To put it very bluntly: September 11th is a very touchy subject. Well, obviously. It is a tragedy that many Americans are still trying to cope with today. But why is a memorial for the victims such a dramatic ordeal? Why is it so much more difficult to address what happened in 2001 compared to what happened with Hurricane Katrina?

There are an innumerable amount of answers to these questions that I can only begin to answer. First of all, there are so many factors to 9/11. I know when I think of the tragic events that occurred that day, I immediately picture the Twin Towers collapsing to the ground. I think about the images of New York City: business people running for their lives, firemen running into the smoke and flames, the explosion of the planes as they connected with the towers.

However, I never really think about the Pentagon. Or the plane that crashed in central Pennsylvania. But I know that those individuals who lost their lives are just as much a victim of the attacks as anyone in NYC.

So when constructing a memorial, the question always is: Who do we commemorate? Like the dilemma in Connecticut, organizers have to consider who gets their name on the plaque. Who are people reminded of when they sit on this bench or look at this slab of slate? Is it individuals from that town? That county? State? Region? Are victims from PA and Washington included? What about just the people on the hijacked planes? Or the people working in the World Trade Center that morning? The list is endless.

Because the truth is, we all are aware that every single person that lost their life deserves to be memorialized. They had their life taken away from them. Not because of a natural disaster dealt by the hands of a higher being (ie: Katrina), but by other human beings who decided that they were not worthy of life, simply because of what they believed. So every family member, every friend and co-worker, believes that their loved one is worthy of recognition. That they should not be forgotten - or in this case, omitted from a memorial dedicated to the victims of 9/11.

So even when the commemorators figure out who should be included, they then have to determine what the actual memorial should be. What is appropriate? Tasteful, yet appealing to visitors? What can everyone - victims' families and constructors - agree on? How do we take an event so overwhelming and so inexplicable and horrendous, and try to make sense of it out of granite and wood?

The answer? We can't. I cannot even begin to fathom how we could make everyone happy. As humans, we have this drive to make sense of everything. Tie it all up in a neat little bow and somehow trick ourselves into believing that what happened made sense. That it was "meant to happen". Well, that may work for when your cat dies. But when it comes to a massive attack on your country and human freedoms in general, it is a more difficult package to tie. By making a memorial, we try to take an inexplicable event with such abstract and alienating feelings and try to make something tangible out of it. Which obviously, is quite impossible.

So many different views and opinions on one day of events creates insurmountable tension and disagreements. While everyone wants to do something, no one really knows what to do. And really, what can we do? What is there to be done? To answer this question, I immediately think, "Learn more about the events to obtain a fuller understanding of what occurred on Sept. 11, as well as respect the victims' families, who are still trying to make sense of why their loved one was killed."

But isn't that an oxymoron? I mean, just look at the article about the falling man. One family saw it as cowardice for that man to throw himself from the building. Another family saw it as the man taking the last moments of his life into his own hands. Both families lost a loved one in the attacks, but they had completely opposite views on this mans suicide.

Also, by simply showing photographs and reporting on what happened that day, newspapers and news stations were attacked by victims' families. They claimed that out of the respect for the victims, their deaths should not be exploited on a national scale. (And I would like to say to my thousands of followers out there that I understand this, although my understanding is very limited due to the fact that I cannot relate to their loss whatsoever.) However, how is the rest of the nation - no, the world - supposed to try to understand what happened on September 11th, a day of death and tragedy, without actually seeing the death and the tragedy?

I still internally struggle with this moral and ethical concept, and I am only one person. How are we supposed to get entire communities or the whole nation to agree on how to handle the reporting and memorializing of this event if I can't even make sense of it myself?