Twelve years later the lessons of 9/11 appear to have faded. Notwithstanding the heroic and sacrificial efforts of our brave military who remain at the gate, the incoherent approach of our current government to the international issues of our time, gives me no measure of confidence we are any better off than we were on 9/10/01. But today’s write is not necessarily about the political lessons so much as the personal ones.
I was raised to be proud of my country. Mindful of its imperfections but acutely aware of the hard-fought freedom which makes the United States of America the greatest arrangement for mankind under God. You see I have always believed that as an American, if you cannot or will not accept that simple fact first, then there is no debate to be had on anything else.
9/11 showed us our vulnerabilities to be sure. But it also gave us an opportunity to revisit some of those very special attributes the terrorists hate so much about us. For a few short years it seemed, we had gone back in time and were able to unite around our commonalities, those integral qualities of community and of “We the people” and E Pluribus Unum which always make us stronger. Regrettably however, it appears we have now forsaken the “self-evident” truths of our founding documents for the hollow promises of a false security. In the days that followed the attacks, I saw black and white, Jew and Muslim, join hands on human terms like I did not and do not remember. There was a quiet but palpable acknowledgement, that the blood flowing in the rubble of 1 World Trade and the Pentagon, as well as that spilled on a “field of honor” in Shanksville PA, was all “red”, white and blue.
So as my eyes always well up when I focus on the lost souls of 9/11 and beyond, I wonder what we should memorialize on this 12th anniversary of that horrible day. Putting aside shiny new buildings and the star-studded tributes we will likely see in the months ahead as the new World Trade comes on-line, what do you think “they” think of us and our current efforts on behalf of “their” posterity? In the end, what can we say we took away from “Ground Zero” 2001, and how has it made us better as a country in 2013?
I wonder…
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