David Rothstein writes: >Without debating if the day warrants silence on the waves or not, the issue >is: "Should there be a collective & national decision to "shut down" or >not?, Should the silence be official or not?" The problem is, how do we know that the silence is official if all sources of news are shut down? >This is very similar to the one day in Israel where official stations are >silent, i.e. "Yom Kippur". To this, one could reply several things. First, it's, in a sense, commemorative and occurs with regularity. A disaster like 9/11 (we hope) does not. Second, in the U.S. we have a tradition that one doesn't have to pray in a state church or even, outside of courtesy, have to go along with the religious beliefs of the majority of our citizens. And, indeed, those who do not, perform a public service: they make others feel purer and holier and get various blood flows moving just by existing. That's a gift! Steve Schwartz