Scrolling down social media walls on this day, one will not
have to go far before one sees a meme with the picture of the twin towers
saying “Never Forget 9/11.” I see these
memes and I see pictures of some of the flight crew members who lost their
lives; I see the number of first responders who lost their lives (as if the
lives of the other innocents are somehow a different loss). I see bald eagles over the pentagon, American
flags over the twin towers, I see some very thoughtful posts recalling where
one was when it happened. And as I look
I have mixed feelings of extreme sadness mixed with a feeling that somehow it
is all a fraud. And so it got me
thinking: why do we revere 9/11 so much? Are there any other holidays we
remember or revere? And what makes it
different from other holidays or other sad events?
The
only other day that I can think comes close to having the same mournful reflection
on a single event is Pearl Harbor Day.
Some might say Memorial Day and Veteran’s Day have a reverence to them,
but I disagree. First they do not mourn
a single event. Second, when you have
car and mattress sales on a holiday, there is no real reverence. Those days only matter to those who have lost
someone in battle, or have someone they know who was in a battle. When it comes to our culture as a whole, we
do not revere these days. So what do
9/11 and Pearl Harbor Day have in common?
Well, of course both were days in which we were attacked on our own soil
by a foreign entity. They are days when “They”
attacked “Us” for no apparent reason. It
is my belief we remember these days, and we revere these days culturally
because it supports our cultural tribalism, our nationalism; we even call today
“Patriot Day.” Nothing unites a nation
like a common enemy, and nothing justifies violence like an attack on the
innocent. We need these days to justify
our own violence. Am I off? Perhaps.
If it
is the loss of innocence we seek to mourn, then one could wonder why we don’t
have other days of National Mourning and Reflection. We do not have a day of mourning for the
Oklahoma City Bombing, which was the 2nd largest terrorist attack on
“our soil.” Why? Timothy McVeigh was one of our own. It really doesn’t add to our nationalist/tribalist
pride. How about a national day of
mourning for the children killed in Sandy Hook, CT; could there be a more vivid
example of innocence lost? Or maybe the
number is not enough. How about a day to
remember the innocence that were killed as a result of our military action in
the Iraq War (which we justified because of 9/11)? No? Maybe it is the number of American Lives;
in that case why do we not have a day to remember those lives lost in The
American Civil War, the war in which the most Americans died? No.
Are we still obsessed then with American innocent lives? Why not have a day to mourn those lives lost
in the slave trade, in slavery, and in years of racist violence? Of course we have Martin Luther King Jr. Day,
but that celebrates the vision of a man, not the loss of innocent lives. And then what about the loss of Native
American lives and culture, should we not have a day to mourn them? Again, we
can feel bad about it, but to take a day to mourn that loss may be a bit
much.
Now,
one might protest that we cannot mourn every sad event that has taken place,
and I will answer you are correct. But
take note what days we do revere? They
are days in which we can with good conscience say, “They attacked us, and we
will never forget.” Forget, or
forgive? After 9/11 this nation was in
fear and rage, and our leaders used that rage and fear to invade a sovereign
country that had nothing to do with 9/11.
We didn’t care…we wanted revenge, and we have blood on our hands as a
result. 9/11 has been used as the main
reason for our “war on terror,” in which we have used drone warfare, bombing of
other nations, and torture as methods to win our justified war. In this war,
how many innocents have we killed going after suspected terrorists? What is the moral ratio of innocent lives lost
to suspected terrorist lives eliminated?
And how about our service men and women who fought? How do we take care of them when they come
home? Nationalism preaches the greatest
feat of heroism is to die for your country, and implicitly preaches the worst
thing you can do is to come back damaged physically or mentally. How we treat our veterans is a disgrace. For many (not all) the memory of 9/11 fuels
this blood lust, this vengeance, and this mentality that we are absolutely
justified to kill them (whether innocent or not), because they attacked us
first.
And so
that is why I mourn on 9/11. I did not
lose anyone on this day. But to my
generation, we lost our country as we knew it.
We lost it to blind nationalism, vengeance, and war. We saws our values of due process and 4th
Amendment rights crumble. Worse, we saw our
nation do the same crimes to other nations that was done to us (we have killed
innocent lives because of our own sense of self-righteous justice). If it is innocence you want to mourn, then
surely you are right to mourn this day. For
we became the killer of innocence too. And
the worst: through it all many cry “God Bless America?!?” This can be absolutely justified if one is
not a Christian. But if one is a
Christian, how could they utter such words after what we have done?
”But I tell you who
hear me: Love your enemies, do good to those who hate you, bless those who
curse you, pray for those who mistreat you.
If someone strikes you on one cheek, turn him the other also.”
“Be merciful, just as
your Father is merciful.”
“Do not judge, and you
will not be judged. Do not condemn, and
you will not be condemned. Forgive, and you will be forgiven. Give, and it will be given to you; a good
measure, pressed down, shaken together and running over will be poured into
your lap. For with the measure you use,
it will be measured to you.” –Jesus of Nazareth, Luke 5
It is
quite proper to reflect on this day. But
there is a profound difference between remembering and grieving; and for our national
culture, I fear we use this day to grind the axe, instead of burying the
hatchet. And in doing so we betray
wisdom and our values. To those who lost
family and friends on this day; the loss is incomprehensible, it is a daily
pain, no holiday can take that away. For those who were there,
remembering is a healthy way to process, to heal, but again that does not need a holiday. But as a nation, what are really doing on Patriot
Day?
