Responses to "Anonymous"

I've received several insistent anonymous comments regarding my 9/11 post. It's my general policy to remove argumentative anonymous comments because I don't believe that a person genuinely seeking intellectual discourse would do so in an anonymous fashion; my email address is clearly provided on this blog as a more personal means of contacting me. That said, this commenter has persevered in his/her attempts, and I've decided to publish those comments here and respond to them.

Comment #1:
While I respect your intelligence, and your profound desire to reach depth in life, and share it with others---I must say, this is the only time in my life, I've been compelled to leave a comment on someone's blog that I don't even know.

I just wish to present the notion to you of the 'other perspective' in regards to the incident that took place on 9/11. I feel that your insistence that this event should not be referred to as a 'tragedy' shows a real lack of consideration for those who lost their lives, and lost ones they love. I feel that attacking the mindset of devastation our nation holds when we reflect upon this event, seems extremely cold and also moot. It's almost offensive to play semantics like that--- I would never in my life take it upon myself to assume the power of deciding what is technically a 'tragedy' and what is not. While I fully understand the intelligent and opinionated efforts one may have in arguing that our nation is not handling its attitude and efforts toward terrorism correctly, I just don't understand how you could say that. Calling this event a 'tragedy' is not in any way placing the responsibility in the hands of fate. It's just an expression of loss, unexpected invasion, and the abrupt end to something beautiful---life, and lots of it.

Hopefully you understand where I am coming from, and you will reconsider your attitude when it comes to disregarding the human realities for the sake of a political platform. I'll confess, I have read your blog here and there, and I know what a compassionate person you are, from a distance, of course. I just wanted you to be aware of your words and how they come across, and hope that you don't make the mistake of discussing this political view in front of someone who has lost someone at ground zero.


You've made a lot of statements here, and I'll do my best to respond to them.

"I feel that your insistence that this event should not be referred to as a 'tragedy' shows a real lack of consideration for those who lost their lives, and lost ones they love."

I did not "insist" on anything in my post. You are free to use whatever terminology you choose to refer to any and all events in our country's history. It was never my intention to be inconsiderate; on the contrary it was only my intent to consider and remember the millions of lives that have been drastically changed since September 11 six years ago.

"I feel that attacking the mindset of devastation our nation holds when we reflect upon this event, seems extremely cold and also moot."

I do not see how a careful reading of my post could lead anyone to conclude that I was attacking anyone's devastation. If I took a cold-hearted approach to the losses the world has suffered since 9/11 I would not have been moved to write the post in the first place. It is because I feel our nation's losses so deeply that I believe all the things I wrote in that post.

"It's almost offensive to play semantics like that--- I would never in my life take it upon myself to assume the power of deciding what is technically a 'tragedy' and what is not."

It was not my intent to offend. Politics are always a hot topic, and I am naturally aware of the varying sentiments felt around the world surrounding the war on terror. In fact, I rarely speak of politics on my blog. I hate confrontation and arguments and I probably worry too much about offending people. That said, you just can't go through life being offended by everyone who has a different perspective. What you viewed as offensive semantics was intended only to be a few of my humble thoughts in the hopes that a few might find them worth reading. I had read a few other posts on 9/11 that day, and many were, frankly, self-absorbed. "I remember where I was when I heard; here is how I feel..." I felt compelled to write a few of my thoughts precisely because I don't believe that in my case a self-absorbed response or remembrance is appropriate. At the risk of sounding insensitive, I believe many people take a selfish approach to what is in fact a world-wide grief; an event whose repercussions are felt daily by many around the world far more brutally than they are felt by us in America. (Of course, whether our country reponds appropriately to these events and to this war on terror is another topic altogether.) In any case, I don't think anyone thoroughly examining my post would view my thoughts on 9/11 as a "power trip" as you say. That was certainly not my intent.

"Calling this event a 'tragedy' is not in any way placing the responsibility in the hands of fate."

It seems that you did not carefully observe my delineation between the modern definition of "tragedy" and the classical definition.

"Hopefully you understand where I am coming from, and you will reconsider your attitude when it comes to disregarding the human realities for the sake of a political platform."

I am not running for any office and don't have a political platform. (If I did, this blog wouldn't be the place I'd choose to discuss it!) I would never, never disregard human life for any platform, political or otherwise. Again, I believe a careful reading of my post cannot show anything other than a true sorrow for the suffering not only of our nation but of the world since 9/11.


Comment #2:
I see my comment got deleted. Don't you have anything to say for yourself at all? There was no intention to offend, just wanted to point something out to you, and I'm disappointed to see an attempt to ignore rather than to address.

A comment box isn't a realistic place for a dialogue of this nature. When I receive an anonymous comment, there is no reason for me to expect that the commenter will return and re-open the comment box to look for a response. I had no way of knowing you were truly seeking a conversation with me; if you had emailed me directly I would have responded promptly.


Comment #3:
I don't understand why you've deleted both of my comments.... I think I make a valid point, and just so you know, I am one of your husband's closer high school friends.. like I said.. I didn't mean to offend... I just wanted to see if you had anything to say to another point of view.. Let me know if you have reflected at all on what I had to say. I think it shows a great deal about you that you have enough nerve to post your every thought on here, but hide someone's response.

It is certainly not my wish to reflect poorly on Nathan to any former friends of his. That said, it's unreasonable for you to expect me to "let you know" anything since you have provided me with no name or contact information.

I am sure you are correct - my blog does "show a great deal" about me. However, if you assume that I post my "every thought" here, you must think I am a very shallow person! I post a few thoughts here, because it is my blog and my place for sharing my life, thoughts, and interests with family and friends. It is not a platform for anonymous attacks from those who do not know me or those who are unwilling to seek a discourse in a reasonable fashion. It is completely at my discretion whose comments I choose to publish and whose I choose to hide. If you would like to comment and leave your name, I can almost guarantee (short of inappropriate content or profanity) that I will allow your comment to be published. If you want to think that my decision to remove your comments reveals a great deal of negative things about my character, well, that's your prerogative.

There you go, Anonymous. You were very eager to have your comments heard, and now I have published them and devoted my morning to responding to them. I hope this clarifies any misunderstandings about my original post. Might I suggest that if you are offended by the content in my blog you simply stop reading it? I don't read the blogs of extremist left-wing liberal nutjobs very often, probably because they would raise my blood pressure to dangerous levels. If you think I'm a cold-hearted, war-mongering, insensitive person and find my views so upsetting, it frankly surprises me that you continue to read my blog.