Try to remember the kind of September, when life was slow and oh so mellow.

Another anniversary and still there aren't heads on pikes. For that, and that alone, I blame the President.

I'm going to be a little heretical now (and really, haven't you noticed that I am normally heretical?). Just how many public memorials do we have to December 7? Well, to be fair, one is on the drawing board and the USS Arizona hosts many visitors every year. I've not been to Ground Zero, or the Pentagon since the attack, but I have been to Shanksville. I've seen the make-shift memorial wall there and walked through the little shack the National Park Service erected, and stared out across the field toward the tree line. But in all honesty, the actual site is just a hole in a field. This hole has now become a place of modern pilgrimage, just like Ground Zero and the Pentagon which has the first in-tact permanent memorial dedication today.

I can see how this has come about. The cynical use of the memory, and the constant beating of the drum by the current administration, tied with their impotent response and lack of bringing those responsible to justice have consigned us to this Groundhog Day like existence every September 11th.

Out in the country we have seen the growth of descansos, or roadside memorials. These are normally crosses with plastic flowers, although some have become very elaborate in a weird competitive "my grief is greater than yours" way. While these used to be temporary markings of the place where someone was last alive, many are now more or less permanent emplacements, regularly updated and refreshed.

It's easy to understand why. The people who place these are still hurting. They have no closure and are unable to let go of the dead.

The same is true with the continuing veneration of 9-11. Is it a day to remember? Certainly. We all remember just what we were doing when we first heard of the attack. But a two-acre memorial park outside the Pentagon, and National Park of ten acres in Pennsylvania, and a permanent memorial/museum in NY? For all the sacrifice of towns across this country during WWII, most have simple stones with the names of the dead inscribed.

Why not instead dedicate ourselves to living better and more fully? Why not instead of concrete and steel firm up heart and soul? Why not, when it's a bright clear morning, feel a moment of sadness remembering that September when life was slow and mellow, remember those who have passed, and then get on with our lives here and now? Remember those who were doing nothing other than working, and the sacrifice of those who ran to help them and take those lessons with us.

Because we have no closure, no healing, no justice. We are stuck on that morning, unable to move on. The bells ring, heads are bowed, widows, widowers and orphans cry as the names are read aloud, and the hurting continues.