Tag Archives: 9/11

My wife’s constitution and temperament are thankfully, much more reasonable than mine. So as we recounted where we were on that fateful day in September of 2001, I was somewhat surprised by her pessimistic outlook 11 years later. My partner of 16 seasons caught me a bit off guard when she remarked how she felt we are far less united as a nation today, than at any time she could remember. We talked about the “me attitude” and how dodging the “one finger salute” seems a constant when traversing about our state, and I suspect the rest of the country in 2012. I looked into the eyes of this woman of slight stature but enormous soul, and wondered about how she saw her young sons America 20 years from now.

I have never been able to reconcile the vivid memories of that day. Those who leapt into the hands of God, and those they left behind. Those first warriors on Flight 93, and the face of the enemy who sought to make his case by killing the innocent among us. But where I saw war, she saw hope in its shadow. I think this is why I’m so fixated on our past, so that we may secure our future for the mothers of peace like my wife. You see I believe without reservation that in order unite as one people, we must understand who we are and where we come from. Only then can we hope to carry that which the “Greatest Generation” entrusted to us, forward in our children’s name. (Are there any teachers with conscience reading this?)

9/11 made us angry. It made us long for payback. These are natural and fitting emotions when the loss is so great and unexplainable. However we are now at another crossroads in America, faced with some of the same questions. Where do we go from here? How do we move forward? Is this time to much for us to overcome?

To answer these questions we have to go back and revisit our founding principles. We must overcome the urge to be complacent and worship false promises because some media knucklehead says we should. It is not wrong to love your country. There is much to love and admire about the nation that has done more to advance the cause of human kind than any other in history.

So as we contemplate not only where we are as a nation, but who we’ve become as a people 11 years into the “War on Terror”, I think the best way to honor the memory of those whose futures were taken from them by a “foreign” ideology of hate, is to unite behind one common and oh so American principle. In the simplest form, there is no hill too high nor problem so insurmountable, that cannot be overcome by a people, diverse but of one culture, and united in the God-given and inalienable promise of liberty.