It is easy to slough off the day, wonder why the big deal, what with American troops at war in various places around the globe, an economy that doesn't seem to want to improve, and the cost of everything going up faster than wages.
But if you dipped in to our coverage, even for a couple of minutes, it's easy to see just how emotional all this still is, nine years later.
Every year I light candles on the anniversary of my mother's and father's death. It's a personal and emotional ritual, and it's intensely private.
But for those who are still mourning loved ones who were killed on Sept. 11, while the pain is personal, it is also quite public. And in that way, for all of us, the pain will not end. I'm not sure it should.
Meanwhile, the public controversy over the much-ballyhooed but scrapped "Koran burning" and the protests pro and con over the proposed Islamic cultural center and mosque took some of the solemnity away from this year's remembrance at Ground Zero.
The controversy will likely continue, while the remembrances stay publicly dormant until next September, the 10th anniversary of the terror attacks.
Speaking of which, we'll have the latest on the controversy, including new statements from the Imam from Lower Manhattan, tonight at 11.
Also at 11, the MTA holds the first of eight hearings into proposed fare hikes for bus and subway service. You can imagine the reaction to a 7.5% fare hike. Everything, it seems, is going up in price and at a time when the issue of letting the Bush tax cuts expire is heating up in Washington, D.C.
What's painful for New Yorkers is that, while the President wants to eliminate the tax cuts for families making more than $250,000 a year, he calls them "the wealthy", the truth in the biggest city in the country is that peeps making $200,000 a year still qualify for living in rent stabilized apartments. You can live like a king for $200,000 in most other cities in the country, but in New York, you're middle class. So it seems a bit ludicrous, especially from a President who got so many New Yorkers voting for and contributing money to him to talk about "billionaires" and the "wealthy" as making $250,000 a year in New York City.
Make no mistake, it's a lot of money, but in this city, it don't make you wealthy. I'm just sayin'.
And on this primary eve, we'll have the latest on the election tomorrow for New York Attorney General nominees, and the battles involving Pedro Espada and Charles Rangel, two veterans who shouldn't be but are facing tough primary challenges because of the scandals each is facing.
We'll also have any breaking news of the night, plus Lee Goldberg's AccuWeather forecast and the thunderstorms that moved through the area tonight, and Scott Clark with the night's sports. I hope you can join Liz Cho and me, tonight at 11.
