Three years gone...

I saw a commercial for "live coverage of the anniversary," starting at 8:30 AM September 11, 2004. I didn't watch that channel at all today.

I saw a couple of webcomics that alluded to it. One overtly, one far more subtly.

And that was it.

And that was all I wanted.

I lit a candle, as I do every year on the 11th of September. And that's all.

The bleeding's stopped. Instead of pain, there is the memory of pain. And that's as it should be. Eventually, this will be one of those historical events our children and grandchildren will be bored by. Eventually, a big budget action thriller a la Pearl Harbor or Titanic will be made, and just as with those two movies, there will be small groups of people asking or bitching if it's appropriate to take such a tragedy and make it into a big budget movie where handsome leading actors and beautiful leading ladies have sex and scream a lot. And everyone else will ignore them.

This isn't a bad thing. This is natural. This is healing. This is having the horror of the present fade into the perspective of history.

We won't ever forget. Those of us who lived through it will remember that day for the rest of our lives. But as a society, we're getting over it. We're more annoyed at 'security' than scared, despite the best efforts of the RNC.

Next year, maybe it'll barely be mentioned. The year after that, maybe people will say "hey, isn't it September 11?"

I'll light a candle. Maybe you will too. And otherwise, we'll get on with our lives.

See? They didn't win, after all.