Lots of words have been and will be written for the tenth anniversary of 9/11, but Wilfred McClay has set a very high standard of courage, clarity, and eloquence with his “Memorializing September 11^th.” It’s in the forthcoming issue of National Affairs, and is now available on their website. Here’s a sample—but, really, do read the whole thing:

“The fact that there is still so little consensus about the meaning of events so momentous and terrible, and so plainly injurious to the national life, has to be taken as an ominous sign about where we stand as a people….