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I won't forget where we were as a nation just after 9/11. When the Towers were hit, the first responders, the NYPD and the NYFD, were uniquely close to a human tragedy in the making, going into highly at-risk buildings in the attempt to save as many lives as humanly possible. But in the days after, many, many volunteers, iron and steel-workers, police and fire and rescue experts, wanted to help with a grim job afterwards--of finding survivors, or as was increasingly likely, bodies. To take apart the wreckage--to salvage the day.
That was a strange time. There was a terrible grief that fell across the nation, but also a desire to make things right. And people honestly did come together and some prayed. Some donated to Red Cross. Some donated their time as counselors. And regardless of our backgrounds, I think many felt, as Americans, that we needed to know and respond. But above all, we wanted to be a part of the response. If we were asked to sacrifice something right then we would have.
We would. It wouldn't undo what had been done, but it would make us worthy of the fallen. We could have made things right.
I hated George Bush in December of 2000, but on 9/12/2001, I wished him well. I wished every American everywhere well. On 9/12/2001, I had some ideas about who struck us, and I wanted them quite obliterated. I did feel patriotic then. I donated. I read the news, obsessively. I didn't pray, because who would I pray to? But I got out a mala and chanted my own kind of mind-stilling wish--"May all people find their way." Maybe to war, maybe to finding peace, maybe finding their way through mourning. Maybe the planners of this horror would find their way to a nasty death. I hoped we could find out quickly who did this horrible thing, and that they would feel very quick retribution. And I think a lot of people were in that same boat, maybe not knowing exactly what to do, but ready to answer some call.
I don't know about the 9 somethings and the 12 something else's of the Glenn Beck 9/12 demonstration. I don't quite get why about 50-or-60 thousand people thought that 9/12/2009 was the day to say that they didn't trust the government (fire fighters, police, the military, and our public servants in office are all government employees--do they hate our government? Isn't our government part of America? Isn't our government based on the Constitution that many of them are supposed to love?) I don't know why so many of them think that their government has been hi-jacked like some plane, when our government is democratically-elected, and the people we have in office represent us because the majority of voters put them there.
I don't know why they think that the 57 million of us who voted for Obama are socialists or Communists. I'm like a lot of atheists--a little bit Libertarian, even if left-Libertarian, and I despise the idea of outright Communism--they aren't thinking about me, nor most Obama-supporters I know. But I think that logically, some things could stand to be socialized because only a group could absorb the cost and arrange for most all contigencies. I always have the background voice of Kennedy in my head, urging us to do more: "We do these things not because they are easy, but because they are hard."
And sometimes Americans have done very difficult things, and done them well.
Waging an economic war at home against the Great Depression 70 years ago. Fighting the Nazis and the Japanese empire. Fighting the Cold War. Putting a man on the moon. Creating a social safety net through Social Security and later, Medicare and Medicaid. We, as a nation, have done and simply should do great things--we are Americans! It's what we're supposed to do!
I believe in our 9/12 America. I believe in those who mourned as Americans, and as decent human beings. I sympathize with the fear and the loss and the distrust people can sometimes have, for a variety of reasons, about change. But I want even the demonstrators who went to Washington 9/12/2009 to know--like Obama, I still believe we can do great things, and that we must, and that we will have to, whether they chose to be on board or not. This post is about and for them.
See, right now, some of those volunteers, who went up to the site of Ground Zero, breathed in a lot of things that should never be in the lungs of human beings. Some have already died of breathing that mess in. They aren't dying in Iraq or Afghanistan, but they are dying in hospitals in our country. They are, some of them, dying because they are heroes in the war on terror, because they responded to a call to do the right thing. It's a slow way. It's a painful and a costly way.
Do we acknowledge them for their sacrifice? Or how about your neighbor--who worked at the factory that closed down because of the economy and doesn't have a new job yet? Just as American and patriotic as you--felt the same way you did that day--and they just lost the coverage for the time being for themselves and their kids. Remember how you once wanted to help someone in a tragedy? How about a tragedy less unique, but still as poignant? What about those recently, and for reasons beyond their control, unable to pay for their healthcare? For even dumb things like infections and broken bones, which the parents among you know are par for the course when raising kids? How about the coverage for the widower or widow who, with their kids, used to have coverage, until they lost their spouse?
You want to talk about life and death threats to this nation? You want to talk about feeling like your pockets have been picked because we might choose to extend coverage to those who could use it? You want to talk about the government deciding who should live, and who should die? Well, the one deciding who should live or die is--you.
You decide. Can we, as Americans, talk together, or do we talk at cross-purposes? Are we citizens united together as much as we were then--or is there some reason you think the bunch of us supporting this current president are somehow less American, and less desirous of seeing this country do well, now? How can you insist on the truth, and then refuse to hear it? Do you think America can no longer do great things? Are you unable to help out your fellow American?
If you wished the best for your country, for those government people, for the Fire Fighters and Police, and for the troops who would soon be at war, then, why not accept that the government can be a force for good, now?
We are in this social contract as Americans every bit as much today as then, and the future we face is never certain, and like Jim Morrison said, the end is always near. Does the future lie in shouting at townhalls? As a nation divided (and a house divided against itself could never stand--that was what Lincoln said)? Is it about calling your fellow, faithful citizens what they are not, and never would be--traitors?
Well, I don't think that's the real answer. I think we all have to face even unpleasant truths, and right now, and what we all need to understand, is that we are fragile, being only flesh and blood, and that things like employment and health care coverage are precarious things. As individuals, we might not be able to manage our needs, yet as a group, as a country, we can. It isn't socialism or government-run anything. We own our own government after all, this is a democracy--this is about providing choices, and salvaging the day for someone who needs it. It about doing what we can.
And I still hope we all find our way.
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