The story of those who were lost and the people who loved them, that is what this date should mean. It is not about exploiting our fears for political gains or using the horror to start an unnecessary war. It is not about taking away our civil rights.

I am so angry at what the Bush administration has done with this tragedy. Their bullying and jingoism has almost obscured my memory of what really happened that day. The personal story of the Yaskulka family brought it back in all its raw sense of sorrow, anger and horror.

Thank you, Salon. These are the stories that need to be told on this anniversary.

As much as I completely feel the pain of this family I cannot even imagine the loss and devastation that thousands and thousands of families have to deal with in Afghanistan and Iraq, everyday. In the end we are all victims of the great mismanagement of world affairs.

Is letting the past rule them. They seem to be unwilling or unable to get past it. That's not 'recovery' it's 'wallowing'. And to be fair we've created a entire class of people in the US - thousands of martyred 911 familes who are supposed to be wallowing endlessly. Perhaps they could get a royalty everytime someone with an FDNY hat is seen on TV. Perhaps Salon should ask the families of Oklahoma City if they feel they are being appropriately worshipped.

Please cite the passages that substantiate the allegation that this family demands to be "worshipped". And do you honestly think that the Oklahoma City families aren't still experiencing these same kinds of problems?

Maybe you should get back to us after you have suffered through that kind of trauma.

I think that the only "wallowing" going on today is on the part of those people who have no personal connection to 9/11 re-living the events of that day via television or the internet.

While I sympathize with the families who lost loved ones from the attacks of 9/11, that sympathy is no more or less than felt toward families who lost or continue to lose loved ones to senseless murder, accidents involving drunk drivers or cancer. As far as the commemoration events that we are deluged with today and each Sept. 11th, I tune it out. I simply don't care all that much. A FAR more important day is November 7th when the people have the power to get the real danger to America out of office -- the Republican controlled Congress.

Although their loss was certainly brutal and senseless, this family certainly appears to have problems that go far beyond the events of 9-11. The father has chronic back problems and depression and has been unemployed since at least a year before 9-11. The youngest daughter - only 3 when this happened - seems to have made this event the focus of her entire life. The first thing the oldest daughter tells strangers is that her grandmother died in the attack.

Dozens of nations have faced tragedies far more extensive and long-running in recent memory. So have previous generations of Americans. It's time that our great country starts pouring its attention into fixing today's problems and dodging future ones instead of prolonging these showy displays of forced grief.

The Yaskulkas would probably benefit from focusing more on their futures and less on their past losses, too.

Grief? Sadness? Bitterness? Showing feelings of an almost human nature?

Fear not! The wise letter writers of Salon will show you how pathetic you are.

You wanna see tragedy? You wanna see pain? No matter what you've lost, what you've suffered, heroic Salon letter writers can point to those who've suffered WAY more than you -- so why don't you put a sock in it already? Nobody wants to hear your complaints, ok? JUST. GET. OVER. IT.

Christ, we're horrid.

EM's letter, above, said what I was thinking.

From what the article said about the grandmother, she was fun-loving and wouldn't want her family to be miserable and guilty every time the sky gets dark.

Best wishes to this family. Please don't let this tragedy define you.

The Salon articles “exploring the impact of 9/11 five years after the attacks” allow us to see some of the micro effects of 9/11. They remind us that we are all members of a colossus web, where the actions of one affects the construction of the whole.

I can understand the Yaskulkas' anger. Had the grandmother been a singular victim of a violent attack by a single individual, the justice system could have provided some type of closure for the family. But since the crime of 9/11 has not been adequately investigated by the state and local justice system, there is no closure.

They, and others who had family members die on 9/11, can only use political platitudes to supply answers to questions that demand a reasoned and critical response. The evidence of 9/11 is mostly gone, allowing conjecture to overrule fact, leaving new evidence that shortsightedness has no limit; and demonstrating that a real solution offers no competition to a political solution.

Given all this, all this should be accepted as the best closure that is available. Reflecting on Don Q., "The windmills must fade before we end up also circling a point in the wind."

While I generally love Salon's comments feature and have learned a lot from what readers have posted about various articles, I don't really think it's appropriate to allow commenting on articles like this one. Not because it's about a family touched by 9-11, but because it is a fundamentally private story. Reading the comments left so far, I am disgusted that people feel the need to publicly judge others' healing processes. We all have our own personal tragedies; whether they are relatively private or are part of an act of terrorism, they are personal, and no compassionate person should even think of passing judgement in the way some of the previous commenters have. Articles such as this are published in order for us to learn, empathize, and maybe even gain a bit of insight into our own lives, not to make their subjects the target of ridicule and judgement. Shame on anyone who thinks they have the right to tell another person how to grieve.