground Zero. No more television tearjerkers. Otherwise, the terrorists win — and we look like wimps.