Remembering 9/11, paging Roger Goodell, and more

A US flag was unfurled at the 9/11 Memorial at the Pentagon.REUTERS

Check out five opinions trending online, from a year of living Jewishly to the odds for a Fed rate hike.

Remembering 9/11: Congress should renew support for health care for survivors injured in the 9/11 attacks, write the editors of the New York Times.

"Soon after the horrific destruction of the World Trade Center towers 14 years ago, bumper stickers abounded in parallel with the nation's grief. 'Never Forget,' one proclaimed with great resolve. 'We Will Always Remember,' promised another.

"Now that they have faded from sight, their underlying message is being put to the test in Congress. The nation's lawmakers have nothing less than a moral obligation to renew the health care and compensation programs for the thousands of 9/11 responders and volunteers severely stricken by their long labors at ground zero's infernal pile of devastation." Read more.

A year of living Jewishly: In her year of "living Jewishly" and observing the full cycle of holidays and fasts, writer Abigail Pogrebin found an "unexpected wakefulness." She writes about her experience — as the High Holidays approach — for The Forward.

"After observing 18 holidays (actually, 21, but 18 is Jewishly neater) and writing 29 pieces (two about Shabbat) in which I quoted 44 rabbis and interviewed 30, plus 20 non-rabbis (writers, educators, etc.), I am moved, more than anything, by what our tradition imposes: Moments of intermission. A demand to reach others in trouble. The rope pulling the ancient into today." Read more.

Natasha McKenna's last moments: The last moments of Fairfax County jail inmate Natasha McKenna are horrifying, writes the editorial board of the Washington Post, because of the brutal force brought to bear on a woman who struggled with schizophrenia all her life.

"Among Natasha McKenna's last words — or, perhaps, her last intelligible ones — were: 'You promised me that you wouldn't kill me. I didn't do anything.'

"That was all she had a chance to say before a six-man team of white-suited sheriff's deputies, their faces obscured by helmets and visors, hauled Ms. McKenna, who was naked, from a cell at the Fairfax County jail. A short while later, after an 18-minute struggle to restrain her in which she was shot four times with a Taser, Ms. McKenna became unresponsive. She died five days later," the editors write.

"A video of the incident was released Thursday by Sheriff Stacey A. Kincaid. It is a chilling thing to watch." Read more.

Odds for the Fed: Writing for BloombergView, Mohamed El-Erian puts the chance of a Federal Reserve interest rate increase at 60-40 — and explains why.

"As the debate about whether the Federal Reserve will begin raising interest rates next week reaches fever pitch, each side is being forced to adopt so-called corner solutions, arguing for their respective position with mounting conviction. This is understandable given the demand for a definitive answer. But it also is unfortunate, because both camps fail to take account of some broader considerations that cloud any certainty.

"At the simplest level of analysis, there is a 60/40 case in favor of a decision to begin the interest rate normalization process at the Fed's Sept. 16-17 Open Market Committee meeting." Read more.

Why Tom Brady matters. Paging Roger Goodell: Thursday night's Patriots-Steelers match reminds us why Tom Brady matters, writes Ian O'Connor for ESPN.

"In case millions of fans forgot over the past seven months, Tom Brady just reminded everyone why we ever cared about him in the first place. It was not because of his leading-man looks or his world-famous spouse or whether or not he once treated the NFL rulebook as a loose circle of suggestions rather than the unbendable law of his land. Brady is a master craftsman in the art of throwing a football, and that truth was never impacted by the Ideal Gas Law or an equipment guy who called himself The Deflator. This was not your father's Pittsburgh Steelers defense Thursday night, nor was it Dick LeBeau's. But what Brady did to them is precisely what he would've done to them in Troy Polamalu's prime. He threw four touchdown passes and completed 25 of 32 passes — including a franchise-record 19 in a row — for 288 yards in a victory on a rainy opening night. In other words, the absent commissioner, Roger Goodell, missed one hell of a show." Read more.