September 12^th, 2004 – a Battle Lost, a War Still Waging Within

Yesterday was the third anniversary of September 11^th.   News channel after news channel had stories documenting the horror and honor that defined September 11, 2001 for so many Americans and so much of the world.   As someone living 3000 miles away from ground zero, I only felt the echoes of the horror.  I saw buildings crumble, I saw lives destroyed, I saw a country tremble with fear, and then steel itself with resolve.   But, even though I lived so very far away from the horror, I felt that the honor of that day and the weeks that followed envelope me.  September 11^th proved once again that when pushed to an extreme, when faced with a horrible truth, we are a nation of good people, caring people, a nation of one people.  I remember thinking that the terrorist who rejoiced in our pain were foolish, because when our nation is unified, we are an unstoppable force. 

Three years have passed since that horrible day, and how things have changed.   We are once again a nation divided, fighting among ourselves as though our neighbors are the enemy.  Forgetting that there is much that binds us even though we believe in different gods, different politics, different paths.  I fear we have failed to learn the most important lesson of September 11^th

Aaron Brown, an anchor at CNN, who came to prominence in the shadow of the collapsing towers, commenting on this very subject night before last, on September 10^th.  He said, almost verbatim, what I believe.   He is a transcript of the opening of his show, Newsnight: 

“AARON BROWN, CNN ANCHOR: Good evening again.
I'm stuck tonight by what we've lost since 9/11 three years ago, not what we lost that day, the horrific loss of life, the sense of invulnerability, innocence some say, but what we've lost since.

Conceding that memory isn't always exactly right, it seems we've lost our sense of that which binds us. We saw each other differently in those days. We were kinder to each other, a little more thoughtful.

We loved more, hugged harder, valued life more because we all lost so much. We understood we had common dreams and common enemies and our enemies were not each other. That I think has evaporated.

I read it in the notes I see each day. I hear it on the radio and on the campaign trail. I see it all the time. There's nothing about 9/11 I miss but in those horrible days after, days of loss and grief and fear, there was something wonderful as well and I miss that a lot."

September 11^th was horrific.  It proved to us all that we are vulnerable, that Americans are hated, that no matter our military strength, we are a nation of “soft targets”:  shopping malls, bridges, schools, football fields, soccer games, temples, churches, airports, bus depots.  It also proved to my generation that there is something that makes this the county the United States of America:  makes this one nation, rather than a collection of fifty states.

The ambiguous “they” who hijacked planes and flew them into buildings won a battle on September 11^th.  They caught us off guard, and they got us good.   Now, the victory of honor and humanity that blossomed out of the ashes of that day’s sorrow seems to have also slipped out of our hands.  We are once again a selfish, thoughtless nation, divided by race, economics, religion and political beliefs.  We have taken the sacrifices of those who died on that day and scoffed at them, sullied them.   This is true regardless of whether you are a Democrat or a Republican, Christian, Jew or Muslim, rich or poor, Black, White, Latino, Arab or Asian.  It is true whether you served in Vietnam or did not.  It is whether you agree with the war in Iraq or not.  It is true regardless of who you are and where you come from: on September 11^th, 2001, the only thing that mattered was that your neighbor, you co-worker, you brother, your friend, or just a stranger who went to work, died for one reason alone: they were targeted because they could have been an American. 

So, as we point fingers, assess blame, and jockey for position this political season, let us remember the most important lesson of September 11^th – we are all Americans.  We must remember, for all that divides us, there is so much more that binds us.  We can disagree without being considered a traitor, or a thief, or a coward, or a profiteer.  We all have it within us to respect someone else’s right to have a different answer.  We must be able to agree to disagree, to understand that while none of us may have all of the answers, working together we can find a common path that works for us all.  America is not made up of one voice it is made up of many.  All of those voices must be heard, remembered, and cherished in order to truly honor those we lost on September 11^th.  If we forget this simple truth, then we have not only lost the one battle, but I fear may also lose the war.  They already beat us once.  We cannot afford to let this happen again.