On The 10th Anniversary of September 11th

I wrote this a week ago, just before the 10th anniversary of September 11.  I  didn't publish at the time just becuase...I don't know.  Lots of people in the media were being critical of how our nation has handled the past 10 years, and I don't think anything I have said will really raise eyebrows.  But to be somewhat critical of our nation on a day where our unity in the face of tragedy was emphasized seemed wrong. 

It's been a week.  The memories of the commerations and the day itself have faded a bit for most of us.  So it seems appropriate (if untimely) to join the choir now. 

It would not be fitting to say nothing on the 10th anniversary of the attacks on September 11th, 2001. 

It is impossible to forget the day.  I remember exactly where I was, as I am sure all of you do as well. I was at Virginia Tech, sitting in a class room, and my professor walked in and said that a plane had hit the World Trade Center.  He didn't know what kind of plane, no one understood the magnitude of what had just happened, so we all just contiuned with class as normal and I assumed it was a little, private aviator's plane.  A small tragedy on an otherwise promising tuesday. 

I got out of class and headed to Owens Hall for lunch, and there on the TV screens was tragedy writ large.

Now it is 10 years later.  All week the media has been revisiting the pain of that day, remembering those who died, and commentating on the legacy those attacks have left behind.  On Sunday there will be fittengly solemn commemerations throughout the country, especially in New York City where they will have their annual ceremony, reading aloud the names of those who died.  

As for myself, I will certainly say a prayer for those who lost their lives.  I will certainly remember the fire fighters and EMTs who rushed towards death and destruction that they might save others.  I will certainly keep in my thoughts men and women like Lt. Todd Weaver, killed in Afghanistan one year ago last Friday, who left behind a wife and a daughter who is about the same age as my own daughter.

It is all appropriate.  But I wonder if perhaps, over the past 10 years, it would have been better if we could have shaken off the ghosts of September 11th to a greater extent?  I wonder if September 11th has come to define our nation in a way that maybe it shouldn't? 

It may be too soon to ask those questions.  It may take ages for us to heal from such a traumatic event.  But history and our own lives tell us it is dangerous to fixate on moments of defeat and pain.  It may not be the best parallel, but the Serbian fixation on the Battle of Kosovo of 1389, where Serbian armies were decimated in what is probably best considered a tactical draw but a strategic defeat, was used to breed feelings of nationalism and hatred that fueled the barbarity of the Bosnian Wars 600 years later.  More familiar may be the way that Hitler and the Nazis used the bitterness of German defeat in WWI (and the terms of their surrender) to turn their nation in to a machine of war and death.

Or maybe witness simply the broken man, who lets a tragedy in own his life define him, who becomes bitter, irritable, and hate filled?

Invoking historical boogeymen to defend a point is in vogue these days, and I am not suggesting that the United States is on a path to become a new Serbia or the Fouth Reich.  But rest assured as well I don't use these examples lightly, as they are extreme examples that point to the cancer that can grip a nation if it lets painful moments in its history define it.  We should be wary of allowing the events of the past 10 years to do so.

We have more in common, probably, with the broken man.  The past 10 years have been traumatic.  We were attacked, we responded in ways both good and bad, and that response has forced us to question ourselves as as nation.  Other events not related to September 11th have also forced us to question some of our basic assumptions about the World and our place in it. 

We don't seem to be dealing wth it well.  Instead of positively responding to the challenges before us, we sit at the bar and lash out anyone who tries to console us.  We react with bitterness, divisiveness, pettyness and immaturity.  I dare say that many of our public officials and self-righteous media demagogues, who are always so quick to thank those who serve or venerate our first responders, have not even begun to live up to the example that our nation's heroes have given us. 

What will the 20th anniverasy of September 11th be like?  What will the 30th?  I hope we will commemorate those days.  It would be a shame if September 11th really did become like Pearl Harbor Day, which aside from a note on the calender and maybe a documentary on the History Channel (maybe) is often forgotten.  But I hope on the 30th Anniversary of September 11th we will be able to look back on the pervious 20 years and see that we have responded more positively to an ever changing world.  I hope our politics will be less divisive.  I hope that we come to have some measure of peace with ourselves as a nation.    

Have your September 11th, and keep it well.  Light your candles, say your prayers, recite the names and ring your bells.  Remember.  But then let the bells fall silent.  Put out the candles and let the smoke curl peacefully to the Heavens.  Tomorrow is another day, and its going to be beautiful.