Tragedy Rewind 2006

2006 has been a Rock and Roll year that just keeps on rolling. In the past few weeks our senses have been on overload as we returned to New Orleans and the government three ring circus that was Katrina relief. Today, the fifth anniversary of 9/11 is being relived and re-told from every prespective by all that is media. Government officials from President Bush to Firefighter captains are recalling this tragic milestone in American History. Conspiracy theories aside and the ongoing debates about the 9/11 commission or intelligence reports, the controversary surrounding this malaise rages until this day. I'm deeply troubled with the ongoing rehtoric that seems to fuse 9/11 with the war on terror, Iraq, Afgahnistan, Axis' of Evil and almost anything else that justifies our erratic foreign policy as well as our domestic sensibilites. Epecially the fact that each of these events impacted people of color accross the board. Film trailblazers Oliver Stone and Spike Lee added to the abjectness with their forceful films "World Trade Center," and "When the Levees broke" documentry featured on HBO. These reaccountings have stirred fresh emotions from my soul, in conjunction with the nation as we all watched this epic tragedy within every breaking news segment for a week straight. In Little Rock, freedom walks, prayer vigils, and many roundtable discussions will commemerate this ongoing drama that seems to be open ended.

And the Tragedy Tour would not be complete without the 9th annivesary of the Princess Diana's death in Paris. As we all do with headline national events, I know exactly where I was when I heard that "Di" had been killed in an traffic accident. My partner and myself were returning from an evening out to hear the announcement. We sat quietly in disbelief trying to comprehend how this could have happened. Amazingly these unfortuante guidepost in our lives are seared into our memory. We go into rewind mode, often experiencing the same emotions and a common sense of lost that affects us universally when a major event occurs. The 9/11 massacre is a perfect example of this mass greif when the planes hit the towers and subsequent collaspe.

Event though most of these tragedies happen via TV, we had chance to go the Oklahoma Bombing Memorial in August to sense the enormity of such an event. Just as 9/11, I had seen this awful event unfold on network TV and was moved by the array of mini-memorials that had been left outside the gates. Upon entering the west wall, facing the reflecting pool, the beauty and calmness was breathtaking despite my full knowledge that many died and suffered greatly in this place. The "Chair" desgin which further remembers the victims, are dignified and reminds us that we all deserve an equal place at the table of life. Leaving the memorial, I realized that life is so fleeting and at a moments notice or twinkling of an eye, it can all be over. Consequently, our 24 hour media link delivers us the latest each day, but I often ponder about the countless everyday mishaps happening all around us that gets no coverage or the massive outpouring of support. Those adversities are just as important and should cause us to live everyday to the fulliest even in a Tragedy Rewind.