Separating politics from 9/11

The Sept 11 anniversary ceremony at ground zero has been stripped of politicians this year. But can it ever be stripped of politics?

For the first time, elected officials won’t speak today at an occasion that has allowed them a solemn turn in the spotlight. The change was made in the name of sidelining politics, but some have rapped it as a political move in itself.

It’s a sign of the entrenched sensitivity of the politics of Sept 11 even after a decade of commemorating the attacks that killed nearly 3,000 people.

The date has been limned with questions about how — or even whether — to try to separate the Sept 11 that is about personal loss from the 9/11 that reverberates through public life.

The answers are com-plicated for Debra Burlin-game, whose brother Charles was the pilot of the hijacked plane that crashed into the Pentagon.

“It is the one day, out of 365 days a year, where, when we invoke the term ‘9/11’ we mean the people who died and the events that happened,” rather than the political and cultural layers the phrase has accumulated, said Burlingame.

“So I think the idea that it’s even controversial that politicians wouldn’t be speaking is really rather remarkable.”

In July, the National Sept 11 Memorial and Museum announced this year’s version would include only relatives reading victims’ names. Politicians still may attend.

The point, memorial president Joe Daniels said, was “honouring the victims and their families in a way free of politics” in an election year.